I guess it's important to know the calculations though, I admit I'm still confused. What I will say is that I've definitely seen inflated anti-finasteride stats and articles, but even for research defending finasteride it's hard to know what's real.
Is there like a finasteride megathread for this kinda thing? The only articles I've read from this forum are fairly anecdotal and inconclusive, even if interesting.
Eg:
http://www.menshealth.com/health/hair-raising-effect
My experience with male pattern baldness have amplified my general resentment, bitterness, and paranoia about the health/medical/pharmaceutical sector. I already had these from the experience of watching my father waste away from poor care of his prostate cancer, my experiences with anti-depressants during the period 2009-2011, and other factors.
In the context of this case, what we have with finasteride is a general smoke cloud of parasitic bull****. The clinical trial papers are clearly flawed, as has been documented, they are likely underestimating the rate of side effects, which is by now well-documented. We know what the rules are in the USA: For a drug to be approved you only need to submit two successful clinical trials. They could have twenty trials that are unsuccessful and not submitted. That leaves us with relying on anecdotal reports online, testimonials, PFS-researchers with limited resources, and so on to better understand the side effects. You're barely more knowledgeable there than in supplementing with illegal RU58851.
You're asking for rigorous finasteride statistics, but you won't get them from Merck due to conflict of interest, and you won't get them from PFS researchers due to lack of resources.
The main alternative to this is the army of snake-oil salesmen selling expensive laser combs, saw palmetto pills, liquid biotin, and this forum knows what else, promising results, vacuuming money, and delivering nothing in return, destroying lives.