Finasteride and the Yellow Card Scheme

If finasteride gave you side effects, you can report them to the UK medicines regulator yourself, through the Yellow Card scheme. You don’t need a doctor or proof, and you can report symptoms that started or continued after stopping, which is what people with Post-Finasteride Syndrome (PFS) describe.

PFS is more than sexual problems. Expert criteria proposed in 2022 say problems with thinking, depression and suicidality can come with it, and can happen without any sexual difficulties.

The UK regulator has asked people to report, “particularly if a side effect continued or started after treatment was stopped”. Many people with PFS say they were told it wasn’t happening. If you wait for someone else to file it, it may never get filed.

Who can report, and which code should I use?

Anyone who took finasteride can. The MHRA is the government body that decides which warnings go on a medicine in the UK. The Yellow Card scheme is how it hears about side effects, at yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk.

• You don’t need a doctor to agree with you.
• You don’t need to prove the medicine caused it. A suspicion is enough.
• You don’t need to still be taking it.
• A report from you counts the same as one from a consultant.

Finasteride is sold as Propecia, Proscar and generics. If you are still working out whether this is what you have, read what happens when you stop taking finasteride first.

For the code, use Post 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor syndrome, MedDRA code 10082430. Regulators sort reports by MedDRA terms, a medical dictionary shared worldwide, so reports can be counted together. A report under the wrong term is hard to find.

“5-alpha-reductase inhibitor” is the drug group finasteride belongs to. “Post-Finasteride Syndrome” is the name patients use, but it isn’t in the dictionary, so don’t use it on its own.

Describe your symptoms in your own words as well. The code puts your report in the right group. Your words are what a person at the MHRA reads.

What should I write in the report?

Plain language is fine, and you can do it on your phone. Have these ready:

• The medicine and dose: “Finasteride 1 mg from March 2021, last tablet June 2023.”
• What changed, in your words: “Touch feels numb”, “I can’t think clearly”, “I feel flat”, not only the sexual changes.
• When it started: while taking it, or after stopping. Say clearly if it carried on after the last tablet.
• Other medicines you were taking at the time.

An approximate month is better than no report.

Finasteride helps many people with hair loss. Whether to stop is a decision for you and your prescriber. The Propecia leaflet says to stop and contact your doctor if you notice changes in mood.

In this short video, we walk through how to report your side effects. Watch it if you’d like to see the steps before you start.

What happens after I send it?

The MHRA publishes the route each report takes.

1

It gets acknowledged

You receive a copy of what you submitted. Your report now exists on record.

2

It goes into the database

Checked, quality-audited, and made searchable alongside every other UK report.

3

Software compares drugs against each other

It looks for drug-and-symptom pairs showing up more often than you would expect. This is why the code matters: it is what your report is grouped by.

4

People look at the pattern

Doctors, pharmacists and scientists weigh it against published research and data from other countries, then advise an expert committee.

5

Something changes, or it stays watched

For finasteride this produced a warning card inside every pack in 2024, and updated warnings in 2026.

Your report doesn’t need to prove anything alone. The MHRA says “causality is not assigned to individual reports”: reports are judged together. Reports from Great Britain are also shared with the WHO’s monitoring centre in Uppsala and with the manufacturer. Reports from Northern Ireland go to the European Medicines Agency.

In 2024 an expert group recommended a patient card for men taking finasteride, because the side effects were “not well known by prescribers and patients”. In 2026 the MHRA asked for the finasteride 1 mg leaflet to warn that sexual problems may contribute to mood disorders. What each regulator has done is set out in finasteride warnings from the MHRA, EMA and FDA.

How many finasteride reports are there?

By 5 April 2024 the MHRA had 426 reports of sexual problems with finasteride. In almost half, the outcome was recorded as “not recovered” or “not resolved”.

The 2026 update added reports of suicidal thoughts, including 19 reports of death by suicide up to 31 May 2025. If you are struggling, the Samaritans are on 116 123, free, at any time.

