PROPECIAHELP: Persistent Finasteride Propecia Proscar side effects info & discussion forum

Compare what's listed below to their "2%" claim about Propecia side effects: http://www.propecia.com/finasteride/pro ... safety.jsp

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Take a look:
http://www.merck.com/mmpe/lexicomp/finasteride.html

Note however the following:

This information has been developed and provided by an independent third-party source. Merck & Co., Inc. does not endorse and is not responsible for the accuracy of the content, or for practices or standards of non-Merck sources.


Adverse Reactions

Note: “Combination therapy” refers to finasteride and doxazosin.

>10%:

Endocrine & metabolic: Impotence (19%; combination therapy 23%), libido decreased (10%; combination therapy 12%)
Genitourinary: Neuromuscular & skeletal: Weakness (5%; combination therapy 17%)


1% to 10%:

Cardiovascular: Postural hypotension (9%; combination therapy 18%), edema (1%, combination therapy 3%)
Central nervous system: Dizziness (7%; combination therapy 23%), somnolence (2%; combination therapy 3%)
Genitourinary: Ejaculation disturbances (7%; combination therapy 14%), decreased volume of ejaculate
Endocrine & metabolic: Gynecomastia (2%)
Respiratory: Dyspnea (1%; combination therapy 2%), rhinitis (1%; combination therapy 2%)

<1%, postmarketing and/or case reports: Hypersensitivity (pruritus, rash, urticaria, swelling of face/lips); breast tenderness, breast enlargement, breast cancer (males), prostate cancer (high grade), testicular pain

Some caveats with the above:

- no dosage is mentioned. I would assume it is 5mg since they are using it in combination with doxazosin, likely for treatment of BPH. Regardless, the drug has a flat dose response rate so I don't see how dosage should be an issue -- 1mg and 5mg inhibit nearly the same amount of DHT.

- if for BPH, age may be a factor influencing the % -- older men tend to get BPH, not young men, and old men often experience sexual dysfunction much more than young men.

- No sample size is given. We don't know if this % is for 100 people or 1000s.

Regardless... it is interesting to come across such high numbers, particularly on Merck's own medical site... even if Merck claim not to "endorse" these stats, the fact an independent 3rd party does is still valuable information and worth considering.

I have found the source document these stats were obtained from:

http://www.propeciahelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=600

They are from Page 4 of that PDF.

In essence, comparing Propecia trials to Proscar MTOPs trials is comparing apples to oranges, but nonetheless these statistics are certaintly food for thought... also, not sure how Merck can claim not to endorse these stats, yet include them in their own PDR for Proscar, and have them on the Merck website.