May 20, 2018
Dear Friends:
Yet another European nation has taken to the airwaves with PFS awareness.
This time it’s Switzerland. The network is Swiss Radio and Television (SRF). And the program is Puls.
On May 7, the weekly health-news magazine debuted a special report titled Do Anti-Baldness Remedies Make You Impotent? (English-subtitled version here.)
The nine-minute program, hosted by Odette Frey, features an interview with Franz Fuchs, a 54-year-old PFS patient from Konzell, Germany, who took Propecia for 14 years, before quitting in 2001.
«Take this medication off the market so that there won’t be any more people as messed up as me,» says Franz. «Someone who doesn’t have this condition would find it hard to believe that such a medication can completely destroy a person’s life. I would give up all my hair if I could just be healthy again.»
Like Vice magazine editor Julian Morgans just two weeks earlier, we applaud Franz for having the courage to go public with his story. And, again, we look forward to the day when every PFS patient on Earth feels comfortable doing the same.
Also cited in the Puls report are four Swiss dermatologists: Andreas Arnold, Christian Sigg, Thomas Kundig and Ralph Trüeb, who’s among our volunteer team of health care professionals listed in the Patient Support section of the PFS Foundation website.
A Swiss urologist as well weighs in. “We are certainly very cautious, because we see the side effects,” says Doris Mannhard of finasteride. “We wouldn’t recommend that any man take the drug, especially not young men. The longer they take it, the greater the risk of experiencing persistent side effects, including after they’ve stopped.”
This Puls report marks the fourth European nation to address PFS in a documentary or network-news feature format, after Spain, Belgium and France.
We remind all PFS patients who have not yet done so to report their symptoms to the FDA’s MedWatch program as directed here. Those living outside the US should also access the WHO’s Collaborating Centre for International Drug Monitoring list of pharmacovigilance agencies and report to their respective health agency.
Finally, if you or a loved one are suffering from PFS, and feeling depressed or unstable, please don’t hesitate to contact us as soon as possible via our Patient Support hotline: social@pfsfoundation.org
Thank you.