this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2024
494 points (97.7% liked)

News

23667 readers
3864 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

Unfortunately, because it might be the only way to learn about an alternative treatment that wasn't advertised to your doctor.

This was almost exactly my situation and I'm still in favor of banning pharmaceutical advertising to the public because those same ads that drastically improved my life have harmed millions of others.

I'm a transgender man, with a moderate needle phobia. I transitioned over a decade ago, and back then testosterone gel was basically never used for transition (the cost was significantly higher and insurance coverage was almost non-existent back then - I did have insurance coverage though) and there was misinformation around it in the trans community in the rare instance gel was discussed - but the only reason I or pretty much anyone else knew it was an option was the obscene deluge of ads for it. I asked my doctor about it and she figured out the dosing for me. It's been a fantastic choice for me for a lot of reasons beyond just the needle phobia issues.

But testosterone replacement therapy, and Androgel specifically, is a case study in exactly why you don't want this kind of widespread direct to consumer marketing. Androgel basically created a market for their drug through this marketing. Men in their 60s complained about not feeling like they were in their 20s anymore (without any other negative symptoms of low T) and demanded a medication that could have increased their risk of cardiovascular issues and forced them onto the medication permanently, and they didn't even feel 20 again because they're not 20 anymore.