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| ''This study not only confirms that there is no need to do that, but also that shrinking the gland has no significant effect on symptom relief.'' Proscar's side effects are better documented. In an earlier trial of 543 patients, seven had to stop treatment because of adverse reactions. Side effects include impotence, decreased libido, breast tenderness and enlargement, a skin rash and swollen lips. In addition, Proscar's greatest dangers are to its users' wives, unborn children and young boys. Pregnant women should never touch Proscar or have unprotected sex with a man who is taking it because his semen could damage a male fetus, and the drug must be kept away from children of all ages. |
| Are there alternatives to prescription drugs? See pages 5156 for herbal therapies that outperform Proscar and bring well-documented relief from BPH. |
| In prostate circles, the big money lies in cancer screening and treatment, often immediate surgery, radiation and/or chemotherapy. Here the side effects are more dramatic, for they include severe pain, lengthy disability, incontinence, impotence and immune system disruption. Does early intervention save lives or improve the quality of life? No evidence supports this approach. For decades, Swedish men with prostate cancer have been treated with "watchful waiting" until the cancer emerges from the capsule of the prostate and causes symptoms, which statistics show seldom happens. There is no difference in survival rates: a man with untreated prostate cancer is as likely to die of heart disease or other causes 10 to 20 years after diagnosis as he is to die of cancer. The most famous American study verifying the Swedish approach is the SEER program (Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results) conducted by the Center for Evaluative Clinical Sciences in Hanover, N.H. The study found that while prostate cancer increased only modestly in America during the 1980s, prostate surgery increased at the rate of 35 percent per year and even more in some parts of the country. While the surgeries |
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