Post-Finasteride Syndrome Comments

PFS patients often don’t follow up with their original doctors (as was the case here). There’s not much of a point really other than to inform the doctor what happened. Sometimes they do and the original doctors downplay the situation, tell the patient it will go away, and when it doesn’t they don’t bother following up. The doctor will often assume the problem went away even though it didn’t. Even worse they say the problems weren’t caused by finasteride and they should seek help from a specialist. Here are just some of the dynamics that play out when patients get PFS. It is getting better now that people are more aware but it is taking far too long and it is all because Merck lied to doctors, the public, and maybe the FDA over 20 years ago.

I never followed up with my original doctor beyond an initial email because he didn’t know any more than what was on the product label. This was over a decade and he probably thinks I’ve recovered. Merck’s warning label basically encouraged doctors to keep patients on the drug because it said side effects discontinued in “most” cases for men who continued the drug and “men who discontinued”. They just lead you to believe it was “all men”.

I make sure to bond with my patients. For example, I will often spend 30-60 minutes with each patient who comes in and it is always free. That establishes a bond between doctor/patient and I believe almost every patient follows up with me because they know that I listen to them.