Dr Jacobs interview in the Daily Mail (UK paper)

General Discussion Media & Awareness
#1

dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive … scalp.html

[b]Some 23,000 men in the UK use Finasteride on prescription.

The drug finasteride’s hair-saving qualities were discovered accidentally when patients taking the drug to shrink their prostates experienced almost no hair loss compared to men of the same age.

Because of the drug’s ability to block DHT it is also used to help feminise male to female transsexuals (it also halts excess body hair.) But this powerful drug can cause powerful side effects.

‘Something in the order of five to ten per cent of guys who take these drugs, from hundreds of thousands of users, report side effects,’ says Dr Alan Jacobs, a New York-based neuroendochrinologist.

‘Maybe a third of those keep these problems, and then another third of those people keep them for a long time.’

[Size=4]Dr Jacobs explains that finasteride lowers testosterone, which can result in hypogonadism – a maelstrom of symptoms that include the loss of libido and erectile dysfunction[/size]

[Size=4]‘The other symptoms are fatigue, loss of joie de vivre and anxiety,’[/size] he says.

[Size=4]‘If it goes on long enough you can feel like a eunuch. You can have problems with muscle growth and cardiac problems. It is not good to be hypogonadal for a man until you hit about 80.’[/size]

Dr Jacobs points out that some patients who have experienced symptoms for up to ten years seemingly lose their sexual function.

Anxiety resulting from these side effects can have a shattering effect on work and relationships. What compounds the problem further is that men seeking hair loss treatment may already have pre-existing anxiety issues. I ask him if as a balding man he would take finasteride himself?

‘No. As a physician I know the value of a healthy lifestyle. I also majored in philosophy and I think of hair as not very metaphysically important to your character or your health.’[/b]

#2

Anyone with cardiac problems? What symptoms did you have or how were you diagnosed?

#3

This is what pisses me off about this whole syndrome. I really believe we need more neuroendocrinologists looking at this because I feel like some of these “dr’s” are like parrots! I acutally reached out to a leading researcher at Ohio University dept of neuroendocrinology to help and get her thoughts.

There are absolutely no known studies that finasteride lowers testosterone. In fact, its the opposite that finasteride has shown to increase testosterone by 10% (which is why i think some men get probelms upon discintinuation). So there is perhaps a secondary effect that RESULTS in lower testosterone. That is logic, what he says is not logical. Its the old saying “guns kill people…no people kill people”

In fact Jacobs himself has theorized a possible secondary effect of finasteride that could explain what is happening which I believe is the leading theory. I posted it in “research initiatives in post-finasteride syndrome”

#4

Can you please elaborate or remind us what this was?

#5

yes its below:

"I have experience with several men who have developed a “brain fog”-syndrome on Propecia. This has often been associated with increased stress and anxiety.

I wonder if the neuroendocrine link is via the blocking in some men of their brain’s 5-alpha-reductase enzyme (Type 1 isoform), even though it is supposed to block only the Type 2 isoform, leading to a reduction in the conversion of progesterone to allopregnanolone, a potent anxiety-reducing agonist of the brain’s GABA-A receptor. This decrease in allopreganolone is associated with increased anxiety, which can secondarily cloud attention and concentration.

Since there are reports of permanent sexual dysfunction upon stopping fenasteride (Swedish package insert for Propecia 1mg) it is not a stretch to consider other brain-based permanent effects.

I wonder if progesterone would help. I have recently seen progesterone given to men intravenously after severe head trauma with great benefit, which I realize is a very different setting. However, this was the first setting I have seen giving progesterone to men with success."

  • Dr Jacobs
#6

Finasteride increases testosterone by 10% during treatment. The problem of lowered testosterone comes after treatment is discontinued and is evident in the blood tests found on this board, however it’s not a 100% or consistent rule as the levels vary from person to person and fluctuate.

#7

what about people who were on TRT before, during and after fin use. how would you describe this testtosterone reduction issue in them.

#8

IMO Propecia changes the progesterone/estrogen ratio in the brain, dr. Jacobs was on the right track here, I also had an unbelievably rare disorder which is now being looked at hormonally with the same above mentioned problem. This is no coincidence. Every single simptom I have is reflective of a progesterone problem. Testosterone is downregulated in this process. Can’t wait for the neurosteroid study!!!