Anti-baldness drug may lead to impotency, warn experts

A novel study has found that a commonly used anti-baldness drug called finasteride could lead to impotency in men.

The researchers from Ireland and the United States have claimed that the labeling on the drug is inappropriate and have warned that continuous use of the anti-baldness drug may lead to intricacy in getting an erection during a sexual intercourse.

It may be noted that the drug available with the name of propecia in the UK is a very effective anti-baldness medication and trials showed that it has been effective in combating hair loss in nine out of ten men over a period of five years.

But according to the present research, the pill comes with very serious side effects and it was found that men who stopped using the drug also continued to face the sexual side effects of the drug.

Drug manufacturer denies the claim
On the contrary, the propecia drug manufacturing firm Merck posted on its website that only two percent of men were likely to suffer from the sexual adverse effects of the drug.

The Merck website did mention the erection problem caused due to drug but it said that such rare problems stopped as soon as the drug consumption was stopped.

A spokesperson from Merck said, “The company continually monitor its safety and has recently changed the labeling after reports of sexual side effects continuing after people had stopped taking the drug.”

The drug manufacturing firm also added that such cases were rare and there may be factors other than the drug leading to baldness.

Statistics claimed that almost six and a half million people in the United Kingdom suffer from baldness and in almost one-third men, the first traces of baldness patterns start surfacing during their twenties.

A true example
According to a British youth James, he got to know about the anti-baldness drug via internet and felt that he had lost some interest in sex and so he stopped taking the drug, but then the problem started getting out of hand.

"After about three weeks all hell broke loose. I more or less became completely impotent. It did work well for my hair, but the cost is ridiculous - losing my sex-life,” said James

James consulted a sex specialist who put him on testosterone therapy but that did not work either and was then offered a penile implant.

James is now in complete distress and regrets taking the drug. He said, “Every day I wish could turn back the clock. It's happening to lots and lots of men- and it's about time people woke up to it.”