Hair loss forums

General Discussion Media & Awareness
#1

I sometimes peruse the hair loss forums now, unlike when I was on fin unfortunately or I would have quit. Anyway the amount of disbelief and denial of long term sides is ridiculous, this is one of the more amusing threads in reaction to the BBC story:

hairlosshelp.com/forums/messageview.cfm?catid=10&threadid=92678&enterthread=y

I have noticed on that site the same clique of guys who berate anyone claiming it causes PERMANENT side effects and generally defend Merck like you are dissing their mother. Company shrills obviously, and it is disarming how they can perhaps influence guys decison making.

More alarming is the other main site Hair Loss Talk, where mods have names like ‘propecia junkie’ and any dissent towards propecia is filed away in a ‘dealing with side effects’ forum. They even did this with the BBC story although it clearly should be on the main page as it relates to the overall safety of the drug.

#2

Definately alot of them either working for Merck or involved with selling Propecia, ie hair loss doctors. Surprised they even allowed the BBC report anyplace on that website.

But, there are alot of regular blading guys who are either obtuse and/or uneducated who are militantly pro-Finasteride. I agree its sad. You have us on one hand, and on the other you have Merck, the FDA, their doctor (who they’ve probably known for years), all the idiotic hair loss forums/websites all telling them Finasteride is safe as popping a tick tack. My brother in law dodged the Finasteride bullet though. His GP told him it “wasnt worth the risk”. Think… if we all would have just had his GP instead.

#3

I’m sure some are shills, but just as many are probably guys who want to keep their hair so badly that they don’t want to hear word one about how the drug could destroy them. It’s almost like a cult of ignorance. Unfortunately I let sites like those and the ®assman “balding blog” influence my decision more than this website. In particular what convinced me was ®assman’s claim that he had prescribed the drug to thousands of patients with few reports of side effects, as well as his claim that he has prescribed the drug to his own family members. He is probably the single biggest reason why I took this drug. What a fool I was.

Also it probably didn’t help that Mew is so generally belligerent when he posts on those forums(or even this one for that matter)… makes you not want to listen to him, and it doesn’t exactly help our cause with those sitting on the fence.

#4

Not sure what you are referring to here? What have I posted that has made you “not want to listen” to what I have to say? Not that it matters, people are free to read any posts they wish of course.

I generally try to be as helpful as possible, in as scientific a way as possible based on facts, to prove points – rather than just argue on vagueness and opinions. Many guys on those hairloss sites are only interested in debating and sticking to Merck’s 2% side effects claims, and refuse to see the light despite a large volume of scientific studies on Finasteride’s undisclosed mechanisms of action, and reports of persistent side effects continously emerging in the market.

Trying to get through to them sometimes requires a more hardline approach, but I am not apologizing for anything – they are the ones that need to wake up to reality and the possible dangers they may face if they have issues from the medication. Same goes for the occasional user on this forum who posts assinine comments, makes ridiculously uneducated or baseless claims, or who has motives other than trying to solve this problem in general, but rather to stir the pot and lead people down false paths/waste money/put others’ health at risk with spam products etc.

Not sure why you feel such information is not of value to you personally, but you are free to do as you choose, obviously.

#5

It doesn’t matter how one responds to someone who wants to believe. If you don’t support what they want they will ignore you anyway.

#6

Never said your info wasn’t of value to me. Just that your general manner made it easy for me to disregard your posts back when I was clueless and trying to make a decision about fin. There’s a lot of conflicting info floating around obviously, and it’s not easy to accept any particular person’s word in the matter. That’s the thing… I’m not sure you’re getting through to them with the hardline approach, but that is just my opinion. In fact I think that approach only makes it easier for the admins of those hair loss sites to label and ostracize you as a creep just trying to stir up trouble.

Just saying from my own experience that when I was first trying to make a decision about propecia, I saw your many posts on the various hair loss sites, and they were typically mean-spirited in nature, which made it quite easy for me to view you as some “militant anti-propecia” nut like many on those sites try to paint you out to be. After observing you as a fellow-sufferer on these forums, I’ve come to learn how you really are and what your motivations are, but to someone green to this whole propecia mess, your manner can be a bit off-putting and make it seem like you have some unusually myopic agenda which fails to consider the other person’s point of view.

But you have much more experience with the matter than I do, and certainly I appreciate the tireless effort you seem to place in the enterprise. You do whatever you feel you have to do. I’m just contributing my perspective as someone who was previously on the fence and encountered your posts on the other forums.

#7

Fair enough. Yes, at times I may have gotten overly riled up over the issue, but I felt it necessary to counter arguments such as “Finasteride side effects are all in your head” and “persistent side effects don’t exist” with equally, if not more so, powerful counter-arguments/vernacular. Most of the time, I was simply the messenger – ie, posting studies, highlighting passages that showed the drug’s unlisted mechanisms of action, etc – and people do tend to get mad at the messenger if they don’t like what he is saying. That is part of the risk of trying to draw awareness or being a whistleblower, and I’'m fine with that because this is a 100% real condition/state I and others have been left in as a result of taking this medication.

If I had never taken Finasteride and been dealt this situation, my life would have gone down a different path and “Mew” would not exist (putting in countless hours, running forum, researching etc) – this isn’t some pastime just for the heck of it, contrary to what some guys on those forums might think (ie, scaremongering agenda because I/we have nothing better to do with our time, we do this for lulz or whatever).

Regardless, many on those sites prefer to bury their heads in the sand that a smaller percentage of men can have bad or lasting adverse reactions from the medication, in their quest to save hair. They prefer to live blissfully ignorant that such reactions can and do occur, and that there is no way to predict which camp you’ll fall into, even if they may be supposedly “rare” reactions within Merck’s so-called “2%”.

However, I do not post as often on such sites anymore, unless absolutely necessary. The groundwork that has been done in the past by myself and others to generate awareness has created perpetual awareness such that even new forum members on those sites have now heard about this forum, and the issue of persistent side effects. So, those passionate debates which you are referring to over the past few years have borne fruit in that they have generated significant viral awareness of this problem, which continues to this day.

Thanks for your opinion and insights regardless, I think we can both agree that no matter what, we need to continually drive awareness on this issue as much as possible, in whatever manner we can.