Начиная с октября, в ходе спецопераций в трех странах были выявлены случаи игнорирования врачами, фармацевтами и директорами клиник нормативных требований, а иногда и нарушения закона.
6 марта 2026 г.
Дорогие друзья:
Кто выпустил сторожевых псов?
Что ж, если вы относитесь к числу десятков смелых пациентов с ПФС по всему миру, которые недавно поделились своими проблемами со здоровьем с прессой, то это были вы.
And the investigative trend you helped unleash—which has subsequently come to include undercover reporting in Israel, Italy and the UK—charged out of the gate one year ago today.
Canada-do attitude
On March 6, Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) debuted an Enquête documentary titled Betting on Hair, Gambling on Health that examined the myriad risks of finasteride use, along with allegations that the medication’s originator, Merck & Co., “knew of these risks but chose to downplay them in order to maximize profits.”
That marked the first-ever investigative TV exposé on PFS since Reuters pioneered investigative reporting on the condition six years earlier with a print report headlined Court Let Merck Hide Secrets About a Popular Drug’s Risks.
In all, CBC’s Brigitte Noël and Judith Plamondon spent six months digging into the incidence of PFS in Canada while speaking to 25 patients who suffer from the condition. Among their exclusives was the revelation that, soon after Propecia came to market in 1997, Merck funded a puppet nonprofit to pass off its sales pitch as medical literature.
“In Canada, where direct-to-consumer advertising is not allowed, Merck turned to more incidious methods. Towards the end of the 90s and the early 2000s, several Canadian media outlets published articles about the perils of baldness,” Noël reported.
Then she pointed to a survey by the Canadian Hair Research Foundation that claimed baldness influences job prospects and the chances of finding a sexual partner. Then she asked Marc-André Gagnon, a professor of public policy at Carleton University, for his take.
“My first question is, Who funds the Canadian Hair Research Foundation?” he said.
“Our investigation revealed the foundation received funding from Merck. The experts quoted were also paid by the pharmaceutical company. And the statistics mentioned? They come from surveys financed by Merck. These articles encouraged readers to visit the foundation’s website, which no longer exists.” Noël continued.
“But we dug up its archives and found the brochures that had been available at the time. We see that [this one] mentions Propecia without noting the risks. The file is also called ‘Merck 77.’ What does that tell you?” To which Gagnon replied:
“If I’m a patient and I receive this type of pamphlet, I’d think I’m being given unbiased, medically sound information. But in reality, what we’re looking at is an endorsement designed to promote a product, regardless of the consequences. At this level, it has all the characteristics of an advertisement that shouldn’t be legal.”
Bull market on bulldog reporting
A week after the CBC debuted its scoop, The Wall Street Journal published an investigative report headlined They Wanted a Quick Fix for Hair Loss. Instead, These Young Men Got Sick. Also six months in the making, it examined the correlation between ever-easier access to finasteride from companies like Hims and Keeps, and an upswing in the number of finasteride patients reporting persistent adverse reactions to the drug.
In all, 17 PFS patients who were prescribed finasteride 1 mg by telehealth companies spoke with Rolfe Winkler, who covers digital health for the business bible. The overwhelming majority of them complained they weren’t aware the hair-loss medication carried any risks of serious side effects. Some said that what scant warnings they were given were inadequate.
“Finasteride…has been on the market for three decades with potential side effects including sexual dysfunction and depression. But a new generation of young men are discovering the medicine—and its potential risks,” he wrote.
“That is largely because they are peppered with ads on social media pitching hair-loss medications from telehealth companies, which unlike drugmakers aren’t required to disclose side effects and other risks in advertisements. It is a loophole telehealth companies have long exploited to sell medicines.”
A month after Winkler’s exposé broke, the FDA alerted consumers, health providers and compounders that it had become aware of «telemedicine platforms that market topical formulations of finasteride either as a single active ingredient…or in combination with other active ingredients, such as finasteride combined with minoxidil, to treat hair loss.»
The agency then noted that, based on 32 cases from its Adverse Event Reporting System, there are “potential serious risks associated with the use of compounded topical finasteride products,” including ED, anxiety, suicidal ideation, brain fog, depression, fatigue, insomnia, decreased libido and testicular pain.
And In the 10 months following Winkler’s investigation, similarly hard-hitting reports appeared in six nations:
▪ LONDON – April 18. The BBC investigative documentary series Dr Xand’s Con or Cure, whose mission is to “shine a light on medical malpractice and criminal behavior to help you take your health into your own hands,” interviewed 10 men who reported persistent finasteride side effects to the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Two of those PFS patients appeared on camera.
