Sometimes Hair does Not Grow Back: First Do Harm, Then Do More Harm

When my daughter cut her beautiful locks, I thought it odd, but her new cut was super cute and, after all, hair does grow back. Right? Then came college and the target of my daughter’s angst became her own body. She began to believe the lie that is sold to young people today, that they were “born in the wrong  body.” She began taking testosterone, a drug that happens to be a Class 3 controlled substance, not approved  for use in women, and that carries a worrisome risk profile. Her voice became deep and strange. Her natural voice was now gone forever. Her breasts were excised. They too are now gone forever. Her nipples were rearranged. Her insides were ravaged—her blood, her uterus, her liver, her heart, her kidneys. Will these tissues and organs repair themselves to their  former function when and if she wakes up? Unlike hair, some things don’t grow back.

She was healthy before all of this after all. With the help of her campus peers, the university she attended, and the so-called “experts” of this new thing called “gender” medicine, who at one time took vows to do no harm, my daughter was being harmed. This happened years ago, before there were organizations and groups of parents and professionals trying to piece together what was happening. It was, however, painfully obvious to me: Medical identities were being used as a weapon—by medical professionals—against the minds and bodies of an entire generation of young women—and my gullible daughter had been a target.

My daughter also excised her family like a cancer from her life. Like her breasts, we were flung into the waste heap of history. Only we were and are not the cancer, gender identity medicine was—and is. Her parents, her brother and her sister, her grandparents, her favorite aunt—all of us were removed from her life. It has created someone that I cringe to describe out of a person who was once a beautiful, young woman. She seems to now loathe her family. She no longer strives for academic or personal excellence. Her moral compass no longer points north. She holds a menial job and her friends all seem to hail from the cult of identity politics.

Much has, finally, been written about the ravishing effects of the top drug of choice for these “born in the wrong body” females—Testosterone. Thankfully with outlets like Pitt, many of our stories are also being told, and at least some information is getting out about the gender clinics abuse of testosterone.  

But there is another drug that is often prescribed soon after starting a Testosterone regimen, to counter the balding effects of testosterone—known as Finasteride. Many girls on gender medical regimes wind up on a drug cocktail: Hair loss medication and anti-anxiety /anti-depressants round out reports from many parents, like this one who says that, along with testosterone her daughter, “is on numerous other medications, many for the side effects of T, like vaginal atrophy and bladder infections. Some anti-depressants. And one for hair loss, because she’s balding.” As trans identifications are spread via the internet, know that any questioning girl or young woman is bound to come across Finasteride drug discussions and promotions (see also this report).

Testosterone Cypionate by Pfizer and Androgel by AbbVie, two commonly prescribed drugs for gender transition can cause male pattern baldness or alopecia (often within 6-12 months) as seen by their prescribing information. The gender doctors often list the hair loss medication Finasteride right on their websites, just below testosterone. 

Below is a screenshot from Fenway Health Trans Health Program that can be found on page 12 of their  document titled “Gender Affirming Therapy.”  

And below is the verbiage from another leading gender clinic, UCSF Gender Affirming Health Program, in their document “Overview of Testosterone Hormone Therapy.” 

Hair Loss: Hair loss may begin soon after beginning hormone therapy, and is  

dependent on genetic factors. There are two patterns of hair loss seen in  

transgender men; Frontal and temporal recession, and male-pattern baldness  

(receding at the forehead and thinning at the crown). Both forms may cause  

alarm for patients, and in some cases result in a desire to discontinue therapy.  

Patients should be counseled prior to initiation of therapy on the risk,  

unpredictable nature, extent and time course of this condition. Management is  

similar to that in non-transgender men. Over the counter minoxidil, 5-alpha  

reductase inhibitors, and surgical approaches may be used. The 5-alpha  

reductase inhibitor finasteride blocks conversion of testosterone to the potent  

androgen dihydrotestosterone.[28] Finasteride 1mg daily (Propecia) is  

approved for male pattern baldness, while the 5mg daily dose (Proscar) is 

approved for management of prostatic hypertrophy.[29] Side effects may  

include reduced libido or sexual dysfunction, though impact on erectile  

function (manifesting as genital engorgement) may be less relevant for  

transgender men who have not undergone metoidioplasty. In general, the 1mg  

daily dose has minimal sexual side effects. The negative impact on results of 5- 

alpha reductase inhibition on transgender men early in their course of  

testosterone therapy is unknown. As with non-transgender men, use of the  

5mg daily dose of finasteride, or use of the more potent 5-alpha reductase  

inhibitor dutasteride, may result in excessive testosterone blockade, and  

resultant sexual side effects and regression of some virilization.

As will be explained below, the full side effects and concerns regarding Finasteride are sorely lacking, and address only the sexual side effects and potential for testosterone blockage. While it does state that the impact of this drug is unknown for this patient cohort, are they ignorant of the negative side effects that thousands of males have reported?

Neither testosterone or Finasteride are approved for use in women, and both have grim risk profiles. Gender medicine is a layered, iatrogenic approach with multiple drugs and surgeries, at any physical and mental cost, prescribed for a patients’ medical identity.

