Views on PFS

BTW, you are very ignorant about PFS. There are many cases of men who developed side effects and stopped the drug immediately, but they have not reversed years later. You haven’t even read the basic literature yet you so confidently opine on subjects of which you have no idea. You claim you have never seen it in the clinic (untrue) but then you haven’t even read about it. It’s a shame.

Merck’s clinical trials showed the same. Patients dropped out of the study immediately due to side effects and they had not still not reversed by the time they completed the study with remaining patients.

I will respond to you one last time. Since I have written over 10,000 prescriptions for finasteride on men of all ages, I can call on my experience (more than your first-hand experience I suspect). I also looked at another 10 or so doctors with the same prescription writing experience which translates into over 100,000 prescriptions for finasteride since it was introduced. All of these doctors stopped the drug on their patients when the patient complained about Sexual Side effects and that is why we, as a group, can state that we haven’t seen PFS in our patient population. THAT IS A VALID OBSERVATION. My one case does not qualify in this scenario as he developed sexual side effects in less time than it took to get PEAK blood levels for finasteride (2 hours after taking the pill) which tells me that it was psychological at that moment in time. Since this man continued taking the drug for more than one year after he was told to stop it AND HAD SEXUAL SIDE EFFECTS REPORTED THAT ENTIRE YEAR, BUT REFUSED TO STOP THE DRUG, then of course he may have induced PFS but there is no real way to tell as he was not trustworthy with regard to his own story. I have been respectful to you and expect the same from you in your writing. I have not only read extensively about PFS, but sat on panels and participated in meetings where PFS was discussed making me a bit of an expert with EXPERIENCE. I have never heard nor seen any report where a man had taken ONE dose and developed PFS, you can prove me wrong here if you have any facts to back up your claim but being dropped from a study does not relate to a SINGE DOSE response for inducing PFS. I am open to seeing your documentation.

I can’t comment on Merck. If the evidence shows that Merck hide results about long-term sexual side effects, I would be outraged as you are. Back in 2012, PFS was only just being discussed in the hair transplant community which at the time didn’t necessarily believe that it was real (I would have to check my notes on this date) but I believe at that time there was less public discussion about PFS as a syndrome, just patients complaining about persistent sexual side effects after stopping the drug, something I didn’t hear from my patients at the time. All of my patients, even back in 2012, were given a written release form which they executed with regard to the use of finasteride. All of the known side effects were not only discussed one-on-one between the patients and I when I wrote the prescription, but the document that they signed listed all of the known side effects coming out of the Merck brochures and the literature which I read. When PFS became a known entity, it was added to the informed consent document that each patient had to sign and I always included it in my consultations (I often took an hour with each new patient at no charge). I now believe that PFS is a real syndrome and any person who gets a finasteride prescription from me is made aware of this risk.

Look at this post:  https://baldingblog.com/new-report-that-finasteride-does-not-cause-sexual-side-effects/