After spending years being insecure about his thinning hair, Mark Millich turned to the internet to help reverse his baldness.
The former US Army sergeant, 26, completed a 14-question intake on the telehealth company Hims.com and received a bottle of anti-balding pills at his home in January 2021.
At no point did Millich speak to a doctor or a healthcare professional, so he was completely oblivious about the devastating side effects he was about to suffer.
Within six months of taking finasteride, he began experiencing dizziness, fatigue, cold sweats and was slurring his words – which he described it as feeling ‘lobotomized’.
Psychologically, he became numb, feeling ‘nothing but blunted emotions’. Physically, he lost muscle density and his skin become stretchy.
In fear of his mental state, he stopped taking the medication in July 2021 but soon after, even worse side effects kicked in. His libido plunged and his genitals shrank and changed shape.
As the former soldier continues to battle his situation, he claims that the telehealth company never shared information about the dangerous side effects of the drug and falsely advertised the medication.
Mark Millich, 26, a former US Army sergeant, took finasteride pills to cure his baldness
Instead, his libido plunged as his genitals shrank and changed shape
Finasteride, the generic name for Propecia, is recommended by doctors in cases of male baldness to help improve hair growth and hair count over time.
In the male body, an enzyme called 5α-reductase is responsible for converting testosterone into a hormone called DHT (dihydrotestosterone).
DHT causes hair to become shorter and finer, eventually stop growing in the affected area.
Finasteride reduces the amount of DHT produced in the body by blocking the production of 5α-reductase.
But DHT is also crucial for sexual arousal, erectile function, and genital tissue health, and its reduction can negatively impact these functions.
In some cases, including Millich’s, the side effects persist even after stopping the drug. This is known as Post-Finasteride Syndrome (PFS) and can include long-term sexual dysfunction, depression, and cognitive issues.
As of 2024, over 2.6 million Americans are taking the hair loss drug – an increase of nearly 200 percent over the last seven years, according to a report by Epic Research.
Between one in 100 and one in 10 men suffer at least one of its major side effects.
Dr Justin Houman, a urologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, told the Wall Street Journal that an increasing number of young men have been left plagued by the sexual side effects of finasteride.
The side effects are ‘very very common’ these days due to accessibility of the medicine from companies such as Hims.com, Dr Houman explained.
The specialist warned: ‘This is not something young men should take.’
According to Hims.com, the $22 bottle of oral once-a-day finasteride tablets can help reverse hair loss
According to Hims.com, the $22 bottle of oral once-a-day finasteride tablets can help reverse hair loss.
A Hims.com spokeswoman confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that customers ‘go through a comprehensive intake that is reviewed by a licensed provider who makes a clinical determination about the patient’s eligibility for medication’.
DailyMail.com has reached out to the company for a comment.
It comes about a month after Hims and Hers has been slammed for its Super Bowl commercial that admonished Americans for being obese and shamed the healthcare industry – then promoted its own weight loss drugs.
The 60-second commercial, which was first published on YouTube in late January, is set to rapper Childish Gambino‘s hit ‘This is America’.
It shows a parade of overweight Americans and calls out the healthcare system for profiting off people’s ill health.
It then awkwardly promotes the brand’s Ozempic-alternative weight loss drugs that sell for $165-a-month, including the disclaimer admitting the drugs haven’t been FDA approved.
The company also offers subscriptions to Wegovy and Ozempic for up to $2,000-a-month.
