Sex, Drugs & Rock-n-Roll

I heard a recent report proclaiming that men think about sex every eight seconds. "Strange," I thought to myself. "I haven’t thought about sex for months." It hadn’t occurred to me that anything was wrong. I hadn’t developed any particularly unusual tendencies. Twenty five years of working with bald men may get to some guys psychologically, but not me, one of the world’s greatest lovers (you know what I mean. guys, you’ve all been there).

O.K. I admit, I’d had a couple of years on my own after quite a long relationship, but there was no particular psychological reason why I’d stayed solo. Let’s face it, it’s hard finding a partner, let alone a woman prepared to accept a middle-aged hippie in a business suit. Imagine my surprise when, for the first time in two years of convincing myself that my new-found celibacy was a gift from God, I met one of HIS Angels.

Blonde, beautiful, half my age. into mature men and obviously short-sighted. What a combination!

About this time, I heard and read reports announcing the likely release of Propecia. The headline in one of Britain’s most respected tabloid newspapers, the Daily Mail, read "Pill to Get Your Hair Back May Hit Your Libido." One of the topics of the day discussed on our National Talk Radio was "Would you consider saving your hair if it meant losing your sex-drive?"

A few people called the radio station commenting that they would never sacrifice their manhood for their appearance. One guy, however, phoned in to say that losing his hair had affected his confidence to the agree that he as unable to communicate with potential partners, a comment that I’m sure we in the hair replacement industry have heard on numerous occasions. He continued by saying that he would use the drug to re-grow his hair, regain his lost confidence, find a new partner, and then quit the drug.

Then some guy called John said that he had been using the so-called new drug for about four years before the problem hit. (Well I wasn’t about to give my real name, was I? I mean, it’s one thing to admit to you guys that I had sexual dysfunction, but not on National bloody Radio!)

Now, I’m not sure whether any of you will remember me, but my success with finasteride was one of the features in the April 1994 edition of forum. I was the man who was using finasteride for hair growth two years before the presentation by David Whiting at the Toronto conference.

There I was, minding my own business when some well-meaning individual let it be known to Dr. Norwood that I had been using the drug for some considerable time. The good doctor asked me to send him my ‘before and after’ photographs, which I did with alacrity. Well you would, wouldn’t you? My face in Forum; what a great chance to boost my career. The proverbial marketing man’s dream. Wow!

I should have known better. Dr. Norwood only featured shots of the top of my head, but then he’s a scientist and I’m a marketing man; there is a difference.

In fairness, if there is one thing that I am quite well known for, it’s being in the right place at the right time, I’ll give you a few examples: I was in the right place at the right time when I first met our present illustrious editor Dr. Richard Sheill. It was Richard who trained me to counsel hair loss people in the 70’s when (due to a combination of paranoia and family genetics) I joined the hair restoration industry. Richard was in the UK training doctors for a British transplant company. He was associated with another Aussie, Dr.William Pouw. And, it was Bill who performed my first surgery. It was also the time when the clinic’s nurses had a premonition of Bay watch with it’s golden beaches and brilliant sunshine. When they saw these examples of Aussie men, half of them wanted to emigrate, but then there’s no accounting for taste, is there.

I was in the right place when the news broke about Minoxidil. I was resident in New York during the early 80’s and returned to he UK with prior information on the treatment. making it available to many other hair-nuts, years before it’s eventual release here.

Now I find that I am one of the few people in the industry to have long-term experience of finasteride, news of which is about to heaped (or should I say hyped) upon us in very large doses by the world’s media. Whether or not I can claim to have been in the right place at the right time on this occasion, is questionable. To put it another way. in response to the bright spark on Talk Radio who suggested he would manage with the drug until he found the lady of his dreams, I would say, "Forget it pal; you haven’t thought it through".

When my beautiful girlfriend fell victim to my charm, my wit, and my Retin-A assisted looks, the inevitable happened, or should I say, it didn’t happen. Can you possibly imagine how I felt? It was he first time in my life that I had ever experienced anything like it. I had never even suffered with what the English refer to as a "brewers droop" (a temporary inadequacy due to the consumption of excessive alcoholic beverages).

Have you ever had a dream where you found yourself walking down the street in broad daylight without your pants on? Well, this nightmare doesn’t come close to the feeling of humiliation which I experienced when confronted with a "power failure" just when my world was about to light up.

In retrospect, it was about 14 months ago that I began to notice that something wasn’t quite right "down below". I was wakening without any sign of "morning glory" and when I thought back about it, I realised that I hadn’t had sex on my mind for some time. Could it be that I was finally maturing, getting my priorities right for the first time in my life?

Not according to my urologist. In his opinion, my long term use of small doses of finasteride (which I have used in combination with 4% Minoxidil since 1991) had effected my libido. His diagnosis was confirmed when all became normal about three weeks off the drug. But then my hair started falling out again.

When Merck Sharpe & Dome get the go-ahead with Propecia, it will have been on the basis of a twelve month clinical trial. My problem took four years to develop. All I can say is that, when the Chinese are awarding their people cash benefits to limit themselves to one child per family, and at a time when the world’s scientists are becoming increasingly concerned about over-population, MCD could sweep the board. If my experience is anything to go by, MSD scientists may well be in line for a Nobel bloody Prize for population control.

The news report also told about cases of birth defects amongst animals following use of finasteride and the need to use contraception at all times. In my experience very few UK doctors are prepared to issue finasteride for hair loss. In fact they would only do so after a seriously worded disclaimer was signed. Apart from the occasional paranoid hair transplant consultant, you had to be gay, have a vasectomy, or past it sexually to qualify. Can you imagine asking a 23year-old man with galloping testosterone and a few beers inside him, to pause and fit a condom? I don’t think it would work.

There is however, a happy ending to my story, I have re-commenced the use of finasteride, halted the hair loss, and reversed the considerable loss of penile volume I experienced when on it. What’s more, I am now enjoying a normal sex life so don’t bother offering to help out.

I’m not going to discuss the details of how I overcame the problem, that would be getting far too personal, but I did carefully note the news story about the Israeli who had to be hospitalised after suffering a 36-hour erection when using a anti-potency treatment. Who knows I may call my next article "From Stud to Dud. . .and Back again."

Don’t despair guys, even if the drug succeeds in bringing the industry to its knees. Just think, you can have a 4 year break from operating, maybe in the Bahamas, and when you return to work, you will be overrun by patients wanting to have their hair transplanted. Then if you get really lucky, you can sell them one of the new injections or creams for impotency as well.