Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Software engineer claims generic version of Propecia turned him into a woman

By SUSAN EDELMAN
Last Updated: 11:34 AM, July 22, 2012
Posted: 2:47 AM, July 22, 2012

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/bald_cure_made_me_woman_9whwIzBiccvWIMacwRlkqO (http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/bald_cure_made_me_woman_9whwIzBiccvWIMacwRlkqO)

This baldness cure was a bust.

For nine months, William McKee took the generic version of Propecia, the pills that promise to halt hair loss.

But the drug had radical side effects: Instead of becoming a better-looking man, he started becoming a woman, he claims.

[...]

McKee, who says he wasn't inclined to cross-dress before, began feeling like a woman. He is now only attracted to men.

After overcoming depression and separating from his wife of 10 years, McKee goes by "Mandi." He wears a blond wig, makeup and tight dresses. He plans to get a breast-enhancement job this year, and may undergo sex-change surgery.

One more reason why it is a REALLY bad idea to self-medicate. Without seeking a doctor's advice or supervision, the person in the article ordered potentially harmful medication online from overseas and took it for 9 months without seeing a doctor. The person was fortunate only to discover a new gender identity and to not end up severely harmed or dead!

Fishy story if you ask me.  I'm more inclined to think they were a closet cd that got into things a bit too much, shocker upon shock, it came back and bit them on the ass. I've come across too many of those types taking stuff without their spouse's knowledge and willing to say whatever to make it look like it wasn't their fault if caught.

Quote from: crazy old bat on July 22, 2012, 03:29:49 PM
Fishy story if you ask me. 

It is the NY Post!  :laugh:

Z

"Propecia inhibits the conversion of testosterone, resulting in increased estrogen."

Propecia inhibits the conversion of Testosterone to dyhydro-testosterone. I does not increase estrogen production or estrogen's levels.


I think a few guys got some boobage, and soem impotence. I think it is all a media/lawyers hysteria driven scam to get some money from Merck. I hope they loose, and get nothing!!!

Yeah... umm... Really?  ::)

I doubt Finasteride had little to do with his current gender presentation... or that horribly tacky dime store wig he is wearing.  ;)

  He may have already had some sexual issues and didn't acknowledge or denied it.  This has happened to Heidi Krieger, a female shotputter on the East German team.  She had some doubts about her sexuality to begin with and it came out when they gave her anabolic steroids.  Some of the sportscasters of the day secretly called her "Hormone Heidi", from the male features they saw on her.  Now he goes by the name of Andreas and he sued the former program with the other athletes and won a settlement in 2002. 
  Joelene

 Oh please, Individuals like these who clearly make up absurd impossible fantasy stories so they can transition yet not take any responsibility for it. This is almost certainly not a function of the drugs.

If you were a guy and you took a medication and started developing breasts (Whitch in rare cases is a side effect of fin) that DOSENT make you a woman, as soon as you got any alarming changes you'd stop who wouldn't?... you'd almost certainly hide your breasts and continue your life as a guy you would not go through the over the odds rest of the transition process of name change SRS and BREAST AUGMENTATION SURGERY! for a result that honestly isn't all that passable (I'm not judging her on that result I'm just saying If you were happy as a man why do that to yourself?)

I can understand people who lie to protect themselves but this is just lying for the sake of attention, disgusting.

Quote from: Zythyra on July 22, 2012, 04:09:59 PM
It is the NY Post!  :laugh:

Z

That would be "fish wrap."

Quote from: peky on July 22, 2012, 07:08:14 PM
Propecia inhibits the conversion of Testosterone to dyhydro-testosterone. I does not increase estrogen production or estrogen's levels.

Actually it can increase estrogen levels due to the effect of aromatase (the conversion of testosteron into estrogen). If you suppress the conversion from testosteron into dyhydro-testosterone, the effect of aromatase may become more significant, because there is more free testosteron in your body than usual.

This is why some people who use finasteride have side effects like breast growth.

Quote from: Joandelynn on July 23, 2012, 06:57:39 AM
Actually it can increase estrogen levels due to the effect of aromatase (the conversion of testosteron into estrogen). If you suppress the conversion from testosteron into dyhydro-testosterone, the effect of aromatase may become more significant, because there is more free testosteron in your body than usual.

This is why some people who use finasteride have side effects like breast growth.

Intersting and palusible explanation. others havesuggested this mechanism of action (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2929552/?tool=pubmed (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2929552/?tool=pubmed)), however, nobody has coem up with the smoking gun.

IMOHO I think this is not the mechanism by which finasteride causes gynecomastia. If your hypothesis was correct one would expect a much higher incidence of gynecomastia in people taking finasteride. The incidence of gynecomastia for patients taking proscar (1mg/ml finasteride) is 2 in 10,000, and even lower for those in propecia (1mg/ml finasteride).

Humm...............another thing to ponder about when I am driving away from Cleveland

I saw that story as well.  While I understand finasteride is an anti-androgen [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finasteride], I really can't help but wonder if this isn't really a viral ad campaign to sell this generic drug to the transgender community for an "off label" use. 

This is the biggest load of B.S. I've ever seen.. It offends me, and makes me feel like he's making a mockery of all of our transitions. He definitely could have done something long ago to stop and reverse it if he really wanted to. Maybe I'm over reacting, but I would love to run into this coward somewhere and share a few choice words with him. He's sick in his head, and sounds to me like as if he's trying to make some sort of tg fantasy story a reality. What an idiot. No wonder why his wife left him. I have no sympathy for this one.. This moron truly is proof that evolution can go in reverse. And if anyone believes this for even a minute, they're as stupid as he is. Sorry for the rant, maybe I'm just being a hormonal you know what..

Quote from: Zythyra on July 22, 2012, 03:01:43 PM
After overcoming depression and separating from his wife of 10 years, McKee goes by "Mandi." He wears a blond wig, makeup and tight dresses. He plans to get a breast-enhancement job this year, and may undergo sex-change surgery.

He wears a blonde wig? so the Propecia (finesteride) really had no effect on his hair at all then? Also the story claimed he grew breasts from the Propecia, so why does he need breast augmentation? It appears the Propecia had no effect on him whatsoever!

These type of stories are usually complete fabrication, and it reminds me of the type of stories that used to appear regularly in a tacky U.K newspaper called 'The Sunday sport'. Nobody of a sound mind ever took those stories seriously.

A real man would have stopped taking it when he saw those "negative effects"... this person is full of Ish.

I think Yahoo! should take this story down, it's dumb.

I've been on Finasteride for nearly four months and I don't those kinds of results are possible without a huge amount of estrogen

Quote from: MadelineB on July 22, 2012, 03:18:34 PM
One more reason why it is a REALLY bad idea to self-medicate. Without seeking a doctor's advice or supervision, the person in the article ordered potentially harmful medication online from overseas and took it for 9 months without seeing a doctor. The person was fortunate only to discover a new gender identity and to not end up severely harmed or dead!

Madeline , I couldn't agree more ! These people who think going on line or buying something from a friend , aquantance , whatever are suicidial in my opinion.