Anti baldness drug affects mens sexual health diagnosis

The drug manufacturing firm also added that such cases were rare and there may be factors other than the drug leading to baldness.

Jan 2011

Some doctors have claimed that young men could be jeopardizing their sexual health by taking the world's best selling anti-baldness drug.

According to researchers, finasteride - sold in UK as Propecia - can cause serious side effects and that the drug's labelling is inadequate.

The prescription pill is extremely effective at stopping hair loss and in clinical trials nine out of 10 men didn't lose any more hair over a five year period.

Drugs' company Merck, which manufactures Propecia, claims on its website that less than 2pc of men could suffer sexual side effects, reports the BBC .

It mentions things like difficulty achieving an erection, but says the problems will go away for men who stop taking the drug.

There are doctors in Ireland and the US who claim that the drug's labelling is inadequate.

Merck said they continually monitor its safety and have recently changed the labelling after reports of sexual side effects continuing after people had stopped taking the drug.

They also claim those cases are extremely rare and could be caused by something other than Propecia itself.

Drug manufacturer denies the claim

On the contrary, the propecia drug manufacturing firm Merck posted on its website that only two percent of men were likely to suffer from the sexual adverse effects of the drug.

The Merck website did mention the erection problem caused due to drug but it said that such rare problems stopped as soon as the drug consumption was stopped.

A spokesperson from Merck said, “The company continually monitor its safety and has recently changed the labeling after reports of sexual side effects continuing after people had stopped taking the drug.”

The drug manufacturing firm also added that such cases were rare and there may be factors other than the drug leading to baldness.

Statistics claimed that almost six and a half million people in the United Kingdom suffer from baldness and in almost one-third men, the first traces of baldness patterns start surfacing during their twenties.

Source