Oscar,
It’s OK if you don’t like me or the show I did. I’ve vented my own frustrations about the show myself on this thread and believe me I’m not thrilled with it either.
But please accept, you’re commenting from the sidelines. That’s what 99.9% of people do and it’s a very, very easy thing to do that takes little effort and no risk.
Step up and do something. Start a blog. Tell your own story. You seem to have a vision for something better, so do it.
Mandi
Unforunately, I have made the same argument probably 20 times with no success. People just don’t want to put themselves out there. Instead they prefer to discuss theory… all the while watching our lives pass us, by year by year.
Everyone shoulf write Anderson Cooper’s show and urge him to have someone on the show WHO HAS PFS but IS NOT transgendered. It won’t have same backlash/sensationalist stigma going along with it.
And would show they are actually interested in the PFS issue and not just media drama.
I am willing to go on myself if thats what it takes. However since I used brand name propecia as well as a generic, I would rather have someone who just used straight propecia or proscar do it.
I have come to realize now 1st hand how hard this battle is. PFS is obviously real, we wouldn’t all have the same symptoms otherwise.
But convincing people of that is damn near impossible. I never knew in my life just how many people are totally oblivious to facts and science even when presented to their face over and over again. This includes the trans group that ruined the show this week. It also includes many doctors IMO. Producers of tv shows mainly want ratings. I had hoped to mention to Anderson that he should do this story for 60 minutes. That would be the right venue. But that was when I was under the impression Anderson would actually be doing an interesting interview with Dr Irwig also regarding the PFS studies etc on the show and not just using me as a pawn for ratings with no mention of science or studies at all. Sell out.
From Wikipedia:
[Anderson] Cooper’s older brother, Carter Vanderbilt Cooper, committed suicide on July 22, 1988, at age 23, by jumping from the 14th-floor terrace of Vanderbilt’s New York City penthouse apartment. Gloria Vanderbilt later wrote about her son’s death in the book A Mother’s Story, in which she expresses her belief that the suicide was caused by a psychotic episode induced by an allergy to the anti-asthma prescription drug salbutamol. Anderson cites Carter’s suicide for sparking his interest in journalism. “Loss is a theme that I think a lot about, and it’s something in my work that I dwell on. I think when you experience any kind of loss, especially the kind I did, you have questions about survival: Why do some people thrive in situations that others can’t tolerate? Would I be able to survive and get on in the world on my own?”
I think it is pretty unbelievable that he would sell out Mandi when he possibly lost his own brother to the side effects of a medication.
I am in discussions with the transgender group and also with the show about a “resolution” to the fact that this week’s show was not what I had been told to expect and left nobody happy. I honestly think and hope we might reach some agreement which would remedy the situation, repair Anderson’s relationship with the trans community, and give Propecia victims a REAL opportunity for the science to be discussed on air.
Please keep that confidential. I will update here if there is any news.
However - I want to ask - in the case where the show would agree to have other victim(s) on the show and/or possibly interview off-air or on the phone… how many here are really willing to speak?
I don’t want to push for something and then have only 1 or 2 people willing to talk. If we’re making a case of the seriousness of this, where are all the voices? I’ve already rec’d comments this week that maybe I’m the only one with these symptoms or 1 in a million.
I don’t know what the resolution will be but I’m going to take a stand for what happened on the show this week. It was a complete bait-and-switch as I had told them I would not do a show “all about me” and only was interested if there was “a heavy dose of the science, studies and an expert discussing PFS and/or other victims”. The only discussion of PFS was that it “lowers testosterone” *false and that gives people the impression I could have easily cured my “problem” if I had wanted to) and “lingers” after stopping the drug. It did not convey the seriousness of the cognitive and emotional effects which took me down the path I was on for 3 years not knowing the cause.
Nice work on getting some air-time.
One thing you have to remember, lower hormones decrease cognitive function.
Hi all, Mandi McKee here again.
So, please keep this confidential to this board. But the Anderson Live show has agreed to let me submit a videotaped statement, which they must approve but that’s fine, to be posted as an update on the page on their website about my interview. They might mention it on the show as well.
The plan is for me to get them something within the next week.
Part of it will be about clarifying my “journey” and my feelings regarding people being born with a genetic inclination regarding sexuality and gender identity, and how I believe the Propecia/Finasteride played a role in affecting or bringing something out of me but probably not “causing it” altogether.
However the second part I want to include will mention that I hope people learn more about Post Finasteride Syndrome and educate themselves to help stop something that is destroying lives of thousands of men.
As part of that, I plan to put together a blog post which will include links to PropeciaHelp.com, PFSSyndrome,org and other related articles and studies which I can direct people viewing my “update” to look at to learn more about this condition.
