Men's Journal: The 1% Statistic

General Discussion Media & Awareness
#1

Men’s Journal is running a story on the recent finasteride/prostate cancer study, in which the writer says:

“It should be noted that it has been shown that some Propecia users (a little over 1 percent by the drug maker’s account) experience erectile dysfunction from the drug.”

The full story here:

mensjournal.com/health-fitne … r-20130905

Please email the editors of Men’s Journal to express your feelings on how accurate the 1% statistic may or may not be:

Letters to the Editor
Men’s Journal
letters@mensjournal.com

#2

Look what this doctor is saying:

“Finasteride won’t save lives, but it will make the living of lives much higher in quality,” says Ian Thompson, a urologic oncologist at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio, who led the study.

The mother f***** is promoting the use of finasteride as a preventive measure to improve one’s life quality. You know, i am really losing hope in human race. There is no way this study wasn’t financed by Merck. It is impossible nobody on the trials reported depression or ed. He really has to be a mother f***** (i refuse to call this person a doctor) paid by Merck. It is impossible someone with a higher education like that be so incompetent. So now we will make 30% of all men sick by taking finasteride, to prevent 5% of them to have prostate cancer in the future. Genius.

#3

Amen.

#4

This is exactly why I keep asking that everyone here click on and comment on any/all media coverage that at least hints at finasteride being dangerous.

Step one is general awareness, and when reporters/editors see that more and more people are reading their stories, they are more likely to cover the issue again in the future – and maybe give it even bigger play.

And as more and more doctors read such coverage, the reputable ones will at least take PFS into account whenever consulting with patients, peer-reviewing research studies or conducting studies themselves.

Finally, remember that the prostate cancer/finasteride study was designed around 2005, when few medical professionals on earth were even thinking about PFS.

As recently as 18 months ago, the New England Journal of Medicine published a report titled:

“Case 4-2012 — A 37-Year-Old Man with Muscle Pain, Weakness, and Weight Loss”

It involved a, yes, 37-year-old man who was admitted about two years earlier (so 2010) to Massachusetts General Hospital, and I am quoting the NEJoM report here:

“because of 12 hours of muscle pain and weakness, resulting in the inability to rise from bed. Brief episodes of similar symptoms had occurred during the past month. He reported blurred vision, gynecomastia, and weight loss.”

The kicker, which won’t come as a surprise to anyone, is that this patient was on finsateride.

But none of the doctors make a direct connection between the drug and the symptoms described above.

And this is in one of the most reputable medical journals on the planet.

If you don’t believe me, read for yourself:

nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMcpc1110051

Research, education, awareness. That’s the path we need to stay on – as a team.

#5

Well said !!!

#6

This is the email from the doctor who led the study:

Ian Thompson, M.D.
Professor
Glenda and Gary Woods Distinguished Chair in GU Oncology
Email: thompsoni@uthscsa.edu
Academic Telephone: 210-567-5643
Clinical Telephone: 210-450-9600
Academic Fax: 210-567-6868
Clinical Fax: 210-450-9657

We can tell him what happened to us. There is a chance this man is not paid by Merck, we need to email him and tell him he is wrong.

#7

Its more like 1% of 1% of 1% with permanent sides. There is no evidence of anything else. Its not sensible to express a feeling about a statistic without evidence. Ranting about large numbers of men with sides risks alienation of sources willing to write about this stuff. Focusing on the severity of the sides rather than the numbers is a better idea.

According to the study he had Graves’ disease? scribd.com/doc/150036150/A-3 … d-Man-with

#8

It’s the 1% of 1% of 1% who are not able to fall in love with a woman. In the Propecia clinical trials, far more than “a little over 1%” experienced side effects. The author just mentioned one side effect, which implies that ED is the only side effect. And the Proscar clinical trials 8.1% of men reported ED in the first year. The study the author mentioned used Proscar, not Propecia. Hence, the author is being misleading about safety information. That is not something to take lightly. Stop rambling about Phantom DHT and e-mail the author and call her out on her sophistry.

“Its more like 1% of 1% of 1% with permanent sides.”

Not according to the research

"Only 4% of finasteride and 2% of placebo patients discontinued the study because of sexual AEs. In men who discontinued with a sexual AE, 50% and 41% experienced resolution of their sexual AE after discontinuing finasteride or placebo therapy, respectively."

“Its more like 1% of 1% of 1% with permanent sides.”
“Its not sensible to express a feeling about a statistic without evidence.”

You got the second part right.

#9

From the paper you quoted; ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12639651 “men, aged 45 to 78 years, with symptomatic benign prostatic hyperplasia, enlarged prostates… At screening, 46% of patients in each treatment group reported some history of sexual dysfunction… The drug-related sexual AE profile for finasteride was similar for men with or without a history of sexual dysfunction…”. The figures you quote still give a sub-zero % difference overall between Finasteride and Placebo. Is that the best you have?

Perhaps a better turn of phrase is something like “it is not to sensible to report a belief as fact without evidence”. Expressing a ‘feeling about accuracy’ is not sensible and may be harmful and discouraging to the media if you don’t have evidence. All evidence points to a rare side effect, the best evidence points to a very very rare side effect, and that’s all that can be said on the matter.