• Facebook
WRassman,M.D. BaldingBlog
  • Menu

The story of discovering finasteride (girls became boys)

Oct 25, 2019/by William Rassman, M.D./0 /Hair Loss Causes
I knew this story and have told it many time. The population got the medication from a tubor that grew in the forest and which became part of their diet. 
logo-full-black.svg

The case of the ex-girls

 

By ELENA CONIS
OCT. 16, 2006
12 AM

Little more than a decade ago, men afflicted with enlarged prostate glands — which can block urine’s flow and lead to dangerous infections — had essentially one treatment option: surgery. Now, drugs can often be used to reverse benign prostate enlargement. These so-called prostate pills are available thanks in no small part to a Caribbean population of pseudo-hermaphrodites.

In the early 1970s, Dr. Julianne Imperato-McGinley, an endocrinologist at Cornell Medical College, traveled to a remote mountain village in the Dominican Republic to study a group of children with a unique condition.

The sex of the children was ambiguous at birth, but to the best of the villagers’ knowledge they appeared to be girls, and so they were raised as such. But at puberty the girls’ baby fat gave way to muscle, their voices grew deep, testes descended and penises grew. The condition — which affected about 2% of the region’s children — earned the nickname guevedoces, or “penis at 12.”

The “girls” developed into adult men with all the expected physiological traits, save a few: The guevedoces men had minimal facial and body hair, unyielding hairlines and prostate glands that stayed unusually small. They also had low levels of the male sex hormone dihydrotestosterone (DHT), despite normal levels of testosterone.

Ultimately, Imperato-McGinley and colleagues traced the condition to a genetic mutation that caused low levels of the enzyme 5-alpha reductase, or 5AR.

Without 5AR, a body won’t make DHT. And without DHT, hair doesn’t sprout on the face, arms or legs, baldness stays at bay and the prostate doesn’t enlarge. (DHT levels are much higher in the prostate than they are anywhere else in the body.)

That last clinical feature of a 5AR deficiency caught the attention of scientists at pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co., shortly after Imperato-McGinley’s findings were made public. If 5AR’s absence kept the prostate small, they deduced, then perhaps getting rid of 5AR later in life could stop the prostate from becoming dangerously large, as it does in nearly 20% of men older than 55.

Sure enough, a drug to do just that was developed over the next 15 years. Finasteride, a 5AR-inhibitor that ties up 5AR so it can’t convert testosterone to DHT, was approved in 1992. A second 5AR inhibitor, dutasteride, was approved in 2002.

The 5AR-inhibitors are proving to have other important uses too. A study published in 2003 showed that prostate cancer prevalence was reduced by 24% in men who took finasteride compared with those who took a placebo. (For decades, scientists have known that hormones can play a role in signaling cancerous cells to grow.) Investigations are underway to determine if dutasteride (which is more active than finasteride) can reduce prostate cancer risk even further. Finasteride is also widely prescribed for halting male-pattern baldness.

The guevedoces, meanwhile — and populations like them in Turkey, New Guinea and elsewhere — continue to pique the interest of researchers. They’ve revealed dozens of mutations that can affect 5AR, but they’ve also been of interest to psychiatrists and sociologists struggling to tease out the interplay of hormones, environment and culture in gender identity.

Gender, the guevedoces appear to have proved, is not always black or white.

 

https://baldingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-small-300x62.png 0 0 William Rassman, M.D. https://baldingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/logo-small-300x62.png William Rassman, M.D.2019-10-25 02:43:492019-10-24 10:48:17The story of discovering finasteride (girls became boys)

You might also like

Questions About Topical Hair Loss Treatments
What Can I Ask My Doctor? Nobody Has Any Clue How to Help Me!
Hair Cycles Have a Finite Number?
Nioxin, Minocycline, and Hair Loss
I've Been Pulling My Hair for 6 Years -- Will It Grow Back?
Question about starting finasteride
Get a virtual consultation with Dr. William Rassman and Dr. Jae Pak for hair loss options. You can learn more by scheduling an appointment.

Reader Comments0

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share by Mail
Newer Entries Older Entries

Leave a Comment

Want to join the discussion? Feel free to contribute! Note: We do not tolerate offensive language or personal attacks to other readers. Marketing links or commercial advertisements will be deleted.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

( Will not be published )

+ =

Videos

Podcasts

Ask Dr. Rassman

* Your questions may be published (without your contact information).

Over 21 million women and 35 million men in America suffer from hair loss. For many of these people, the psychological impact on their life is debilitating.

Dr. Rassman is a world leading expert in hair loss with over 25 years of experience and over 50,000 satisfied clients.

About

This site exists to educate about hair loss and hair restoration. Real answers from real physicians… daily.

William R. Rassman, M.D.

Categories

  • ACell (41)
  • African American (145)
  • Age (623)
  • April Fools (3)
  • Density (69)
  • Diseases (545)
  • Drugs (4,035)
  • Drugs (Cause Hair Loss) (535)
  • Favorites (89)
  • Female Hair Loss (1,075)
  • FUE (364)
  • Hair Cloning (178)
  • Hair Loss Causes (7,157)
  • Hair Pieces / Systems (115)
  • Hair Products (1,085)
  • Hair Transplantation (2,059)
  • Hairlines (467)
  • Megasession (15)
  • Other (1,254)
  • Other Surgical Procedures (249)
  • Personal Stories (14)
  • Photos (216)
  • Pigments (128)
  • Podcasts (1)
  • Post-Operative (611)
  • Repair (182)
  • Repost (10)
  • Scalp MicroPigmentation (11)
  • Scarring (346)
  • Thinning (7)
  • Tidbits (34)
  • Training (173)
  • Videos (58)

