Hair loss drug finasteride 'biggest mistake of my life'

Kyle started taking finasteride last spring, after it was recommended to him by a mate who was on it.

He says he did a bit of research beforehand, but buying it online was simple.

"I just typed it in on Google and it came up with all these online pharmacies," Kyle says.

"It's everywhere. It's so easily accessible."

The prescription pills arrived on his doorstep within a week of ordering them.

"I had no consultation with a doctor. No zoom meeting. I didn't have to send any pictures to them or anything like that to actually make sure I did have male pattern baldness.

"I started it and, yeah - that was the biggest mistake of my life."

Since taking the drug, Kyle says he's been having problems with his sexual, mental and physical health - problems he had never experienced before and which have persisted since he stopped the medication.

"Life just feels grey. It's, like, castrated my emotions," Kyle says.

"It just stripped everything from me - all my personality and everything. I stopped going out with my mates, stopped playing football and started having all these issues."

Finasteride is one of the most common pills for hair loss, taken by tens of thousands of men in the UK. It is only available by private prescription.

It works by stopping testosterone turning into another hormone, called dihydrotestosterone (DHT), that can stop hair growing.

Kyle took it for about six weeks, but stopped after experiencing problems including suicidal thoughts.

The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory agency says manufacturers have been given up to a year to comply, but it might still take longer since older packs will have to be sold before newer ones with the advice card begin to appear.

Boots, Hims and Superdrug say online finasteride customers are asked to confirm that they have read and understood the possible risks.

They say until the alert cards are "rolled out" and put in packs, users can read the long patient information leaftlet already included with the medicine to learn about side effects.

Nearly a year since first ordering the drug, Kyle says he deeply regrets taking finasteride.

"It's just a little pill. You take it and don't really think about what it can do to you," he says.

"Every day I beat myself up saying like 'You had a perfect life, you didn't have to risk something over hair'.

"It was vain of me...but when you get insecure you do stupid things.

"If I were made aware of what it can do I never would have took it."