I just heard an ad on the radio for a prescription pill (don’t recall the name) to treat men with advanced prostate cancer. One of the warnings was that it may cause harm to an unborn child. How could that work?
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Finestride works by interfering with the body’s ability to recognize and react to Androgens.
Androgens are responsible for creating (most of) the sex differences between men and women. When a person with XY chromosomes has congenital androgen insensitivity (a condition called AIS), they are born female (but may be infertile) despite having male chromosomes.
A few decades ago, pharmaceutical researchers investigated a phenomenon among a group of people in the Dominican Republic called [the guevedoces](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BCevedoce) who are born with female physiology and then at around the age of 12, spontaneously grow male genitalia and develop as fairly normal young men.
The chemical responsible was isolated and turned into the drug Finestride. It is used to retard androgenic conditions such as enlarging prostates and male pattern baldness.
Because of the potential to influence development, it is generally indicated to avoid use if a person can become pregnant. It’s also been shown to efficiently absorb through the skin.
In fact there is a new topical hair spray foam that includes finestride for topical application in baldness. But it works by absorbing into the bloodstream generally.
There is basically no direct evidence a pregnant woman can absorb enough to harm a fetus. The directions fall under the “Better safe than sorry” principle.
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