HairlossTalk said:
hair mchair said:
in a very small percentage of men, propecia can cause long-term impotence - possibly permanent. This is conjecture.
If its conjecture, please don't say it like its been established. Someone is going to read this thread and think there is data to back that statement up, and there is none.
Propecia has not been shown to cause long term or permanent impotence in anyone yet.
One thing ive noticed is that people tend to declare as gospel whatever happens to them personally. Do not fall into this trap because you're going to end up spreading misinformation that doesnt apply to 99.999999% of people, and this is how wrong information is propogated with good intentions. I had a hypersensitive unique response to Propecia and every single time I mention it, I point out that I am the complete exception to the rule. That is the only safe way of doing this.
If I walked around telling people that "Propecia causes massive increases in estrogen at the 3 year mark" just because it did that to me ... it would be very irresponsible of me.
Be careful wth what you say because thousands of people are reading, who don't post, and because of the reputability of this site, they're bound to believe anything they read, simply because they saw it here.
HairLossTalk.com
this isn't conjecture. i was relating my personal experience and the personal experiences of dozens of others, some of whom i have spoken to personally and some of whom i haven't. finasteride CAN cause long-term impotence. note that i said that it may or may not be permanent. just because there are no official studies to back me up doesn't mean that i'm wrong. in my opinion, user feedback is just as important as official studies, if not more so.
finasteride can also cause gyno in a small percentage of men. this was not evident during the original clinical trials, and so was not originally included under the list of side effects (i don't know whether or not it is now). despite the fact that none of the men in the official clinical trials did not get gyno from finasteride, it is valid to warn others of the potential for gyno, provided that the incidence of gyno is not exaggerated.
similarly, it is valid to warn others of the potential for long-term impotence, provided that the incidence of long-term impotence is not exaggerated. notice that i said this only occurs in a very small percentage of finasteride users. i was NOT taking my personal experience and blowing it out of proportion.
it is irresponsible NOT to warn others of the potential complications of any drug. let's suppose, hypothetically, that finasteride use was fatal for one person in a 100,000. would it then be irresponsible to say, "finasteride MAY cause death in a very small percentage of men"? of course not. i'm sure everyone would agree that it would be irresponsible not to warn others about this, despite the fact that one person in 100,000 is "statistically insignificant." based on my experience and the experience of dozens of other men who took months or years to recover from the sexual side effects of propecia (IF they recovered at all), i believe it would be irresponsible of me to not warn others about the potential for long-term impotence. this is a very serious problem for those unfortunate enough to have an extreme reaction to propecia. it might not be tantamount to death, but it's pretty friggin bad just the same.
let's keep in mind that many men are reluctant to take propecia because of the sexual side effects, even those men who believe that less than 2% of finasteride users experience these side effects and that these side effects will completely disappear within a few days or weeks of discontinuing propecia. imagine how these men would feel if they knew that these side effects might take months or years to go away. we are doing such men a disservice by telling them that they have a 100% chance of recovery from these side effects should they appear.
i am not one of these people who has a bad experience with propecia and then goes from forum to forum bashing propecia and saying that no one should take it. i am very careful in what i say and exactly how i say it. i just want to inform people of my bad experience so that they can make an informed decision, which i was denied. i have reached the point where i would not recommend propecia, but i would not recommend that people not use it either. i trust people to make the right decision when given all the facts.
also, notice that one of agbulk's questions was, "anyone having any bad side effects right now...?" so if you want to disregard everything i just said, i was at least justified in relating my personal experience, considered that we were all asked to share our personal experiences.
