Paul Innes’s story has been published in todays Sun. In order to read the full article you need a subscription to the Sun.
If anyone has the full article please post it here.
thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/wo … pills.html
LOOKING at his reflection in the mirror, Paul Innes popped a pill that he hoped would cure four years of misery.
Like many men, he had started losing his hair in his early thirties.
Must publish on foundation website too.
Btw, good job paul. Really good one.
Is the SUN tabloid news?
I guess the sun is the biggest newspaper on uk, i wonder if they print this news on paper too.
It’s on the home page of the website right now:
Saved for prosperity here:
By the way, The Sun is a daily tabloid newspaper. One of the biggest in the UK.
Well done to Paul for achieving this.
Remember to share it! The more people who “click”, the more they’ll want to cover this story.
Unfortunately because of murdochs subscription BS many people wont get to read the story online.
We’re playing big media against big pharma.
Regardless, this story will still get printed 2 million+ tomorrow. Maybe some hair transplant clinics will have to cancel their copy for tomorrow haha
Thanks guys for your support.
I did this for ALL of us here
Here is the full story…
The Sun
June 19, 2014
My Trunk Shrunk After I Took Hair Pills
Father says sex life was ruined
By JENNIFER TIPPETT
LOOKING at his reflection in the mirror, Paul Innes popped a pill that he hoped would cure four years of misery.
Like many men, he had started losing his hair in his early thirties.
Desperate to stop his hairline receding further, the father-of-three started taking over-the-counter drug Propecia.
Paul believes this was the start of a nightmare that left him with depression, impotence and a penis that shrunk by half.
At his lowest, Paul was sectioned, suicidal and could barely bring himself to see his kids.
He took the pills for three months in 2010 and for just three weeks in 2013 and claims they ruined his sex life and ended his relationship with girlfriend Hayley Waudby.
Speaking exclusively to The Sun, Paul, from Hull, says: “My life has been destroyed and it will never be the same again. My penis is totally different in size and girth. It’s much shorter and thinner. It now functions about ten per cent of the time with Viagra.
“Every time me and Hayley tried to make love, my head said yes but down there I felt nothing. I felt like a failure, like less of a man because I couldn’t seem to make love to my own girlfriend.”
Paul, 36, who is currently unable to work, was a married man when he first started worrying about his hair five years ago.
He says: “I’d always been proud of my hair.”
In August 2010, after the break-up of his marriage, Paul went to a High Street chemist and got the Propecia.
At the time, packets warned there was a two per cent risk of sexual dysfunction while taking the pills.
The advice has since been changed to explain sexual dysfunction can sometimes continue after stopping the medication.
Paul says: “I didn’t think about the side-effects. I was told they were rare and the pills were so widely available that I trusted they’d be fine.” Paul forked out £90 for a three-month supply and started taking the pills straight away.
Within six weeks he says he began to have strange thoughts.
He explains: “I’d always been the life and soul of the party.
“I loved hanging out with my mates at the pub, playing football and spending time with my kids.
“Anyone who knows me would say I had a zest for life. But all of a sudden everything had darkened. From nowhere I would have thoughts about killing myself.” Paul stopped taking the pills and claims that within weeks his mood had lifted. Paul decided to retry the drug in April 2013, three months after starting a new relationship with Hayley.
After just three weeks, Paul found he was unable to perform sexually. He says: “It wasn’t something I’d ever had a problem with. Then, after a few days, I noticed a red rash on my penis.
“By this point I’d been taking Propecia for three weeks so decided to come off it.”
After discontinuing the drug, he says things went from bad to worse. Paul adds: “I started to feel very weird again, the same feelings I’d had before.
“All my spontaneous night time or morning erections stopped.”
The problem persisted and he claims his penis shrank by 50 per cent, adding: “I lost all feeling in it.” Hayley, 31, a cleaner, says: “It was a really confusing time. The first three or four months of our relationship had been great. Paul was such a livewire, that was what attracted me to him.
“I was concerned he’d gone off me or didn’t fancy me or that he was seeing someone else. But he swore it wasn’t that.
“Paul eventually told me he had been taking these pills and was worried they had affected him.
“He was upset all the time. He wouldn’t leave the house and he didn’t want to see his children.” Paul, whose feelings of depression worsened, was admitted to Mill View psychiatric hospital in Hull in July 2013.
He says: “I felt so low. It was as if I had no control over my body or my thoughts. I had no control over my body sexually, physically and emotionally.”
Paul went home — then two weeks later tried to commit suicide. He returned to Mill View, where blood tests showed he had “critically low” testosterone.
After a second suicide attempt Paul was sectioned.
He returned to Mill View, where he was forced to go on a course of anti-depressants, which slowly began to lift his mood. In October last year he was released and, shortly after, he and Hayley moved in together.
But he is still unable to function sexually and is currently talking to lawyers about suing the drug makers. He says: “Since October last year you can count on one hand the times Hayley and I have been able to have sex.
“When I am able to make love it’s not the same, I can barely feel anything.”
Hayley and Paul split up two months ago, blaming the stress they have been under.