These are counts of reports, not how often it happens. The MHRA says Yellow Card data “cannot be used to derive ADR rates” or to compare medicines. It also says it holds no estimate of how much goes unreported, while systems like this “are known to be subject to under-reporting”.

Patients also asked the MHRA to recognise Post-Finasteride Syndrome as a diagnosis. Its answer was that this is “not within the MHRA’s remit”. It has accepted that sexual side effects may persist after stopping, which is a smaller step than recognising a syndrome.

Report it: it helps everyone

A doctor’s note helps you. A report to the medicines regulator helps everyone else: it is how patterns get noticed.

• No proof needed. A suspicion is enough, even years after stopping.
• Where: the Yellow Card scheme in the UK, MedWatch in the US.
• Use the right words. If symptoms continued after stopping, write Post 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor syndrome (MedDRA 10082430).

Our reporting guide walks you through it

What else do people ask?

Does one report make a difference? No rule says a set number of reports forces action. The MHRA looks for medicines that build up more reports for a symptom than others do. An unreported reaction isn’t a quieter signal. It simply isn’t in the database.

I live outside the UK. Can I still report? Yes, to your own country’s regulator. Our reporting guide covers the US FDA route and many other countries, with the MedDRA term in each language.

Is a Yellow Card the same as joining a registry? No. A Yellow Card records one reaction. Our patient registry follows a person over time, which is what researchers need.

Your report puts on record what happened to you. Our PFS page is a good place to read next.

Sources

1. MHRA. Finasteride: reminder of the risk of psychiatric side effects and of sexual side effects (which may persist after discontinuation of treatment). Drug Safety Update, 29 April 2024. 426 UK reports of sexual dysfunction to 5 April 2024, almost half “not recovered” or “not resolved”. 281 reports of depressed mood and suicidal and self-injurious behaviour; patient alert card; side effects “not well known by prescribers and patients”; reporting request “particularly if a side effect continued or started after treatment was stopped”.
2. MHRA. Finasteride and dutasteride: updated safety warnings for psychiatric side effects and sexual dysfunction. Drug Safety Update, 11 May 2026. 170 reports of suicidal ideation and related terms for finasteride and 19 fatal reports of suicide, data to 31 May 2025. Finasteride 1 mg SmPC and leaflet updated: sexual dysfunction “may contribute to mood disorders”, and has been reported without mood changes.
3. MHRA. Response to FOI 24/310, 29 April 2024. “The MHRA do not hold an estimate of the degree of underreporting”; systems “are known to be subject to under-reporting”. Data “cannot be used to derive ADR rates or compare the safety profile of drugs”; “Causality is not assigned to individual reports”.
4. MHRA. Finasteride: review of safety data and expert advice on management of risks, section 4.2: classifying “Post Finasteride Syndrome” as a recognised medical diagnosis “is not within the MHRA’s remit”.
5. Organon. Propecia 1 mg patient leaflet, electronic Medicines Compendium, revised May 2026. Section 4, frequency unknown: “persistent difficulty having an erection after discontinuation of treatment”, persistent decrease in sex drive and persistent problems with ejaculation after discontinuation. Section 2: if mood symptoms occur, “stop taking Propecia and contact your doctor”.
6. Healy D, Bahrick A, Bak M and colleagues. Diagnostic criteria for enduring sexual dysfunction after treatment with antidepressants, finasteride and isotretinoin. Int J Risk Saf Med 2022;33(1):65-76. Proposed expert criteria. Section 5: cognitive impairment, depression and suicidality “can occur independently of any sexual difficulties”.
7. MHRA. Yellow Card scheme. MedDRA term from MedDRA: Post 5-alpha-reductase inhibitor syndrome, code 10082430.
8. SIDEfxHUB. Report Your Side Effects From Harmful Drugs, YouTube.

Sources checked on 22 October 2026. AI-assisted writing and review, not clinical review.