We are in the process of finalizing the design of a major US based molecular level study. The study will require a small penile tissue biopsy (works both for circumcised and non-circumcised subjects). For this purpose, I urgently need all of you to respond to a quick poll.
The question is regarding control groups. We would like to have at least a subset of controls to be brothers of PFS patients. I would like to get a feeling on how realistic this could be (ideally we would have around 15 brothers participating). In other words, how many of you would be prepared to participate together with a brother (as control). Your brother would also be required to give a penile skin biopsy. The purpose of a control is to provide a molecular reference against which the patients are tested, because there is no such thing as “reference ranges” where we are going. The brother has the advantage of high genetic similarity, which will make the interpretation of the data easier and more precise.
You will have to meet at least the following (preliminary) requirements:
- have taken finasteride against hair loss
- be experiencing persistent sexual dysfunction (and preferably penile anesthesia) for at least 6 months after quitting finasteride.
- have no prior diagnosis of sexual dysfunction before finasteride
- have no prior diagnosis of psychiatric problems before finasteride (anxiety, panic, depression, psychosis, neurosis, etc.)
The brother must meet following (preliminary) requirements:
- should be as aged matched as possible, that means ideally no more than 10 years apart from your age
- must be at least 18 years old
- must be in good general health and not overweight
- must not be experiencing sexual dysfunction
- must never have used any substance which reduces androgens at the cellular level including finasteride, dutasteride, saw palmetto extract, isotretinoin, antidepressants, GnRH agonists/antagonists, statins and other forms of anti-androgens
- must not be using steroids
If only one meets the criteria but not the other, the one who meets the criteria can also participate alone.
I cannot share any further information about the study at this point, neither in this post nor via pm. All I can tell you now is that the study will be of highest significance and will provide us with data which will hopefully help us in assessing potential therapeutic molecular level targets.
If you would be willing to participate in the study, please respond either directly in this thread or via pm.
Thanks.
To all trolls and doubters: I will delete any posts at my own discretion which I consider to be derailing this thread. This study will be done at a world class institution by leading scientists and is an incredible chance for all of us. A huge amount of work went into getting this far. I am not in the least interested in your unqualified opinion as to why you may believe that this experiment is not relevant. We have clear evidence from the previous penile tissue experiment that what we found is relevant to PFS in general, otherwise we would not be doing this. If you feel that we are not doing the right thing, then don’t participate. Period. Go get whatever checked that you feel needs to be checked on your own and don’t post in this thread.