PFS Foundation Newsroom

Neuropsychiatric Side Effects for Finasteride Housed on FDA Database Show Disproportionate Safety Signals Compared to Control Meds—and a ‘Striking Increase in Suicides’—Says New Research

March 27, 2023 Dear Friends: Although the US Food and Drug Administration rarely mentions PFS, its database of side effects speaks volumes about the condition’s epidemiology. Out of control According to new research based in part on the agency’s Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS), finasteride use is, on average, 23 times as likely to precipitate […]

Study Used to Push Non-FDA-Approved Topical Finasteride Knocked by Top German Rx Journal

March 20, 2023 Dear Friends: Germany’s oldest and most widely read pharmaceutical journal has taken a deep dive into post-finasteride syndrome (PFS). That, in an effort to provide its 29,000 subscribers with the most scientifically sound information on non-FDA-approved topical finasteride. That, as well, ahead of yet another nation bringing topical finasteride to market as […]

UK Drug Regulatory Authority MHRA Investigating Finasteride Safety

March 5, 2023 Dear Friends: The British are coming—hopefully with a PFS-awareness program on par with that of the French. Dr. White does right According to a February 16 memo from Amelia White, MD, Medical Accessor for the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the agency is conducting a safety review of finasteride […]

Topical Finasteride Could Precipitate PFS, Top German Rx Journal Warns

Feb. 27, 2023 Dear Friends: Spraying finasteride on your scalp instead of ingesting it is no guarantee you won’t develop post-finasteride syndrome (PFS). So cautions Germany’s oldest and most widely read pharmaceutical journal. So, too, an American college senior who says his academic, social and sex life has been decimated by a non-FDA-approved topical-finasteride product […]

France Orders ‘Red-Box’ Warning—and QR Code Linking to PFS-Awareness Dossier—Slapped on all Finasteride 1 mg Products by April

Dec. 4, 2022 Dear Friends: French PFS awareness is going high-tech. ANSM, the Gallic nation’s drug-regulatory authority (DRA), last week unveiled plans to add a so-called “red-box” warning—that includes a QR code—on all finasteride 1 mg products in 2023. Intended to “reinforce information on adverse effects” of Propecia and generics, the warning reads: This medication […]

Why Is This Hair-loss Drug Still on the Market? German Public TV Asks of Finasteride

Nov. 2, 2022 Dear Friends: Anti-finasteride sentiment continues to run rife on Teutonic TV. Dürfen Die Das? (Can They Do That?), a newsmagazine show on the German public-broadcasting network NDR, last week debuted a 17-minute film titled Finasteride: Why Is This Hair-loss Drug Still on the Market? (English-subtitled version here). That marks the fourth German-language […]

Allopregnanolone Counteracts Finasteride-induced Alterations in Gut Microbiota, According to New University of Milano Research

Oct. 29, 2022 Dear Friends: The neurosteroid allopregnanolone (ALLO) has proved effective in counteracting some of the finasteride-induced alterations in gut microbiota, according to new research at the University of Milano (UniMi). Titled Gut Inflammation Induced by Finasteride Withdrawal: Therapeutic Effect of Allopregnanolone in Adult Male Rats, and funded in part by the PFS Foundation, […]

PFS Is ‘Clearly a Problem,’ ‘Warrants Intervention’ and Is ‘Inappropriate to Dismiss,’ Says New USC Research

Sept. 26, 2022 Dear Friends: If you’ve ever Googled “post-finasteride syndrome,” chances are you’ve earned a place in the annals of medicine. Researchers at the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine (KSM) have analyzed worldwide public interest in finasteride’s impact on sexual health and determined that PFS is “clearly a problem…that warrants intervention.” […]

First-ever Suicidality ADRs Added to US Propecia Product Label, per FDA Mandate

Aug. 29, 2022 Dear Friends: Organon & Co., the Merck & Co. spinoff that now owns Propecia (finasteride 1 mg), has added a new adverse drug reaction (ADR) to the hair-loss remedy’s label: suicidality. Earlier this month, Organon updated the Adverse Reactions section of Propecia’s Prescribing Information (PI—aka product label, or package insert) to read: […]