Who wants to try small doses of progesterone?
To begin a possible treatment?
Sounds like the authors of that article may be suggesting 3a-diol-g and/or 3b-diol-g supplementation to have anxiolytic and anti-depressive effects in finasteride victims.
How would progesterone supplementation help if there is insufficient 5ar or 3a-HSD activity to convert it into the necessary metabolites?
This certainly sounds promising, but just because there is proof of a deficiency in progesterone and other neuro steriods and hormones does not mean this is the cause. What has to be answered, is there a deficiency because of a receptor problem, negative feedback loop, antibodies, or some other reason? There has to be something that is causing the deficiencies. We have to ask WHY??? What is the cause? That will be the only way we can be fixed when we find out the cause not the symptoms or deficiencies. Too bad the body just can’t heal itself.
They do not state the issue is due to a deficiency of Progesterone, they state its “5a-reduced metabolites of PROG and T in CSF and plasma of post-finasteride patients”.
Therefore part of the issue likely has to do with 5AR, or more likely, 3a-HSD enzyme metabolism.
I think we are going to know a lot more after this week. This is exciting news because to some extent it confirms many previous studies involving finasteride and it’s affects on rats neurological composition. IMO, they have certainly isolated both where the problem lies and it’s affects on both sexual and me mental symptoms. In my opinion we can pretty much drop the prostate, AR insensitivity, candida, skin flora theories.
Nothing has been “isolated”, further tests are required to confirm such hypotheses.
Testing of Androgen receptor function and possibly 5AR/3a-HSD enzyme activity should remain a plausible investigation. The drug does more than just inhibit neurosteroids, it also inhibits androgens and disrupts hormonal ratios such as androgen/estrogen. There is much to be learned, which will only be possible through our support via the PFS Foundation. Everything else is simply conjecture and opinion.
Does anyone have any idea as to when the full studies from the conference are going to be published, or is that all still very much up in the air?
They have found a unique neurosteroid profile of at least three people that have suffered from persistent sexual dysfunction. All three were low enough in range to focus an entire study, findings and lecture with regards to it. But yes in any event, there is much more work to be done. I just think it’s a major finding that brings us closer to a cure or at least a potential treatment.
Maybe soon we will could try some medicine.
Ok…what else??? this is very exciting…
Has the conference happened? What were the results?
Thats what I’d like to know I was hoping the conference would lead to some sort of breakthrough.
Also why isnt there any media attention following this. The media blew up from that one study a few months ago, but its silent on this…
Unfortunately no breakthorugh from the conference. An interesting new point of view has been reported, the one about selegeline. I can’t explain it because it was discussed not very soon in the conference and my concentration deficits arised pretty soon. What will be useful to the community will be in the studies. But imo we are not at the point of knowing where the problems lie. There is still too much uncertainity.
It was not possible for me to record the conference I’m sorry.
I am sure the foundation will report soon. As far as breakthrough, to me finding a unique and similar neurosteroid profile of at least 3 long time sufferer is very important.
Mew, do you know if Awor plans to come here at some point, to give some commentary? I’m also curious if the full studies will become public.
It’s huge that these studies show that more attention is being given. As expected, the first steps were quite small. It had to be this way, of course, being the nature of research. They don’t tell us much we didn’t know or suspect, but coming from an ‘official’ source, it gives some legitimacy.
Only one of them (that I can tell) dealt with persistent symptoms. (This is the one where three PFS guys showed low 5AR metabolites.) The sample size was pretty small.
The studies seem to show that taking alloprenanolone or 3a-adiol may help some of our brain-related symptoms, if not other symptoms. Unfortunately these aren’t exactly OTC meds. But it does help prove a mechanism of action.
The biggest thing may be that these studies can be the building blocks for additional studies. Again, I’m hoping we hear an update from Awor. And my thanks to him and the researchers doing this work.
I’m sure Awor will provide an update once he has an opportunity.
From the brief chat I had with him today, he was very pleased with the conference and felt it definitely helped generate more awareness of our problem amongst the scientific community, while also fostering further collaboration amongst researchers. I would expect the PFS Foundation will also make a statement or post about this in the near future.
Professor Melcangi’s study on the 3 patients with reduced 5AR/3a-HSD neurosteroid metabolites is certainly compelling, despite it’s small sample size. Hopefully there will be further work in this area in the future.
I have a friend who is a molecular biologist (seriously). I’ve spoken with him about this condition a few times now. He was aware of the drug and how it works (has a bit of hair loss himself) but had no idea it could cause the problems we are experiencing. While I originally began speaking with him about it hoping he could help get me better somehow, at the very least he has said he’s speaking with his colleagues about the drug and its effects, being very vocal about it. So as far as awareness goes I guess that helps. Hopefully there are more tangible results on getting to the bottom of this condition in the coming months.
The best thing would be a kind of global blood bank for pfs victims where everyone could send bloodtests from their local doctor directly to the scientists of the foundation like one in europe one in north america etc. but unfortunatelly without enough money and awareness that’s all still up in the air…
There isn’t a whole lot that basic blood work can tell us about PFS at this point. There are a few consistencies that haven’t proven much at this point. What we need is a detailed in-depth analysis of the primary factors involved; the androgen receptor, 3 adiol g, HSD, allopregnanlone, vitamin D and how it all relates together. Biochemically it is, and was before obvious that we have reduced 5 AR activity… what is causing this is the real question and a probable root to solving this whole thing.