But I also want to invite anyone on this board here at PropeciaHelp to submit to me a written and/or videotaped statement regarding how you feel this has affected your life. If you do so, please don’t spend time talking about the facts and studies as I will be posting all that information. It’s not that I don’t want you to, I just want to avoid repetition. I feel that people being able to read/hear stories besides mine of how this condition has personally affected your life will have the most impact.
Secondly, I have another newspaper interview happening this week which will come out next week. This one is for an LGBT newspaper which is widely known throughout Florida. They have offered to speak with a couple other victims briefly. If anyone is interested in doing that, please let me know.
Also, feel free to private message me here or email me at mandi.tampa@gmail.com with any suggestions you have for links to information about PFS which you think would be most useful for people to see, keeping in mind most everyone evidently has a very short attention span so we need to keep it to information that is easy to absorb and has a bold impact.
Thanks !! =)
Nice Job, Mandi. I assume you mean PFSfoundation.org though?
And I would be willing to speak to the LGBT magazine as it seems appropriate but I am in Seattle. PM if they’d like to speak to me.
So I started Wellbutrin exactly 7 days ago. My chronic fatigue has improved - maybe too much.
It’s 4:30 in the morning and I am not the least bit tired. The first day I slept an hour, the 2nd 90 minutes. I slept OK over the weekend but I think that was due to complete exhaustion from my trip to NYC and the ordeal of being interviewed.
I truly hope things balance out b/c the Wellbutrin does seem to make me feel better so far… but I have to sleep more than this… 
It almost sounds like your are having a manic or hypomanic episode. It is absolutely abnormal to sleep that little and feel good and energetic. I know of at least one person that had an anti depressant trigger such an episode. I felt like this for a few months after quitting finasteride and it is very scary.
Well I slept 4 hours last night and woke feeling very refreshed. I experienced those episodes too last year - but I feel good now compared to then, no signs of anxiety or manic feelings. The doc said to give this med 3-6 weeks for the full effect… my first time ever on any kind of psych med so I’ll give it time and hopefully the sleep issues will work themselves out.
How scientific.
Is that counting the Phantom people?
You’re barking up the wrong tree Mandi. Oscar has bravery antibodies.
Wellbutrin raises catecholamines. When mine are raised via other mean, I also get the complete inability to fall asleep. A few times I pulled all nighters for no apparent reason…
personally, i would be careful with the wellbutrin and anything like it
I found Mandi’s story offensive to the PFS community and the transgendered community.
The interview was a success because they discredited Mandi, and Dr. Alan Jacobs acknowledged that while Mandi’s confusion is simply gender dysmorphia that existed prior to taking “finpecia”, he still acknowledged PFS exists in other men and is an on going problem.
I don’t want Mandi being any sort of spokesperson for our community. It was a total joke and I was absolutely livid. Don’t use PFS to suddenly justify your gender dysmorphia. What a lack of credibility and it showed in the interview as well. She admitted to questioning her identity before taking Finpecia and apparently “chose” to like women? When you don’t have creditability it’s going to show and it did. Accept your identity and don’t use our cause to simply make it easier for you to say “a pill did it”.
Having balls is being the first person to put your name on the line and file the first lawsuit against Merck.
So personally from myself to Mandi:
Please stop speaking on our behalf!
well i normally am really nice but not in that mood right now… so vancouver go F yourself
i was not hiding anything before taking finasteride, i was happy with a 1 year old, athletic, i had explored and questioned a few things but never to the extent to act on it
i am standing by my truth - i have now heard from 7 or 8 other PFS victims who say they also have transgender feelings.
i said from the start on my blog i assumed i had a genetic inclination… obviously not all men feel this way
but i didn’t ask for my balls and dick to shrivel up and have female hormone levels rise in my body - i never signed up for that. i have really struggled and still am with gender dysphoria - this was not a case of me hiding and using this as an excuse.
i stand by the scientific articles i have posted which show that raised levels of estradiol in the male brain of rats over 3 months shrank that part of the brain to match the female version, which happens to be the same exact part of the brain which the accepted view of transgender-ism states that trans people are born with that part of the brain more closely resembling the opposite sex
as everything is a sliding scale, i was probably “closer” to the midpoint but my trans therapist who has been practicing 25 years agrees the finasteride triggered a change and brought something out
i acknowledge your right to not like me and insult me… i really do. i hope you feel the same about my rights to speak on my behalf. my whole life has been changed and affected by this without my consent - so as for your comments i’ll match them with this - go weep in a pool of your own tears because i’m not speaking on your behalf and never was. i have spoken for myself.
=)
Instead of bickering will please everyone in the United States themselves and have your families members do it as well; draft a letter to your federal rep’s calling for the FDA to add persistant severe depression and suicidal thoughts to the labeling of propecia/proscar and urge them to further investigate the damaging effects 5 alpha reductase inhibitors are having on otherwise healthy men!