Robb Dixon typically sees posts on social media from males determined to strive something for thicker hair – and finds it troublesome to not immediately message them saying: it isn’t price it.
For Robb, 33, a music producer from Winchester, Hampshire, says he was left with erectile dysfunction, despair, anxiousness and a bunch of different issues, because of taking the remedy finasteride for six months when his hair began thinning in his 20s.
The signs lasted for years after he stopped the remedy.
‘I wished extra hair however paid with my well being – it’s so simple as that,’ he says. ‘I want I’d by no means taken it.’
His expertise just isn’t distinctive, resulting in requires higher warnings concerning the drug’s potential side-effects.
Such considerations have led the UK’s medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare merchandise Regulatory Company (MHRA), to add a warning to the affected person leaflet that comes with the drug concerning the danger of despair, suicidal ideas and sexual dysfunction.
But some consultants imagine warnings are nonetheless not clear sufficient.
Finasteride was initially developed to deal with an enlarged prostate, considered hormone pushed.
Robb Dixon, 33, says he was left with erectile dysfunction, despair, anxiousness and a bunch of different issues, because of taking the remedy finasteride for hair thinning. He now makes use of hair fibres
The drug works by stopping testosterone from being transformed into one other hormone, dihydrotestosterone (DHT), which prevents the prostate from rising too giant.
DHT additionally shrinks hair follicles and might result in thinning hair in some males – so lowering its ranges additionally reduces the hormone’s impact on hair follicles, serving to to cease additional loss and in lots of circumstances, selling new progress.
The drug is accessible on the NHS to deal with prostate situations however not for hair loss, because it’s thought-about a beauty therapy, fairly than a medical one.
Nonetheless, finasteride is broadly obtainable on-line and thru personal clinics to deal with thinning hair – which is how Robb first got here throughout finasteride when looking on-line for methods to fight his receding hairline aged 24 in 2016.
A fast Google search recommended two hair-loss remedies: finasteride, a day by day tablet, and minoxidil, a topical lotion that wanted twice-daily utility.
The tablet appeared the simpler possibility, so Robb went on to the Boots web site, crammed in a web-based kind – and three days later the remedy arrived within the publish.
The remedy leaflet did warn that it might in uncommon circumstances, trigger despair, anxiousness and lowered libido.
‘However I used to be a match 24-year-old man and I had no historical past of psychological sickness – so I didn’t suppose it might occur to me,’ Robb recollects.
The drug works by stopping testosterone from being transformed into one other hormone, dihydrotestosterone
‘Apart from, if that did start to occur I’d cease and I assumed all could be properly.’
Inside simply 24 hours of starting the remedy, Robb seen his libido had dramatically lowered and he couldn’t keep an erection.
Hoping this was momentary Robb – who didn’t have a girlfriend on the time – carried on taking the remedy. Inside two weeks, his libido had vanished fully and he might not get an erection in any respect.
‘I felt ashamed, apprehensive, confused and upset,’ he says.
His hair wasn’t rising again both – so after six months, nonetheless struggling sexual issues, Robb stopped taking finasteride.
Simply 48 hours later he woke in the midst of the evening with ‘the worst panic assault ever’.
‘I used to be sitting bolt upright, sweating, panicking and with a hideous sense of dread. I additionally bought blaring tinnitus,’ he recollects.
‘Just a few hours later I seen my genitals had been shrunken and retracted and I used to be having to urinate each quarter-hour,’ says Robb, who went straight to A&E the subsequent morning.
‘By now I used to be additionally struggling a disassociation – I felt disconnected as if I used to be watching myself transfer via the world, interacting with individuals. I felt I used to be having an out-of-body expertise. It was terrifying.’
Hospital exams revealed nothing, so he noticed his GP later that week.
By this time, he was additionally having suicidal ideas, joint ache and his imaginative and prescient was ‘blurred and snowy’.
The GP ordered blood exams to test his hormone ranges, which additionally revealed nothing. Robb informed him he was taking finasteride ‘and he checked out me blankly,’ he recollects. ‘He didn’t appear to have a clue.’
