Before starting to take the hair loss drug Finasteride (also known by brand names Propecia and Finpecia) you owe it to yourself to do your homework on the potential implications for your health.

Drugs should never been consumed without doing your own due diligence. The recent drug related deaths of Michael Jackson and Heath Ledger have made more people aware of the dangers of prescription drug use.

To assess the risks associated with taking Finasteride, including Finasteride side effects you should first examine the clinical trial results:

Phase III Trials: The FDA (Federal Drug Agency) assesses the safety of drugs through several separate obligatory phases of clinical trials that all pharmaceutical companies must go through before they are allowed to market a drug. The results of the third of these trials, for a longer duration and with a larger volume of people, is your first stop because it has the most information. Google “phase III trial results propecia” to find this information.
Phase IV Trials: Some drugs are put through a fourth phase of trials by the pharmaceutical companies. This is not obligatory, but the companies do this to gather more evidence to use in their marketing of the drugs. Merck put Propecia (its brand name for Finasteride) through a 5 year clinical phase IV trial with the results published in 2001. This is one of the longest clinical trials undergone in the market. Google “5 year trial results propecia” to find this information.

When reviewing these trial results take careful note of the incidence of side effects that people experience and what these are. These range from testicular pain to decrease in sexual desire, to problems with erection and decrease in semen volume ejaculated.

You have at this stage reviewed all of the professional trial safety evidence on Finasteride. However, you must not stop there, as there is other, less well controlled information out there that you should take into consideration. The Phase III and Phase IV trials provide you with short term evidence on the drug’s safety.

However they don’t provide you with long term evidence on its safety. Many men have now taken the drug for 10 years or more. This length of time is beyond the controls, and drugs can have longer term implications for your health that are not revealed in the short term.

To assess the longer term risks you should search out evidence from:

Forums of ex-finasteride users: There are a number of forums where groups of men who used the Finasteride previously discuss their situations and opinions. It should be noted that information from these sources is completely uncontrolled.Nonetheless there is a growing volume of posts on forums about medical issues that ex users are starting to link to use of Finasteride. Google “Finasteride side effects forum” to find this information.
TV documentary on post-finasteride effects: A documentary was broadcast in Sweden in late 2009 on the permanent effects of Finasteride. Google “swedish documentary finasteride” for more information.

To date there is little long term quality information that you can use to judge the drugs safety. There are no longer term clinical trials underway so there is not likely to be a well controlled source of longer term safety available any time soon.

The growth of ex users who are not content with the drug and their interactions with the medical community will take some time to come to any conclusion as a result. Whether to prove that finasteride side effects can become permanent, or that it is safe or dangerous.