by
Roger Dobson
Daily Mail

A hair-loss
medication reportedly tried by Wayne Rooney may cause prolonged
and possibly irreversible impotence, scientists have claimed.

The recent
findings come after one patient bravely stepped forward to reveal
the drug left him with no sex drive and even shrank his genitals.

Kevin Malley,
30, was prescribed with the drug Propecia after he worried he could
be losing his hair. He said he only planned to take the pill for
a year.

However, just
five months after he started taking it in May 2011 he found he was
completely impotent and his testes also became smaller.

Worried, he
consulted his doctor and was told the symptoms would disappear after
he stopped taking the drug. But he says a year on and nothing has
changed.

It will come
as no surprise to Dr Michael Irwig from the University of Washington.

He recently
published a study in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, that found
the ingredient finasteride, which is found in Propecia, can cause
persistent sexual dysfunction, including low sexual desire, erectile
dysfunction and problems with orgasms.

The male pattern
baldness drug is manufactured by Merck and was approved by the FDA
in 1997.

While labeling
on the medication in the U.S. currently warns about possible reversible
sexual side effects, there is no reference to the effects being
persistent, Dr Irwig said.

However, other
countries including the UK and Sweden do require medical companies
to include the ‘persistent risk’ warning on the labeling.

It was reported
that Wayne Rooney started taking the medication in 2009 after he
became sick of other footballer’s jibes about his receding hairline.
He has since had a hair transplant.

Dr Irwig first
became aware of the problems caused by finasteride several years
ago when he encountered several men who reported they had developed
sexual dysfunction while taking the medication.

‘ItÂ’s
been very frustrating for a lot of these men because theyÂ’ve
sought care from medical professionals who have looked at the literature
and have not seen a risk of persistent sexual dysfunction,’ says
Dr Irwig.

‘So a lot of
these patients have been told to see psychiatrists and psychologists
and that itÂ’s all in their head.’

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the rest of the article

July
14, 2012

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