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Doctors & Researchers Speaking Out
Using finasteride for hair loss is like shooting at sparrows with cannons.
Using finasteride for hair loss is like shooting at sparrows with cannons. The drug.…blocks not only the super hormone but also other hormones that affect thinking and psyche, mood and emotions. Discontinuation of the drug should actually make the hormones work again.…but apparently, something breaks down in some men, in the prostate, in the brain, in the whole organism.
—I Didn’t Want to Go Bald. A Pill the Doctor Gave Me Destroyed My Life (English translation): Die Zeit, Feb. 22, 2018
Blocking 5alpha-reductase by finasteride treatment may have broad consequences for the nervous system.
[W]e have evaluated in male rats the effects of a subchronic treatment with low doses of finasteride.…and the consequences of its withdrawal.…on neuroactive steroid levels…. Interestingly, at the withdrawal, some of these effects persisted, and different changes in neuroactive steroid levels, and in the expression of receptors, were also detected. Altogether these findings suggest that the block of the enzyme 5alpha-reductase by finasteride treatment may have broad consequences for the nervous system.
—Effect of Finasteride, an Inhibitor of the Enzyme 5alpha-Reductase, in the Nervous System: The Journal of Steroid Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, July 2017
We wouldn’t recommend that any man take [finasteride], especially not young men.
We are certainly very cautious, because we see the side effects. We wouldn’t recommend that any man take [finasteride], especially not young men. The longer they take it, the greater the risk of experiencing persistent side effects, including after they’ve stopped.
—Do Anti-Baldness Remedies Make You Impotent? Puls, SRF-TV, May 7, 2018
Propecia should not have been authorized in the first place, and its approval should be revoked as soon as possible.
Propecia was approved in 1997 as a solution to slow male pattern baldness. Finasteride is not only poorly effective, but it can lead to infertility. As we stated in 2006, we advise against a cosmetic product with potential endocrine side effects. Propecia should have never been approved, and its authorization should be revoked as soon as possible.
—Finasteride-induced Infertility (English translation): Der Arzneimittelbrief (The Drug Letter), November 2013
Finasteride ‘Causes Several Alterations’ in the Section of the Brain Responsible for Processing Long-term Memory and Emotional Responses, New Animal-model Study Demonstrates
SOMERSET, N.J., Oct. 1, 2018 – “Finasteride treatment causes several alterations in the hippocampus,” the section of the brain responsible for processing long-term memory and emotional responses, according to a new study conducted at the University of Milano, and the Cajal Institute and Carlos III Health Institute, both in Madrid. Titled Treatment of male rats […]
New PFS Foundation Website Welcomes Increased Patient Involvement
Sept. 7, 2018 Dear Friends: The new PFS Foundation website is finally here, and we couldn’t be more enthusiastic, because it promises to speed along numerous global-awareness and patient-support efforts. You’ll note that the homepage features an info-graphic called “PFS by the Numbers” that functions as a running tab of data in six categories: Adverse […]
2018 PFS Foundation Annual Address
Aug. 4, 2018 Dear Friends: November 23 is a day I wish I could strike forever from the calendar. For it’s the anniversary of my son Randy’s death. And this coming November 23 will be particularly difficult, marking a decade since his passing. On that day in 2008, despite my degrees from Johns Hopkins and […]
France’s No. 1 News Magazine Takes Federal Drug Agency to Task for Letting PFS Proliferate
July 31, 2018 Dear Friends: Thirty-thousand Frenchman can’t all be immune to PFS. And the nation’s most widely read news magazine seems bent on proving it. In a July 21 feature story headlined Finasteride, the Controversial Drug that Medical Authorities Continue to Defend (English translation here), investigative reporters Camélia Echchihab and Emre Sari write: “Can […]
Regulatory Update: Germany’s FDA Equivalent Issues ‘Red Hand Letter’ on Finasteride ADRs
July 6, 2018 Dear Friends: Apparently heeding an appeal by Germany’s largest weekly newspaper, the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices (BfArM) has dispatched a so-called Red Hand Letter to doctors and pharmacists nationwide, informing them of severe and persistent adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to finasteride. Five months ago, we told you that Die […]