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2022 PFS Foundation Annual Address
Aug. 4, 2022 Dear Friends: This month marks a full decade that we’ve been in the business of facilitating PFS research, generating awareness of the condition, providing support to patients suffering from the condition, and lobbying for stricter regulation so that fewer unsuspecting men develop the condition. Now, if at any time between August 2012 […]
French Drug-Regulatory Authority Unveils World’s Most Thorough PFS-Prevention Program
July 13, 2022 Dear Friends: France’s National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) last week published a dossier of educational materials on the growing number of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) to finasteride 1 mg, as experienced by men currently suffering from post-finasteride syndrome (PFS). Arguably the most thorough and vigilant PFS-prevention […]
New PFS Global Warning Map Plots When, Where and How Drug Regulatory Authorities Alerted Public to Finasteride’s Potential Dangers
June 27, 2022 Dear Friends: The PFS Foundation has launched an interactive map plotting all the nations known to have issued warnings of finasteride’s potential to cause persistent adverse reactions, aka post-finasteride syndrome (PFS). Fifty-three nations, from Argentina to the United States, currently comprise our PFS Global Warning Map. Each links to a table entry […]
Merck Warned Saudi Health Care Professionals in 2018 of Suicidal Ideation in Finasteride Patients, Confidential Document Shows
March 2, 2022 Dear Friends: In a confidential 2018 letter to health care professionals, Merck & Co.’s Saudi Arabian subsidiary warned that finasteride patients should be carefully monitored for psychiatric symptoms including anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation. Furthermore, the dispatch reads, “If a patient treated with 1 mg finasteride develops psychiatric symptoms, treatment should be […]
PFS Researcher Roberto Melcangi Featured in Alopecia-Treatment Documentary on Top Swiss TV Net
Jan. 22, 2022 Dear Friends: A new documentary examining three young men’s reactions to rapidly thinning locks—shaving, transplanting and finasteride—features an interview with eminent PFS researcher Roberto Cosimo Melcangi, PhD. Titled Plötzlich kahl (Suddenly Bald) the 30-minute film by Gustav Hofer (English-subtitled version here) debuted last month on SRF, the largest German-language broadcaster in Switzerland. […]
Doctors & Researchers Speaking Out
Men under the age of 40 who use finasteride for alopecia are at risk for suicide if they develop persistent sexual adverse effects and insomnia.
An important pattern of symptoms was common among all cases who committed suicide in the setting of finasteride use: insomnia and persistent sexual dysfunction after medication discontinuation. Insomnia and fatigue/tiredness were some of the most debilitating symptoms… Men under 40 years of age who use finasteride for alopecia are at risk of suicide if they develop persistent sexual adverse effects and insomnia.
—Finasteride and Suicide: A Postmarketing Case Series: Dermatology, January 14, 2020
Two subjects—eight percent—committed suicide during or after the study.
While the sexual side effects of 5ARIs are well known, there may be persistent genitourinary, physical, psycho-cognitive, anti-androgenic and penile vascular changes after 5ARI discontinuation. Use of 5ARIs for treatment of AGA may lead to persistent sexual, genitourinary, physical, psycho-cognitive, and anti-androgenic sequelae even after cessation of 5ARI therapy… Two subjects (8%) committed suicide during or after the study.
—Penile vascular abnormalities in young men with persistent side effects after finasteride use for the treatment of androgenic alopecia: Translational Andrology and Urology, April 2020
[PFS] is clearly a problem that is important to the general public.
Much of the medical community has yet to recognize [PFS] as a real clinical entity. Our… analysis indicates that, nonetheless, [PFS] is clearly a problem that is important to the general public that warrants intervention. Thus, it is inappropriate to dismiss this condition.
—Global online interest in finasteride sexual side effects, International Journal of Impotence Research: September 13, 2022
Seems that almost half of urologists instruct their patients to stop finasteride!
It’s Monday, which means it’s time for a poll! In evaluating fertility, how do you counsel men taking finasteride for hair loss?… Results are up! Seems that almost half of urologists instruct their patients to stop finasteride!
● Stop finasteride: 45.6%
● OK to keep taking: 17.5%
● It depends: 36.8%
—Society for the Study of Male Reproduction (via Twitter): October 11, 2022