‘I seen my genitals had been shrunken and retracted and I used to be having to urinate each quarter-hour,’ says Robb, who went straight to A&E the subsequent morning
Inside the subsequent few weeks, Robb continued to endure with ‘dreadful ideas and anxiousness’, in addition to the tinnitus.
His digestive system was now additionally inflicting issues: ‘I used to be having bowel actions of utterly undigested meals for days,’ he says. ‘I couldn’t exit. I used to be unable to work. It was hell.’
After begging his GP to refer him to a specialist, Robb weeks later lastly spoke to an endocrinologist, who’d heard of different males experiencing related side-effects after stopping taking finasteride – ‘however he too was unable to assist,’ he recollects.
Inside weeks, Robb went from being ‘a muscular, match younger man’ to having no power and feeling as if his muscular tissues had been ‘spongy’.
Robb recollects: ‘Nobody was capable of assist me. I felt offended at how simple it had been to pay money for this drug and feared for my future. I apprehensive I’d by no means really feel regular once more.’
His expertise just isn’t unusual. A examine printed in 2020 trying on the impact of finasteride in a bunch of 25 younger males by Baylor College within the US discovered almost 70 per cent had skilled penis shrinkage.
David Healy, a retired professor of psychiatry who’s an knowledgeable on drug side-effects, says it’s not identified why finasteride can set off suicidal ideas and long-term sexual dysfunction in some males.
Professor David Healy says it’s not identified why finasteride can set off suicidal ideas and long-term sexual dysfunction in some males
‘There have been considerations about finasteride for a very long time,’ says Professor Healy, whose guide, Pharmageddon, delves into corruption within the pharmaceutical trade.
‘I’ve two medical colleagues who grew to become suicidal on it when used for hair loss and one dedicated suicide.
‘There isn’t any query however that it will probably make individuals suicidal and the PFS Basis [the Post-Finasteride Syndrome Foundation, a non-profit organisation which supports individuals affected by side-effects of the drug] has been campaigning on this for a very long time.’
Some males have sexual dysfunction and despair whereas taking the drug, however not afterwards: others have everlasting side-effects even after they cease taking it, says Professor Healy – this is named post-finasteride syndrome.
He provides: ‘The issue for these contemplating the remedy is that there is no such thing as a method of figuring out when you is perhaps affected or not – not all males who take finasteride are affected the identical method.’
Worse, says Professor Healy, ‘we’ve no therapy for the sexual dysfunction these medication may cause even as soon as somebody stops taking them.
‘It could generally recuperate spontaneously – however for a lot of, the impact is everlasting.’
Quite a few stories from sufferers led to a security overview by the MHRA, which in April 2024 concluded that the drug was related to ‘despair, suicidal ideas and sexual dysfunction’ – because of this it launched ‘a affected person alert card’ to be included inside packs of finasteride, highlighting these dangers and informing them of what to do in the event that they expertise these side-effects.
‘As sufferers might not discover adjustments to their temper, they’re inspired to indicate this card, and the affected person leaflet, to family and friends,’ it famous.
Dr Alison Cave, chief security officer on the MHRA, informed Good Well being that the brand new playing cards ‘goal to lift consciousness amongst males taking finasteride concerning the potential for psychiatric and sexual side-effects to allow them to make an knowledgeable determination about their therapy and know what to do in the event that they expertise these side-effects’.
She added that anybody taking the drug for hair loss who develops such side-effects ought to instantly cease taking it and get in touch with their physician. These taking the drug for prostate enlargement also needs to talk about side-effects with their GP or well being skilled.
‘Keep in mind to at all times learn the label contained in the pack because it consists of necessary data on how you can take finasteride and its doable side-effects,’ says Alison Cave.
However as Robb factors out, that is of no assist when the harm is already accomplished. ‘This recommendation is vacuous,’ he says. ‘It’s of no assist to somebody who’s already affected by this.’
