Man Claims that Propecia Warning did not List Continued Sexual Dysfunction as Side Effect

Recently, a number of men who claim to have developed erectile dysfunction while using Propecia have filed suit against Merck & Co., the maker of that drug. According to a Propecia erectile dysfunction lawsuit filed this past April in federal court in New Jersey, Merck changed label warnings for the drug in Sweden, Italy and the United Kingdom to include “persistence of erectile dysfunction after discontinuation of treatment” as a possible side effect. These label changes occurred after the Swedish Medical Products Agency began “investigating reports of persistent sexual dysfunction side effects which continue in men despite discontinuing finasteride” in 2006. But Merck revised the U.S. Propecia product monograph in 2010 without including an “updated warning regarding the persistence of sexual dysfunction,” the Propecia lawsuit claims.

Paul Dawson, 26, filed a Propecia impotence lawsuit on August 18 in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, indicating that he has experienced a number of sexual problems after taking the hair-loss drug. Dawson alleges that he continues to suffer injuries from Propecia, such as erectile dysfunction, loss of sexual sensation, decreased semen output, testicular pain and emotional issues. He also alleges that he would not have used Propecia if he or his physician had been warned about the risk of these permanent problems.

Propecia is a prescription medication sold by Merck that contains 1 mg of finasteride, which is a type II 5-Alpha reductase inhibitor that prevents the conversion of androgen testosterone to DHT in the scalp. Use of the medication may lead to a reduction of hair loss in men, reversing the healthy and normal occurrence of male pattern hair loss. Although Merck knew or should have known that side effects of Propecia increase the risk of irreversible erectile dysfunction, infertility and other sexual dysfunction, they provided misleading and inadequate warnings in the United States. The warnings misleadingly indicated that less than 2% of men experienced certain sexual side effects of Propecia, such as less desire for sex, difficulty achieving an erection and a decrease in the amount of semen. They also falsely indicated that these sexual side effects of Propecia went away in men who stopped taking the drug because of them.