I feel like she’s only focusing on sexual symptoms as a sanction for the existence of PFS - like the fact that getting an erection needs the brain input and seeing a syndrome on the internet makes the brain think you have that syndrome - then the fact that you have this on your mind subliminally stops you getting an erection.
So many doctors explain the power of the mind thing and I get it . There’s many things that ‘might’ cause a loss of erection apart from the mind , (depression or anxiety.) For e.g diabetes, congestive heart failure, hypothyroidism etc
Even though as frustrating as it is the Insomnia some of us get could also be attributed by doctors as being “in the mind” argument they have against the existence of PFS (even though again it clearly isn’t )
However some of the more obscure symptoms we have could actually lead to something - Tinnitus for example , that is constant and appeared directly after discontinuation and hasn’t ceased. To me that’s not something you can go to the “it’s in your mind” bullshit - that is something CLEARLY that is physically present, causing distress and has arisen from Finasteride discontinuation and needs investigating. It’s a clear , physical indication that something is wrong .
Just my view on this video!
Into the archive she goes
"Amy Killen MD
Thank you for your story. I’ve been hearing more and more of these stories from men, unfortunately"
Maybe she’s getting an education. She didn’t delete the comment she’s replying to there.
In addition to these “doctors”, a bunch of clowns of YouTube are claiming the same, where there are no long term persistent side effects with propecia. Unfortunately, there are no negative comments on their videos, or, more likely, they’re deleting them. They really seem like Merck’s paid shills.
I won’t post the links to them because they’re down right depressing.
I think that the best thing to do would be to get PFS Foundation to contact her. Maybe it would make her realize that this horrible syndrome does actually exist…
In her case, it probably doesn’t matter who contacts her. She’s clearly familiar with the foundation and all of their studies as she discussed them.
The problem is that she’s that she’s not weighing the publicly available information properly. Doctors very heavily weigh double-blinded controlled studies, especially those that have been approved by the FDA. And we now have rock solid evidence that Merck found cases of persistent and hid them from the FDA and public. Doctors are not scientists and often lack the capacity and / or mental energy to carefully evaluate the integrity of published studies. But they tend to hold clinical trials up as the word of God and their opinion can often change when they find out the word of God has deceived them for years 
Does she know Merck lied about the fina studies? And does she know the past of Merck with Vioxx?
She kind of knows about the Merck Propecia studies because she mentioned the Reuters article in her blog post, but it doesn’t seem like she fully understood the significance of it or in full detail to be honest. Makes sense to educate her on the topic without accusing her of being a demon and allowing her to draw her own conclusion. The evidence is so strong that many doctors, but not all, will come to that conclusion if they are capable of rational and objective thinking. Sadly, not all of them are smart enough to understand the information or may feel so emotionally threatened by it that they delude themselves and rationalize why it is wrong. The truth is that there are very few doctors who will maliciously put their patients at risk for financial gain, they’re just exercising extremely poor judgment. There are exceptions, it’s not like everybody who goes to medical school is purely evil.
As for the Vioxx scandal. She probably knows about it as everybody does. But it isn’t proof that Merck did the same for Propecia (even though they did) so it won’t be enough to change her mind. It’s better to show her the direct proof. While the culture at Merck has led to many unethical outcomes, it didn’t happen every single time they put out a drug.
Everybody puts different weight on different pieces of information. However, many but not all doctors, put a lot of significance on clinical trials. When conducted properly, which is not always the case, they are probably the best means of understanding the safety profile of a drug. But not every doctor will hold clinical trials to be the most important piece of evidence so we’ll see where she falls. Some people rely on the word of the FDA or other regulatory bodies and they have not yet come around.
Just as doctors weigh information differently when making decisions, many of us decided to take Propecia even though we may have seen different information about the risks online. I took this over a decade ago, but I may have seen the forum and handful of anecdotal reports. Instead I trusted a doctor’s opinion and the product warning label which makes sense.
This is just how people make decisions and form opinions and how they may lead to outcomes that harm themselves or others. I’ll see if I can change her mind, it isn’t a guarantee but it has been successful in the past and she seems to be at a tipping point. It’s almost a challenge for me at this point.
About the FDA:
https://ethics.harvard.edu/blog/risk…not-be-trusted
The bar for “safe” is equally low, and over the past 30 years, approved drugs have caused an epidemic of harmful side effects, even when properly prescribed. Every week, about 53,000 excess hospitalizations and about 2400 excess deaths occur in the United States among people taking properly prescribed drugs to be healthier.
Prescription drugs are the 4th leading cause of death.
This evidence indicates why we can no longer trust the FDA to carry out its historic mission to protect the public from harmful and ineffective drugs. Strong public demand that government “do something” about periodic drug disasters has played a central role in developing the FDA.2 Yet close, constant contact by companies with FDA staff and officials has contributed to vague, minimal criteria of what “safe” and “effective” mean.
And a docu is probably even more convincing;
Last word that she said about finasteride caused aging, my urologists told me the same last year…
Doctors are in denial for many other syndromes. Think IBS, IBD, CFS/ME, Fibromyalgia, PSSD, Autoimmunity to name a few. That’s why the term “Idiopathic” was invented.
makes sense, I feel like im an 80 year old the past 8 weeks.
For whatever it’s worth, I sent her a message. I basically said that I saw her recent youtube video and thought she would be interested in reading the actual court documents that had interviews with Merck employees for the litigation. I pointed her specifically to one interview where the woman basically admitted that they basically lied in the warning label (my words) but in my view, it is pretty clear they knew about PFS for almost 20 years and decided not to disclose it because they knew it would decimate sales for the drug.
Her response was “Wow. Thank you! I’ll definitely take a look. Appreciate it.” She could have just said that to be polite, but I didn’t accuse her of being a paid shill for Merck (she is not) and it opens the door slightly for me to send her additional articles in the future for her to be persuaded over time. It is possible she will read this and be persuaded right away, but it at least will be in her mind the next time she sees a Propecia study or something like this.
I’m curious if she’s responded in any way to what you sent her. When I said she sounded like a paid shill, in should have emphasized “sounded like”. I can only hope she’s being receptive and not just polite.
The denial of these stupid doctors may push some innocent soul to suicide. I don’t respect any doctor anymore.
She didn’t follow up beyond that and I’m not sure she read it but I don’t know whether she did or not. This could easily be the case even if she was speaking in good faith when she said she would take a look at it.
This initial engagement serves a couple functions. It gets my foot in the door so if anything new comes out I’ll have a chance to send it to her and the message right above says “Thanks I’ll take a look.” Secondly, now she sees there are two pieces of evidence and that increases the chance of successfully persuading her.
Normally she isn’t going to change her mind immediately after reading one article she already seemed to have skimmed and misunderstood. Incrementally sending information over periods of time can increase effectiveness.
Today my doctor told my father that i need psychiatric help when i told about my Finasteride side effects. I am so fucking pissed off that i am afraid that i would beat them up.
Did you make certain the essential studies on PFS patients (Irwig’s analysis. Melcangi’s neurosteroid study, the DiLoreto overexpression study, and Khera’s study showing penile vascular abnormalities) made it into your doctor’s hands?
You could consider the Reuters expose’ of Merck’s long-time knowledge of persistent side effects a heavy-hitter also.
You can put the info right under their nose, but you can’t make them read it, unfortunately.