What Price Hair?

By Author: Steven Johnson
Total Articles: 490
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There are times when life put you to hard choices. Yes, it's unfair. But no one said life had to be fair. Let's take the second worst thing that can happen to a man. You start noticing there's more hair than usual getting caught up in the drain to the shower. You look suspiciously in the mirror. Is that? Could that be? You ask family who never really look at each other unless someone asks. They think you might be starting to lose your hair. You protest you're only thirty-something. They smile understandingly, laugh until they see your expression, offer fake sympathy and lend you a baseball cap. So you do a little research and discover there are apparently some hair loss drugs that actually work. The FDA has given its approval so that must mean something. It's strange the best should be a treatment to slow down growths in the prostate but, if it works, who cares. You look vaguely at the piece of paper with the small print that comes with these little tablets. It says this is a safe treatment with little risk.

Several months later, you begin to experience erectile dysfunction. This has never happened before. You wonder ...
... whether this could be a side effect of the hair loss drug. Surely this would be mentioned in the small print if it was a problem. Your hair loss seems to have stopped. You're not sure what to do. Eventually, you ask a doctor. The advice is clear. Stop taking the drug. You are lucky. You asked the question early. Men who keep going with the hair loss drug can find the erectile dysfunction becomes a more permanent problem even when they stop. How do we know this?

In 2006, the Swedish medical regulators began investigating reports of erectile dysfunction. As a result of this initial work, more European countries have been gathering evidence and the manufacturer has been forced to change its labels to include a very clear warning that the erectile dysfunction may continue even though the use of the drug is stopped. This gives all men a better chance of deciding which is more important in their lives. Perhaps it should not surprise us the FDA has not been investigating and the manufacturer has not changed the label in the US. As a result, a number of men have now begun legal action, claiming their lives have been destroyed because their erectile dysfunction has become permanent.

All of which brings us to another myth. There are limits to the power of Cialis and the other erectile dysfunction drugs. They cannot cure all cases of erectile dysfunction. In this case, the damage caused by the hair loss drug is so severe, there's no help for the men affected. What make this case so hard is the failure of the FDA to follow the lead of the European regulators in forcing a warning on to the label. Perhaps we have become used to the FDA bowing down to Big Pharma and take no notice of yet another instance of people being injured unnecessarily by drugs approved by the FDA. If you have been taking this drug and now have the first signs of erectile dysfunction, stop immediately and start using Cialis. Hopefully, your erections will return.