Lucas's story: finasteride at 18

Fourteen years after a hair loss drug

Lucas is 37 and a college professor in Brazil. He took finasteride for hair loss when he was 18.

He says he was never warned that sexual, neurological or psychological symptoms might last. He was told the medicine would stop his hair falling out. Within days of starting it he began noticing changes.

What Lucas describes

• Sexual symptoms within days of starting the drug.
• Losing his libido, his emotional connection and his sense of who he was.
• Cognitive symptoms, including difficulty with speech and with thinking.
• Feeling briefly normal again after stopping the drug, then relapsing.
• A severe deterioration in his health years after he stopped.

He talks about grieving the years he lost, the opportunities that went with them, and an uncertain future. He says he received little validation or real support from doctors.

Thank you to Lucas for telling this story. This interview was recorded by Moral Medicine, who have filmed more than ninety of these conversations.

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