Archives

  • March 2021 (24)
  • February 2021 (70)
  • January 2021 (65)
  • December 2020 (80)
  • November 2020 (76)
  • October 2020 (80)
  • September 2020 (106)
  • August 2020 (96)
  • July 2020 (95)
  • June 2020 (84)
  • May 2020 (83)
  • April 2020 (118)
  • March 2020 (106)
  • February 2020 (96)
  • January 2020 (104)
  • December 2019 (103)
  • November 2019 (71)
  • October 2019 (85)
  • September 2019 (76)
  • August 2019 (68)
  • July 2019 (64)
  • June 2019 (62)
  • May 2019 (59)
  • April 2019 (72)
  • March 2019 (53)
  • February 2019 (61)
  • January 2019 (65)
  • December 2018 (59)
  • November 2018 (42)
  • October 2018 (47)
  • September 2018 (64)
  • August 2018 (68)
  • July 2018 (62)
  • June 2018 (72)
  • May 2018 (68)
  • April 2018 (59)
  • March 2018 (65)
  • February 2018 (44)
  • January 2018 (57)
  • December 2017 (48)
  • November 2017 (37)
  • October 2017 (56)
  • September 2017 (68)
  • August 2017 (79)
  • July 2017 (70)
  • June 2017 (82)
  • May 2017 (98)
  • April 2017 (49)
  • March 2017 (25)
  • February 2017 (42)
  • January 2017 (74)
  • December 2016 (10)
  • November 2016 (3)
  • October 2016 (8)
  • June 2016 (2)
  • May 2016 (1)
  • April 2016 (9)
  • March 2016 (6)
  • February 2016 (4)
  • January 2016 (6)
  • December 2015 (7)
  • November 2015 (9)
  • October 2015 (13)
  • September 2015 (15)
  • August 2015 (24)
  • July 2015 (17)
  • June 2015 (19)
  • May 2015 (21)
  • April 2015 (27)
  • March 2015 (42)
  • February 2015 (41)
  • January 2015 (39)
  • December 2014 (45)
  • November 2014 (45)
  • October 2014 (65)
  • September 2014 (60)
  • August 2014 (62)
  • July 2014 (73)
  • June 2014 (49)
  • May 2014 (59)
  • April 2014 (57)
  • March 2014 (59)
  • February 2014 (60)
  • January 2014 (63)
  • December 2013 (53)
  • November 2013 (55)
  • October 2013 (69)
  • September 2013 (61)
  • August 2013 (66)
  • July 2013 (64)
  • June 2013 (60)
  • May 2013 (67)
  • April 2013 (66)
  • March 2013 (63)
  • February 2013 (59)
  • January 2013 (66)
  • December 2012 (59)
  • November 2012 (74)
  • October 2012 (86)
  • September 2012 (72)
  • August 2012 (88)
  • July 2012 (80)
  • June 2012 (80)
  • May 2012 (83)
  • April 2012 (79)
  • March 2012 (78)
  • February 2012 (80)
  • January 2012 (77)
  • December 2011 (75)
  • November 2011 (75)
  • October 2011 (78)
  • September 2011 (78)
  • August 2011 (92)
  • July 2011 (81)
  • June 2011 (88)
  • May 2011 (86)
  • April 2011 (84)
  • March 2011 (91)
  • February 2011 (68)
  • January 2011 (83)
  • December 2010 (82)
  • November 2010 (82)
  • October 2010 (85)
  • September 2010 (86)
  • August 2010 (88)
  • July 2010 (85)
  • June 2010 (89)
  • May 2010 (87)
  • April 2010 (110)
  • March 2010 (114)
  • February 2010 (99)
  • January 2010 (100)
  • December 2009 (97)
  • November 2009 (96)
  • October 2009 (109)
  • September 2009 (106)
  • August 2009 (105)
  • July 2009 (121)
  • June 2009 (132)
  • May 2009 (120)
  • April 2009 (132)
  • March 2009 (132)
  • February 2009 (136)
  • January 2009 (141)
  • December 2008 (142)
  • November 2008 (128)
  • October 2008 (160)
  • September 2008 (146)
  • August 2008 (148)
  • July 2008 (154)
  • June 2008 (146)
  • May 2008 (149)
  • April 2008 (154)
  • March 2008 (147)
  • February 2008 (148)
  • January 2008 (154)
  • December 2007 (127)
  • November 2007 (142)
  • October 2007 (161)
  • September 2007 (135)
  • August 2007 (160)
  • July 2007 (133)
  • June 2007 (141)
  • May 2007 (173)
  • April 2007 (170)
  • March 2007 (178)
  • February 2007 (161)
  • January 2007 (174)
  • December 2006 (132)
  • November 2006 (162)
  • October 2006 (179)
  • September 2006 (166)
  • August 2006 (188)
  • July 2006 (160)
  • June 2006 (179)
  • May 2006 (186)
  • April 2006 (172)
  • March 2006 (201)
  • February 2006 (175)
  • January 2006 (175)
  • December 2005 (179)
  • November 2005 (103)
  • October 2005 (74)
  • September 2005 (68)
  • August 2005 (79)
  • July 2005 (72)
  • June 2005 (69)
  • May 2005 (72)
  • April 2005 (41)

Links

Disclaimer

This site is intended to educate the public on hair loss topics based on personal experience and opinions from Dr. William Rassman and contributing physician editors. Information provided on BaldingBlog.com should not be used for the purpose of medical diagnosis or treatment.

© Copyright - WRassman,M.D. BaldingBlog - Enfold Theme by Kriesi
  • Facebook
Scroll to top