London, UKBillions of people around the world watching the fairytale-like wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton will have noted that the Prince is, indeed, losing his hair at a young age. But there is little chance the dashing groom will ever resort to products like the GLH spray-on hair that was all the rage on infomercials some years ago. Obviously, his bride cares little about his hair loss. But will the prince allow himself to bald gracefully, even so young? Or will he resort to various treatments to treat male pattern baldness, Propecia finasteride among them?
The latter has been around since 1997, following approval of Propecia by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the condition. Akin to overweight Americans looking for the magic bullet that delivers easy and effective weight loss, men have been turning to formulations such as Propecia to restore their hair and their vanity. But a host of Propecia side effects have derailed the enthusiasm, given the potential for Propecia to impact the user at the heart of another closely-held source of male virility: sexual function.
As various marquee media have been reporting, finasteride has been leaving otherwise healthy young men with persistent impotence, together with diminished sex drive and depression. Various studies revealing Propecia sexual dysfunction have fuelled lawsuits, as men attempting to resolve one deficiency to their manhood have suffered setbacks in another, allegedly at the hands of Proscar and Propecia.
A frequent source of recent media reports on the problem has referenced an article published last month in the Journal of Sexual Medicine. Lead researcher Abdulmaged M. Traish, a professor of biochemistry and urology at Boston University School of Medicine, noted in comments to ABC News that while the overall percentage of study subjects reported problems with their Propecia sex drive ranging from five to 23 percent—those adverse reactions remained for half the respondents long after Propecia was stopped.
"We found out that we're really ignoring the important part, especially those in whom the problem becomes persistent," Traish said in an interview with ABC. "That's the group that everybody forgot. We have to worry about the consequences for people who are going to suffer—even after they discontinue the drug—from continuous loss of libido and potential depression."
Propecia long-term side effects will likely never be an issue for someone like Prince William, who remains handsome both externally and internally with an impeccable character. It is doubtful that royal doctors would ever allow the prince to gamble on something that could prove a hindrance to his marriage—and he does have an example to follow with Sir Reggie Dwight, otherwise known as Elton John, who attended the Royal Nuptials as a valued guest and reportedly went the hair transplant route some years ago.
Meanwhile, those suffering from male pattern baldness who turned to finasteride in an attempt to resolve their hair loss may not have been aware of the potential for sexual dysfunction, according to several lawsuits filed. A Propecia class-action lawsuit was filed in Canada, in January.
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