▪ MOSCOW – April 29. Russian independent news portal Takie Dela published its nation’s first-ever investigation into PFS, headlined How Men Live up to Social Expectations, in which two PFS sufferers spoke of finasteride’s profoundly negative impact. “My reproductive system remains damaged. I haven’t had any romantic relationships during these past 15 years,” said one. “My life is ruined.”
▪ GENEVA – Oct. 8. Radio Télévision Suisse debuted an investigative report titled Hair Loss, Hair Transplants & Hormones: The silent suffering of thousands of young people. Produced for the network’s medical-documentary series 36.9°, it featured Séverine Carré-Pétraud, Editorial Director for Prescrire. She warned: “The problem is that [finasteride] is still on the market… the solution that would best protect people would be for the drug to be withdrawn from the market.”
▪ TEL AVIV – Oct. 23. During the weeks leading up to attorney Jonathan Davies filing his closing arguments in the Israeli Propecia litigation, investigative-journalism powerhouse Shomrim (think the ProPublica of Israel) teamed up with i24 News to produce both print and broadcast reports highlighting the growing body of evidence linking finasteride to persistent side effects and suicidality.
▪ ROME – Oct. 24. Investigative news magazine FarWest debuted a report titled The Undisclosed Risks of a Hair-Loss Drug. In addition to exposing “the disarming ease” with which finasteride can be obtained in Italy, host Salvo Sottile spoke to three PFS patients on camera. One said, “There was clearly something undermining my cognitive abilities… As I was heading home…I didn’t know where I was. If that moment had happened again, I would’ve gone insane.”
▪ SYDNEY – Nov. 24. The Australian Broadcasting Corp. probed easy access to finasteride via telehealth companies, and the havoc it’s wreaking. The results broke on ABC’s Background Briefing podcast, in an episode titled The Cost of Keeping Your Hair, followed by a print report headlined Hair-loss Drug Finasteride Causing Psychological Side Effects in Some Men. In all, six PFS patients shared their harrowing health ordeals with reporter Tynan King.
▪ LONDON – Jan. 20. BBC Radio’s File on 4 debuted an investigative report into whether UK finasteride hawkers are heeding a 2024 MHRA alert on the drug being linked to depression, suicidality and sexual dysfunction.” Titled Thin on Information?, the report enlisted experts to weigh in on the ethics of transplant surgeons downplaying the drug’s risks, and the legality of influencers touting finasteride on social media. The latter led to two influencers being kicked off TikTok.
While all seven of those exposés employed investigative techniques, three media outlets got more aggressive than usual in their efforts to protect public health.
The sting: Israel
For its print report in N12 Magazine, Suicide, Serious Side Effects and Disclosures: What Do We Know About the Drugs We Take? (English), i24 News went undercover to answer such questions as: Are doctors aware of finasteride’s side effects, especially those that appeared many years after the drug’s introduction? And do they take the time to keep patients informed of those side effects?
“After the doctor’s diagnosis, he’s supposed to explain to the patient the benefits and risks in the prescription he wrote,” Eyal Schwarzberg, former head of the Israeli Ministry of Health Pharmacy Division, told Shomrim’s Yael Shani.
“As far as any new information that came to his attention, he should explain it to the patient. If there was a change in the product leaflet warning of anxiety and depression, he should reexamine the suitability of the prescription for you, such as by asking you about your mood,” Schwarzberg continued.
But “is this what actually happens in the doctor’s office?” asked Shani, who went on to report:
Shomrim obtained a recording of a conversation in which a doctor was asked about Propecia’s side effects. While he acknowledged some of them, when questioned about a potential link to depression, he reassured the patient there was nothing to worry about.
PATIENT: “I have a quick question about my son. Like me, he’s starting to go bald at 30, and he’s debating whether to take Propecia… I’ve asked a few people, and one mentioned having erectile issues.”
DOCTOR: “That’s very rare. The chance of erectile problems is about 1 in 200. In other words, 199 people take it without any issues. And honestly, it’s easy to blame Propecia for things [he laughs]… Even if a problem occurs, stopping the medication usually resolves it.”
PATIENT: “Another person mentioned some, how should I say, mild depression?”
DOCTOR: “Tell him I’ve been taking it for 30 years and nothing ever happened to me… If the problem worries him and it’s important to him, he should take it without fear.”