Hayley says: “I love Paul but when you take the intimacy out of a relationship, you’re reduced to being friends.”
Despite Paul’s impotence problems, the couple were shocked to discover in January that Hayley was pregnant.
Paul says: “We still love each other and we’re having a baby together but at the moment I just need to focus on getting my head around what’s happened.”
Merck Sharp & Dohme Limited, makers of Propecia, say: “Propecia (finasteride 1mg) is indicated for the treatment of men with male pattern hair loss (androgenic alopecia) to increase hair growth and prevent further hair loss.
“The product labelling appropriately describes the benefits and risks of the drug to help informed prescribing.
“The UK Summary of Product Characteristics states that persistent erectile dysfunction after discontinuation of Propecia (finasteride 1mg) has been reported in post-marketing use.
“The Patient Information Leaflet in each Propecia pack and available on the electronic Medicines Compendium, medicines.org.uk/emc, lists the possible side effects that may happen on taking this medicine.
“We encourage patients to talk with their doctor if they have any questions or concerns about their health, or about Propecia.
“Propecia (finasteride) has been available on prescription in the UK for more than 11 years since its approval in the EU in 1998.
“Propecia has been the subject of extensive clinical trials that support the use of Propecia in appropriate patients with male pattern hair loss.”
Wow! The Sun is the most popular newspaper in the UK, right? And a Rupert Murdoch property to boot.
Good for Paul for having the guts to tell the world the truth about his PFS.
And poor Merck: just when they are trying to fob Propecia off to an overseas buyer in a fire sale. Who in his right mind would buy the rights to this drug knowing that it’s causing a global epidemic?
What’s worse is that Rupert Murdoch is NOT someone you want as an enemy. But between the New York Post – also a Murdoch property – running this story…
nypost.com/2012/07/22/software-e … o-a-woman/
…and The Sun story today, it seems that Rupert has it out for Kenneth C. Frazier.
Thanks Paul.
“Desperate to stop his hairline receding further, the father-of-three started taking over-the-counter drug Propecia”
Is Propecia really OTC in the UK???
No its still a Prescription Only Medication available in the Uk from a GP or online Pharmacy. My online Pharmacy was boots.com
see here how easy it is to get it from Boots.com here in the Uk…
Does anyone know if I have any legal traction to go after someone who I know promotes it via email? He is a salesman who sells all kinds of hair transplant stuff and tells people he knows a pharmacist who will sign off a script over the Internet. He also downplays the risks and personally told me to stay on the drug when I told him I was suffering sides.
I’m sure it’s against the law to promote drugs in the UK, which is why you don’t see any “ask your doctor about x” adverts here.
The Malaysia Chronicle has picked up The Sun story:
malaysia-chronicle.com/index … z35AojDDav
I can see that PFS awareness is slowly trickling into Asia. What’s Merck going to do when 1 million angry Asians show up on their doorstep demanding answers?
I sent this message to a doctor. He said never sent me again unprofessional source. Yeah we dont have proof, without proof they dont believe us. Without belief they dont want to diagnose us, without diagnose we cant prove. Really good circle. Fucking motherfuckers.
I don’t understand the legal disclaimer Merck produced at the end of the article. It doesn’t address the issues Paul reported. It’s just a repeat of the label which we all know doesn’t go far enough.
Exactly, and they have the temerity to say “The Patient Information Leaflet in each Propecia pack and available on the electronic Medicines Compendium, medicines.org.uk/emc, lists the possible side effects that may happen on taking this medicine."
Have a look at Propecia’s Patient Information Leaflet compared to other medications - the tiny number of listed sides compared to the far more realistic multitude of possible sides in other meds (you know,the toilet paper length lists!) really does appear decidedly suspect and should prompt an investigation re: a possible cover-up.
Indeed. Merck will use this disclaimer every time.
If anyone is going to be interviewed in the media, I’d recommend pre-empting this by saying something like:
“Merck will no doubt issue their standard disclaimer drafted by their top notch legal team which will be a repeat of their inadequate warning labels. Their single goal is to deny responsibility and escape liability for the damage they’ve caused.”
Nice, nopecia. You hit the nail on the head:
“Merck will no doubt issue their standard disclaimer drafted by their top notch legal team which will be a repeat of their inadequate warning labels. Their single goal is to deny responsibility and escape liability for the damage they’ve caused.”
To which I would add: Merck desperately want to sell finasteride – sell the patent to the drug, that is – to an overseas buyer, even if they have to do so for $1 (one dollar), assuming the buyer will accept all legal liabilities. But just the current mass torts alone could cost Merck $1 billion just in settlement money, plus another $250 million in legal fees – and that’s a low estimate. At worst, they could be ordered to pay $2+ billion.
Meanwhile, I read that there are 1,000 PFS cases in Japan ready to be reported to that country’s ministry of health. The Asian epidemic will be – is – big. So if those 1,000+ cases do come out soon, Merck will be left holding the bag.
Ya can’t just ruin the lives of tens of thousands of people around the globe and walk away scott free. Someone needs to go to jail.