As those of us in the gender critical ranks have our movement to reign in “gender” medicine, there is an  entire movement that has been raging on for more than a decade to reign in the use of the male pattern baldness drug Finasteride. Many patients have suffered harms from this drug, and some have lost their lives to suicide because of it. Finasteride was a drug first discovered in the 1970’s after researching a genetic anomaly in a small subset of males in the Dominican Republic. These Dominican Republic boys were  deficient in the 5-alpha-reductase enzyme which is responsible for the male sex hormone surge in utero.  Despite having XY chromosomes, they do not appear male until the hormonal surge at puberty. Once this happens, they mostly go on to have normal heterosexual lives as males. (It is funny how these natural hormone surges prove sex is biological.) It was not long after this discovery that Merck had developed a drug to block 5-alpha-reductase in the body. In 1993 a 5 mg Finasteride pill (Proscar) was approved by the  FDA to treat benign enlarged prostrates and by 1997 a 1mg Finasteride pill (Propecia) was approved by the FDA to treat male pattern balding. Many though do not believe that Finasteride has a place in medicine. 

Among those concerned about Finasteride are members of the Post Finasteride Foundation which was  formed in 2012 to fight the harms perpetuated by the drug manufacturer Merck. Like so many pharmaceutical scandals it takes an army of harmed patients to seek each other out and begin to tear apart the narratives that the drug companies peddle to sell their products. Post Finasteride Syndrome is a  recognized as a rare disease by the NIH. Today there are over 18k adverse drug reactions reported worldwide including close to 100 suicides. There are also now over 50 studies and over 50 countries warning of the risks. The most common adverse events reported are impaired sexual function and psychological disturbances. Across the board younger patients are more affected by Finasteride use and the duration of use plays a role. There is no recovery after discontinuation of use. One meta-analysis concluded that out of 34 studies reviewed they were largely of poor quality and systematically biased with over 50%  being funded by the manufacturer. This study recommended that “finasteride should not be administered as a treatment for androgenetic alopecia in women” due to complications including irregular menstrual  cycles, heavy menstrual bleeding, DNA damage and high cholesterol. This study calls Finasteride “fool’s  gold,” stating that nearly 57% of men reported a psychiatric diagnosis. In this 2016 Belgium documentary titled The Wonder Hair Pill a Belgium doctor says, “Under no circumstances should we try to fight baldness in women,” and one American father states, “It was an unbelievably tragic story and it was so  pointless. This drug really should have never been on the market in the first place,” in describing the suicide of his son.  

By 2011 the first lawsuit was brought forward against Merck. Over time the addition of drug labeling to include risks of sexual dysfunction and depression were added to the drug. In 2017 a Citizen Petition was filed with the FDA asking to withdraw the approval of the drug from the market or alternatively amend their health safety data. It was not until June of this year (2022) that the FDA responded to the PFS Citizen  Petition and only after the PFS Foundation sued the FDA for unlawfully failing to request or deny the petition. In response the FDA rejected the request to withdraw FDA approval of Finasteride but now requires notification about reports of suicide in men taking the drug.  

Who in their right mind would think that putting already confused young woman in the throes of a dissociative state on Finasteride might be a good idea? Apparently, Gender Doctors. As the only long-term study that exists shows, trans identifying patients are already at an increased risk for suicide. Not only is testosterone not approved for use in women or children, neither is Finasteride. Sexual dysfunction is  already occurring as a side effect of testosterone. And the reported benefits of a 10% hair coverage of balding areas is poor. The reports of adverse effects by men on both SSRIs anti-depressants and Finasteride are concerning and yet transmen are often prescribed a regimen of both. These patients are young and the lifelong maintenance of identifying as a transman would require not only testosterone use for life but often  Finasteride and other drugs as well.  

The truth is that hair does not always grow back, not when you become a transman. The receding hairline and shiny temples that have appeared on my daughter’s social media posts are now there forever. She has clearly developed “male pattern baldness” which seems a strange thing to write as she can only ever be female. FTM pattern baldness seems more fitting. Youth throughout history think they are invincible, and  death seems like a distant concept. While rising liver enzymes and elevated red blood cells do not make these young women flinch, the hair loss and receding hairlines do. Heart attacks? Diabetes? Never mind!  But they do care about their looks! To not get that perfect FTM selfie to post to Instagram to garner likes and the high that comes with excessive social media use, now that is a problem! What would their peers  think?! 

Many of our daughters are on lots of medication—and a whole lot of it harms. The combined risk profile can only be devastating. While these young, gullible patients are determined to use their own bodies as the outlet for their stress, doctors must reconnect with the art of medicine and treat their patients for what ails them. These young women could save their hair by going off testosterone, and they would also save all those under the skin organs and tissues that are so vital for health that they seem to neglect in exchange for membership to the trans club. They would avoid the potential side effects of Finasteride altogether. Medical professionals could tell them all this of course, but sadly far too few today will counter the affirmative model. The medical industry has been weaponized against the bodies of our youth.