Drug to Treat Hair Loss Linked to Long-Term Sexual Problems

by Julie Fidler, Natural Society:

In a recent study, two common drugs used to treat both hair loss and prostate problems were shown to cause long-term erectile dysfunction (ED) in young men. The younger the men, the bigger the risk. [1]

The medications in question are known generically as finasteride and dutasteride and are sold under the brand names Propecia, Proscar, and Avodart.

In the study, men under age 42 who took one of these drugs for more than 205 days were nearly 5 times more likely to have long-term problems achieving an erection compared to men who took the drugs for less than 205 days, the researchers wrote in PeerJ.

Dr. Steven Belknap, a research assistant professor of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, said in a statement:

“Our study shows [that] men who take finasteride or dutasteride can get persistent erectile dysfunction, in which they will not be able to have normal erections for months or years after stopping finasteride or dutasteride.” [1]

Read: 9 Natural Remedies for Hair Loss and Hair Thinning

Both drugs work by blocking the conversion of testosterone into 5-alpha-dihydrotestosterone (DHT), the hormone’s more active form. DHT can lead to male pattern baldness because it dampens another chemical signal in the body that spurs hair-cell growth.

For the study, researchers looked at data on over 12,000 men in the Northwestern Medicine Enterprise Data Warehouse, a database of medical records for patients treated at Northwestern Medicine. The team focused on men ages 16 to 89 who had been prescribed one of the drugs at least once between 1992 and 2013.

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