Telehealth companies make hair loss drugs easy to get. They also don’t have to disclose side effects in ads. WSJ’s Rolfe Winkler reports that some young men say they are suffering serious health consequences, and that they didn’t understand the risks. Kate Linebaugh hosts. Further Listening: - Testosterone Clinics Sell Virility. Side Effects Sometimes Included. - ‘Uncontrolled Substances’ from The Journal. Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Full Episode
My colleague Rolf Winkler has a full head of hair. Still, he gets targeted for hair loss medications all the time, often by telehealth companies like HIMS.
I'm on HIMS.com, and it gives you all these different options for medications that they'll sell you on subscription.
Rolf and I decided to see how quickly he could sign up for hair loss meds online. Shall we hit regrow hair?
Sure. Let's try regrow hair.
Okay. All right. I'm clicking that.
It offers finasteride, which blocks DHT, a hormone that causes hair loss.
Finasteride is the generic version of the brand name pill, Propecia. And it has some known and potentially nasty side effects.
Then there's an option to click on safety information or side effects. If I want to click on that, I don't have to. I can just sort of continue.
And then you hit submit.
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