anyone worried by this video?

[KeepTheHair]

This is a very disturbing video. Unfortunately, it makes many generalizations and accusations that are not referenced to allow examination of its claims. I would hope that the authors of this video would supply their references.

I will be posting a poll I am conducting of fellow hair transplant surgeons. I will post the final tabulation but at the moment, I have estimates totaling 20,000 patients from 12 surgeons who have been prescribing finasteride since it received approval in the late 90s. At the moment, THERE ARE NO REPORTED SIDE EFFECTS reported that persisted after the patients stopped the medication. Very strange, indeed, that these findings are at such odds with the video. I will be sure that the reporting physicians do not sell finasteride in their practices or have any other bias motivating distortion of their data.

This makes me feel better about the whole thing.

[Winston]

This is a great idea Dr. Reed! Thanks for doing this. These videos are really disturbing and I think they provide bogus claims that are unnecessarily frightening all of us who take Propecia and those who would like to start.

[mlao]

I agree with Winston there is too much fear mongering on the web that is never properly back up by reputable, experienced doctors.

[William Reed, MD]

An update on the informal survey that I have been doing regarding the frequency of long term side effects even after the discontinuation of finasteride: None of the 17 surgeons reporting on over an estimated 30,000 patients begun on finasteride report having received feedback that the medicine has ever created long term, irreversible side effects of any sort.

A healthy discussion is always beneficial. I would encourage the authors of this very disturbing film to respond to this data that could not be further from supporting their contention of irreversible dangers from taking finasteride. A good start would be for them to publish their references that they feel support their positions. I shall try to tract down the physician who is shown on the video and will get back to you about his response.

[bostonusa2009]

I agree with Winston there is too much fear mongering on the web that is never properly back up by reputable, experienced doctors.

After you have the pill for 6 months. Ask yourself, Is sex as good as used to be? Do you desire sex as much as you used to?

Be painfully honest with yourself, Are you experiencing vision problems, slight memory loss. I'm giving you the warning signs before the really bad stuff starts.

The propeciahelp forum has 1,500 + users and there probably double that number that are reading the forum, but aren't yet members.

Don't just ignore these things. Go on that forum read a few of the stories, so you know what to look for in case you also begin experiencing the same things.

[martinM]

This is a very disturbing video. Unfortunately, it makes many generalizations and accusations that are not referenced to allow examination of its claims. I would hope that the authors of this video would supply their references.

I will be posting a poll I am conducting of fellow hair transplant surgeons. I will post the final tabulation but at the moment, I have estimates totaling 20,000 patients from 12 surgeons who have been prescribing finasteride since it received approval in the late 90s. At the moment, THERE ARE NO REPORTED SIDE EFFECTS reported that persisted after the patients stopped the medication. Very strange, indeed, that these findings are at such odds with the video. I will be sure that the reporting physicians do not sell finasteride in their practices or have any other bias motivating distortion of their data.

I am a registered user at propeciahelp.com. You can find me under this same username.

Here are a few questions to ask yourselves:

1) No reported side effects to whom? I have reported long term sides multiple times to both Merck and the FDA as have other former FINASTERIDE users on propeciahelp. Merck tells me every time there is no suggested time on how long their stated side effects (ED) take to go away. They wouldn't even say within 5 years.

2) How closely are you paying attention to the state of your body? The side effects (beyond ED) for me took years to develop and worsen before they came to crises. I visited multiple doctors trying to figure out what was wrong. The standard line was "we don't know". It was only after 4+ years of worsening symptoms, when ED finally set in at age 27, that I realized how bad it had gotten. I slowly gained water weight, lost energy, lost mental acuity, and became depressed.

3) How do you track the claims of the disbelieved? I have spent thousands on doctors and blood tests trying to get someone interested in my case. Many doctors have refused to look at me because long-term side effects are not listed in the packaging of propecia.