Thorrun Govind is a pharmacist based mostly in Manchester and the previous chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society
Thorrun Govind, a pharmacist based mostly in Manchester and the previous chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, provides that well being professionals ought to ask sufferers about any historical past of suicidal ideas earlier than prescribing the drug – and monitor them for potential side-effects as soon as therapy begins.
She additionally advises anybody taking finasteride to inform their household or associates they’re taking the drug to allow them to even be alert for any temper or behaviour adjustments.
However Professor Healy is underwhelmed by the MHRA response.
He believes that MHRA tips are nonetheless insufficient on finasteride, in addition to for SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors – medication used to deal with despair) and isotretinoin (to deal with zits) – which have been linked with suicidal ideas and sexual dysfunction in each sexes.
‘We have now identified about these issues for 40 years and the MHRA is simply now getting round to alerting individuals concerning the danger – and never doing a very good job up to now.’
He provides: ‘As for on-line prescribing, it’s not clear that our techniques are capable of get the horse again within the secure – it might have bolted.
‘If that is so, politicians want to begin serious about what warnings on primarily over-the-counter medicines ought to seem like.
‘On-line gross sales needs to be blocked till the affected person has signed a kind stating they’ve been knowledgeable of a severe dangers of suicidal and everlasting sexual side-effects – and the individuals prescribing and sending the drugs to them additionally signal a kind saying they’ve warned about this.’
A spokesman for Boots informed Good Well being: ‘Affected person security is our primary precedence. We prescribe finasteride via the Boots On-line Physician hair loss service and are sorry to listen to of the expertise of this affected person. We encourage all sufferers experiencing any side-effects from any prescription-only remedy to contact their prescribing clinician or pharmacist as quickly as doable.
‘Boots On-line Physician ensures that sufferers prescribed finasteride are made conscious of , and have confirmed that they perceive, the doable side-effects of this prescription solely medication, according to the most recent data and steering from the MHRA.’
Not everybody even agrees that finasteride is the simplest therapy for hair loss.
Steve O’Brien, a trichologist on the London Centre of Trichology, says he’s typically requested concerning the drug by younger males, drawn by the very fact it’s comparatively cheap (at £10 to £20 monthly) and straightforward to take.
However he warns that it ‘works higher at sustaining progress fairly than making hair develop stronger or thicker’ and says that his clinic has by no means really useful finasteride ‘because of the severe potential side-effects’.
He provides: ‘We use pure lotions containing plant extracts on our sufferers that work higher – with no unintended effects.’
Fortunately, 4 years after he stopped taking finasteride, in 2020, life lastly improved for Robb as his sexual operate progressively started to return, on the age of 28.
He met Rhian, now 45, and the couple married final yr.
To start with, he needed to take Cialis (much like Viagra) to keep up an erection and informed Rhian about his post-finasteride syndrome. ‘She was very supportive and it made us nearer,’ he says.
However even now he suffers with joint ache, fatigue and mind fog, in addition to muscle wastage regardless of recurrently coaching within the gymnasium and consuming healthily.
‘I nonetheless have snowy imaginative and prescient like an outdated TV set and power fatigue,’ he says.
Final yr he co-founded the charity SIDEfxHUB to assist these affected by finasteride or post-SSRI sexual dysfunction. Sarcastically since stopping the remedy, his hair loss halted. He now additionally makes use of hair fibres to cowl the place the thinning was at its worst. However he stresses hair loss is one thing he needs he had accepted fairly than going via all he has gone via.
‘I ought to by no means have taken the finasteride within the first place.’
His message for others contemplating finasteride to fight hair loss is straightforward: ‘You can’t comprehend the degrees of struggling this remedy can carry.
‘No man ought to danger his well being for a head of thicker hair. Extra consciousness must be made from the dangers of those drugs for males.’
For extra data go to sidefxhub.com
#terrifying #sideeffects #drug #1000’s #males #battle #hair #loss #medical doctors #warn #signs #everlasting #treatment