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Vigilant PFS Patient Prompts Action by UK’s FDA Equivalent
Jan. 10, 2022 Dear Friends: After enduring decades of symptoms that ran the gamut from tooth loss to testicular cancer, Ryan Clark prompted his nation’s drug agency to take a telemed to task for failing to adequately disclose finasteride’s dangers. And though he’d hoped for more significant action, the 54-year-old PFS patient from the northeast […]
First-Ever PFS Diagnostic Criteria Published in Medical Literature
Editorial in leading journal, meanwhile, criticizes FDA for not making Merck conduct new safety studies when persistent ED signal emerged Nov. 20, 2021 Dear Friends: A decade after the first peer-reviewed article on persistent adverse sexual effects in finasteride patients appeared in medical literature, the first-ever diagnostic criteria for PFS has followed suit. We have […]
PFS Foundation Sues FDA for Unlawfully Failing to Grant or Deny Our Citizen Petition
Sept. 9, 2021 Dear Friends: The Post-Finasteride Syndrome Foundation, represented by consumer rights advocacy group Public Citizen, yesterday filed a lawsuit in Washington, DC, federal court compelling the US Food and Drug Administration to act on our Citizen Petition. Facts laid out in the eight-page complaint include: The “most serious risk of 1 mg finasteride […]
2021 PFS Foundation Annual Address
Aug. 4, 2021 Dear Friends: For several years now, our patient manager, Philip Roberts, has been telling me he feels like Radar O’Reilly on M*A*S*H. Fans of the dark Korean War comedy will recall that often after endless hours of stitching up battlefield casualties—and having just flopped onto their cots—the doctors would be interrupted by […]
Gene-Expression Study in the Penile Skin Tissue of PFS Patients Finds Significant Differences in the Expression of 3,764 Genes
July 14, 2021 Dear Friends: The first study to consider and demonstrate gene expression differences as a potential etiology of the sexual dysfunction experienced by PFS patients has been published by a research team at Baylor College of Medicine (BCM). In all, the PFS patients had 1,446 significantly over-expressed (upregulated) and 2,318 significantly under-expressed (downregulated) […]
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