Top doctor says he’d never treat patients with hair-loss pill due to side effects that affect some ‘permanently’

According to one of America’s top prostate surgeons, hair loss treatment by Donald Trump causes impotence and depression in one in ten men.

Dr. Edward Schaeffer, a urologist who treated comic actor Ben Stiller for prostate cancer, says he does not recommend the drug finasteride “for any man” because of its common side effects that affect some patients “permanently.”

The tablet, originally developed as a treatment for an enlarged prostate, is now sold as Propecia and used by millions of men around the world, including the former president and several Hollywood stars, after being proven to regrow hair.

It works by blocking the conversion of the male hormone testosterone to dihydrotestosterone or DHT. It is believed that high levels of DHT lead to hair loss by shrinking the follicles on the scalp.

Finasteride is not prescribed for hair loss by the NHS, but earlier this year The Mail on Sunday revealed that British medicines authorities had opened an investigation into it amid a threefold increase in reports of side effects such as depression, low libido and erectile dysfunction. dysfunction since 2020.

Government figures also show that finasteride has been linked to at least 70 reports of patients with suicidal thoughts as a suspected side effect.

The pharmaceutical company that made finasteride, Merck & Co, has always denied the link with serious long-term side effects, but also paid millions of dollars to settle lawsuits with American patients.

How often these side effects – known as post-finasteride syndrome – occur is still hotly debated.

Speaking to The Peter Attia Drive Podcast, Dr. Schaeffer, however, said he believed that “about one in ten men will have significant problems with this.” He adds: ‘The side effects of this post-finasteride syndrome are real. The duration can be very variable. Some people stop taking the medication and will have a resolution within a few weeks, once the medication has been washed out. But there are people I know who have it permanently.’

Finasteride was initially developed to treat enlarged prostate, but users soon noticed the associated hair growth. Studies found that when administered in lower doses, more than 80 percent stopped losing hair and 65 percent saw it start to grow back, often within months.

Initial studies found the drug to be safe for use in treating hair loss.

About four percent of study participants experienced temporary mental health problems and erectile dysfunction, which seemed to go away after they stopped taking the pills.

But over the past decade, there has been mounting evidence that post-finasteride syndrome affects thousands of people who use the drug.

In 2021, Reuters reported that it had obtained court documents showing that US health watchdogs had received more than 700 reports of suicide and suicidal ideation linked to the drug since 2011.

And in March, this newspaper revealed that the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), the UK’s health safety watchdog, had begun an ongoing investigation into the long-term effects of finasteride.

Case reports seem to suggest that younger men are more likely to suffer from it, which pharmaceutical companies have used to correlate that post-finasteride syndrome is actually a mental illness, like depression.

But Dr. Schaeffer says older men experience this too, adding, “It’s just that they may be less interested in sex.” He also states that the serious side effects are likely due to the fact that finasteride reduces DHT levels in the body – which comes from testosterone.

“Having that hormone is critical for just about everything.”