We're not here SOLELY due to our decision to take Finasteride. It's not our fault

TL;DR: It’s not our fault. There’s no guarantee that we would have perfectly healthy bodies & lives if we had decided to not touch these things. People get sick all the time, for countless reasons that we often don’t understand properly. Billions of people suffer all types of diseases & disorders without taking any supplements, pills, etc. We are no different than them. We, as humans, are fragile & mortal creatures. As developed as modern medicine is, we are only beginning to discover, nevertheless understand & master, key processes in our body.

The more I read online about supplements, nootropics, different labworks, I’m amazed by the countless number of people who have comparable symptoms & stories to us WHO HAVE NEVER TOUCHED fin or accutane or any other drug.

Now, don’t misunderstand this as an effort to downplay what we’re going through. My personal symptoms and what others on this board is tragic and a tough burden for anyone to bear.

My point is we are not here simply because we made a bad or misinformed choice.

The reality is human health is incredibly complex, and is as incredibly fragile as it is incredibily resiliant.

Across the world, millions of people’s healths & bodies are turning against them, and it’s not because they made any bad decision. Millions who eat great, exercise regularly, and never touch alcohol & cigarettes & other substances develop terminal cancers over night. People develop dehibilating autoimmune disorders with no recognizable cause.

There are COUNTLESS people online and in the world suffering from countless health mysteries that also include erectile dysfunction, prostatitis, chronic pelvic pain, brain fog, insomnia, exercise intolerance, digestive issues, premature aging, and so forth WHO never touched any supplement or prescription.

In reality, we are no different than them. We are not here because we messed up & decided to take just one pill, or try a treatment out for a few months. We are here because, simply, this is the medical & physical reality we live in as mortal & fragile animals.

It is no doubt our usage of these might have initiated our symptoms. However, We don’t know if we would have developed similar issues, or at least a subset of our symptoms (maybe at a later point in the future) regardless of taking these things.

For example, Aside from my sexual symptoms, I’ve been diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis and am having various different digestive issues. Now, for sure, my usage of fin, ru58841, minoxidil, saw palmetto may have led to me developing this disorder. Or accelerated its onset. However, I cannot definitively rule out that it wasn’t due to me drinking a few beer now & then that caused my body to freak out and develop this autoimmune disorder. I cannot definitely rule out that I would never have developed Colitis even if I avoided Alcohol, and all supplements. There are millions of people who suffer from UC, and in much more severe & debilitating forms who’ve never drank or took a pill in their lives.

I believe recognizing this is very important to stop blaming ourselves for our predicament. You may have ended up here or in another community for another health condition, even if you had made different decisions. Unfortunately, no one is granted perfect health & virility in this life. We have to learn accept our condition, while still exploring healthy avenues for help, treatment, and improvement.

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I had what can be considered perfect health and virility prior to taking the drug that brought me here and so had the majority of members. Also not sure what else besides some select substances, which are the focal point of this site, can take a person’s health and virility in a matter of days, hours in some extreme cases who had an immediate and drastic adverse reaction.

There are 14-18 y/o kids out there becoming impotent and ill suddenly, and without alternative explanations, shortly after taking Accutane and the PFS community consists of many in their late teens and early 20s who were the pinnacle of good health before taking finasteride.

Not sure what you are getting at except to say that other people with serious and debilitating health problems exist outside of our patient community.

It is that fact that is often used in defense of the pharmaceutical and medical industries drastically altering the funtion of complex systems with drugs and ignoring the complexity of the repercussions.

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I have NEVER for a split second blamed myself for not thinking about that the government tricks and lies about ssri’s.
And frankly I don’t even blame pharma. Ofcourse they are greedy mofos, but many people are. The ones who are really to blame are the government (FDA), they are the gatekeepers, and they keep the gate open. They are directly to blame. It’s just so sad that there’s no going back… no turning point.

Should a criminal not be found guilty if a crooked cop looked the other way?

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Dubya, thank you for replying to my thread.

I was afraid as I was writing this that it might give such implications.

What Merck & Pharmaceutical Industries do are beyond disgusting & inhumane. I am in no way trying to minimize & normalize that.

What I’ve wrote kinda pertains to my personal experience. I had heard some of the possible adverse side effects with Finasteride, but I was desperate enough over the thought of losing my hair that I figured I’d give it a try and quit if things went bad.

6 years later, here I am suffering from a variety of health issues. And I can’t help blame myself for deciding to play with these drugs despite cautions from my parents and other sources like online posts.

It’s not helpful for me to frame my situation as “If only I had decided differently on taking these drugs, then everything would have been amazing”. I’d rather be suffering from Ulcerative Colitis because I was already predisposed to it, than be suffering from it because I took some hair pills. With the former, it’s not a direct outcome of a poor decision I made.

None of this has anything to do with Merck, and other parties, selling this for the off-label usage of hair loss treatment. Not to mention the shady clinic who prescribed me my topical solution, and the countless online shills and doctors who downplay the brutal reality of this drug.

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Sides were down played so none of us made an informed decision when taking this. Basically we were deceived for profit.

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@inbrugge, I get it. I felt much less rage about my health when I thought it was some strange mystery disease, rather than a result of a pimple pill that was described to me as a “controlled poisoning”.

However; there were, and still are, false reassurances from the manufacturers and derms that the blood tests typically given while on the drug will catch any harmful reaction early and that good effects will probably last, but bad effects that persist after stopping are always something else.

The fact that this site exists places culpability on the doctors, pharma industry, and regulators and most of us are here solely due to the uninformed decision to take a harmful drug because of the deceptive and unethical actions of certain people within these entities. I say SOLELY, because we would not be here otherwise.

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If any of us knew that it could cause lasting, untreatable libido loss and erectile dysfunction - we would’ve been very unlikely to take it.

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The feeling of invincibility that comes with never having dealt with anything worse than cold/flu may have overridden better judgement for some of us, regardless of warnings.

“1/300 will have permanent libido loss and ED? …Not me.”

“This drug can change your personality and rob you of emotion for the rest of your life? Doubt it, that’s all part of a person’s immutable soul.”

That likely would have been my view at that age, but at least there would be a chance to stop once side-effects began, whatever difference that would have made.

That’s why I believe in having these drugs BANNED until some way to better prognosticate one’s risk is developed. They’re not essential medicines.

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You can speak for yourself my health was superb had a resting heart rate in the 60’s and was super active and strong the only issue I had was stress and stress is manageable however being blown apart from the inside by Finasteride caused my health to rapidly decline overnight and isn’t manageable.

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I’m really sorry to hear that man.

I think my write-up probably wasn’t that good or well directed.

I just don’t want to blame myself for the decision to take a chance on these substances.

Other than that, I think it’s absolutely insane that a medicine to treat ill prostates is STILL being marketed for hair loss.