4) Statement: Doctors don't tend to sell propecia at their practices. They write scripts for it and get kickbacks from pharma for doing so. Any doctor "saving men's hair" has a bias to prescribe propecia. Doctor's prescribing Propecia cannot be unbiased.

[mlao]

4) Statement: Doctors don't tend to sell propecia at their practices. They write scripts for it and get kickbacks from pharma for doing so. Any doctor "saving men's hair" has a bias to prescribe propecia. Doctor's prescribing Propecia cannot be unbiased.[/QUOTE]

I would like to hear from some of the doctors who regularly post on this forum. In response to this unsubstantiated allegation.
when I started using Propecia I was not pressured in any way. My doctor talked about possible sides and I made my own decision.

[martinM]

4) Statement: Doctors don't tend to sell propecia at their practices. They write scripts for it and get kickbacks from pharma for doing so. Any doctor "saving men's hair" has a bias to prescribe propecia. Doctor's prescribing Propecia cannot be unbiased.

I would like to hear from some of the doctors who regularly post on this forum. In response to this unsubstantiated allegation.
when I started using Propecia I was not pressured in any way. My doctor talked about possible sides and I made my own decision.[/QUOTE]

Good for you. Doesn't mean your doctor didn't get a kickback. Doctors are the “sales men” for these drugs -they and the drug companies are business partners. Due to the information asymmetry between doctors and patients, the patients are not in a good position to make the best decision in these kind of situations. Humans are driven by economic incentives, and doctors are no exception.

Read "Overdo$ed America" for another viewpoint about how much profit is made from the pills you're swallowing that can rob you of your functional penis.

http://www.overdosedamerica.com/

Don't forget, none of the Doctor's here are LEGALLY OBLIGATED to tell you about incentives or interaction they have with drug companies. If you prefer to let the propecia sales people (your doctors on this board who have prescribed to over 30,000 people) be your sole source of information about what you're taking be my guest. Just remember that for every dollar profited one will be spent to clean up the mess.

http://news.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/0...escribe-drugs/

http://ww.scu.edu/ethics/publication...escribing.html

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/r/21106691/detail.html

http://www.jsonline.com/features/health/37397284.html

These are the first few hits on google. Do a little research before crying "unsubstantiated claims". Furthermore, why wouldn't you ask me to substantiate? After all, I'm the one who made the claims, right?

[mlao]

The articles you provided give good insight into drug company practices. And while I'm sure they exist,
I just wanted some of the doctors who frequent this forum to voice their opinion about their relationship with Merck.
In my case I have a GP who is very hesitant to prescribe medication. She did not pressure me at all in regards to a script for Propecia.
I did not mean to show any disrespect to you or your opinions.

[CIT_Girl]

4) Statement: Doctors don't tend to sell propecia at their practices. They write scripts for it and get kickbacks from pharma for doing so. Any doctor "saving men's hair" has a bias to prescribe propecia. Doctor's prescribing Propecia cannot be unbiased.

I would like to hear from some of the doctors who regularly post on this forum. In response to this unsubstantiated allegation.
when I started using Propecia I was not pressured in any way. My doctor talked about possible sides and I made my own decision.

The relationship between physicians and pharmaceutical companies is HIGHLY regulated, at least in the US. Dr. Cole and other physicians are definitely not getting any kickbacks for the prescriptions they write. To be completely honest, dealing with prescriptions is more of a hassle for them than anything and therefore they wouldn't be writing them if they didn't believe that these prescriptions were beneficial to, and safe for, hair loss patients.

Anti-kickback laws are highly explicit and pharmaceutical companies and physicians stand to lose billions if they're violated. Sure, there was a day when physicians were wined and dined by pharmaceutical sales reps but nowadays the reps cannot so much as hand a physician a pen with their logo on it.

The only potential gray area that I see between physicians and pharma companies in this industry is that some physicians do dispense drugs like Propecia from their office. In this case, they will sometimes mark up the price they charge to patients and clearly there could be some questionable incentives there.