Among the PFS patients who spoke to i24 News for its broadcast report, Caution: Dangerous Prescription Drugs (English), is Moran Weintraub. He told Shani that the doctor who prescribed him finasteride for hair loss made zero mention of mental side effects. And yet, within weeks of starting the medication, he was thrown into an emotional tailspin.
“Everything just turned black inside… To the point where you often wonder why you should even live,” said the Be’er Sheba resident, who long ago quit finasteride, yet feels permanently altered by it.
The sting: UK
To find out what hair-transplant surgeons are saying about finasteride, File on 4 prodcer Rob Byrne posed as a potential patient at 10 clinics. During his initial visits, he reported:
“Ten out of 12 consultants recommended taking finasteride. Of those 10, all mentioned side effects. Four claimed they would definitively stop once you cease taking finasteride. Two clinicians even questioned the existence of sexual side effects. So we followed up with these two clinicians.”
One of them was Paul Hill, director of UK Hair Transplant Clinics, whom Byrne contacted via video call, which, unbeknownst to Hill, was recorded for inclusion in Thin on Information? When the BBC producer inquired about finasteride causing adverse reactions, Hill said:
“The most common minor side effect is sexual dysfunction… Slight dilution in your libido, slight erectile issues. But there are now studies, bigger studies, recent studies, that have proved…there is no such thing as sexual dysfunction.”
Then Byrne asked what happens after a patient quits finasteride, to which Hill replied:
“If you come off it, there’s no…long-term scientific evidence of persistent side effects for sexual dysfunction. We’ve not seen any in 15 years, which is consistent with the academia.”
The sting: Italy
“But the issue isn’t just about doctors’ awareness,” said veteran investigator Sottile in his FarWest documentary. “Androgenetic alopecia affects many young people, who often take matters into their own hands through social media and word of mouth.”
“At the slightest change in their hairline, these young men might talk to a friend, who tells them, ‘No, look, there’s finasteride,’” Roberto Cosimo Melcangi, PhD, Head of the Neuroendocrinology Unit in the Department of Pharmacological and Biomolecular Sciences at the University of Milano, added during the report. “Many patients start treatment without any medical advice. By now, the drug can be obtained almost anywhere.”
“Indeed, we easily found it online. And on social media platforms like Telegram,” continued Sottile. “We also discovered a shocking lack of caution in how the drug is sold.”
Working clandestinely, a FarWest reporter walked into five random pharmacies and asked for finasteride. In each case, he informed the pharmacist that he had no prescription, then asked if it would still be possible to buy the drug. Four of the five pharmacists said yes, and proceeded to dispense the medication.
“Selling a prescription drug without a prescription is a crime,” concluded Sottile. “We hope that our investigation will encourage pharmacists to act with greater caution.”
Set it off
“This past year’s investigative boom has demonstrated that when PFS patients muster the courage to go public with their conditions, the press is often quick to not only report the story but spend months digging to deliver new angles on this epidemic. In turn, that enhanced awareness can lead to drug-regulatory authorities slapping stricter controls on finasteride,” says PFS Foundation President Philip Recchia, who spent much of his career working in the newsrooms of such major media outlets as CNBC, the New York Post, Reader’s Digest and Us Weekly.
“So if you live in one of the many nations that’s yet to show up on our Media Awareness page, please consider banding together with at least four fellow PFS patients to approach local investigative reporters about covering your stories.
“If you’d like help with that effort, feel free to email me any time.”
Finasteride was originally developed by Merck & Co., Inc., and first approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1993 as Proscar (5 mg, for enlarged prostate), and again in 1997, as Propecia (1 mg, for hair loss).
In June 2021, Merck spun off its Organon subsidiary as an independent public company (NYSE: OGN). Founded in the Netherlands in 1923, Organon bills itself as a “global health care company dedicated to making a world of difference for women, their families and the communities they care for.”
Among the Merck products Organon acquired in the deal were Proscar and Propecia. To report adverse events for either finasteride product, call the Organon Service Center at (844)674-3200, or email Service_Center@Organon.com.
Anyone living in the US who suffers from PFS should also report his or her symptoms to the US FDA. Anyone living outside the US who suffers from PFS should report his or her symptoms to the US FDA as well as to his or her local DRA, as directed on our Report Your Side Effects page.
If you or a loved one are suffering from PFS, and feeling depressed or unstable, please don’t hesitate to contact the PFS Foundation as soon as possible via our Patient Support hotline: social@pfsfoundation.org
Thank you.