Sarah Temori, who launched a petition to have finasteride taken off the market on Change.org, agrees. "Many who have taken Propecia have lost their marriages, jobs and some have committed suicide due to the damage this drug has done to their bodies," she writes. "One of my loved ones is a victim of this drug. It's painful to see how much he has to struggle just to make it through each day and do all the daily things that we take for granted. No doctors have been able to help him and he is struggling to pay for medical bills. He is only 23." Stories about Propecia's disturbing and underreported side effects have run on CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and on Italian and English TV news.
The medical literature has also investigated finasteride effects. A study last year in Journal of Sexual Medicine noted "changes related to the urogenital system in terms of semen quality and decreased ejaculate volume, reduction in penis size, penile curvature or reduced sensation, fewer spontaneous erections, decreased testicular size, testicular pain, and prostatitis." Many subjects also noted a "disconnection between the mental and physical aspects of sexual function," and changes to mental abilities, sleeping patterns, and/or depressive symptoms.
A study this year in the Journal of Steroid
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology finds that "altered levels of neuroactive
steroids, associated with depression symptoms, are present in androgenic
alopecia patients even after discontinuation of the finasteride
treatment."
Approved in Haste, Regretted in Leisure
The rise and fall of Propecia parallels other drugs like Vioxx or hormone replacement therapy that were marketed to wide demographics even as safety questions nipped at their heels. Because two thirds of American men have some hair loss by age 35, and by age 50, 85 percent of men do, Propecia had the promise of a blockbuster like Lipitor or Viagra.
Early ads likened men's thinning scalps to crop circles. Later, ads likened saving scalp hair to saving the whales and won award s. Many Propecia ads tried to take away the stigma of hair loss and its treatment. "You'd be surprised who's treated their HAIR LOSS" said one print ad depicting athletic looking, twenty-something men. In 1999 alone, Merck spent $100 million marketing Propecia directly to consumers, when direct-to-consumer advertising was just beginning on TV.
Nor was Propecia only sold in the U.S. Oversees ads compared twins who did and did not use the product. In the U.K., the drug store chain Boots aggressively marketed Propecia at its 300 stores and still does. One estimate says Propecia was marketed in 120 countries--half the world.
Many have heard of "indication creep" when a drug, after its original FDA approval, goes on to be approved for myriad other uses. Seroquel, originally approved for schizophrenia, is now approved as an add-on drug for depression and even for use in children. Cymbalta, originally approval as an antidepressant, went on to be approved for chronic musculoskeletal pain.
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