Pharmaceutical authorities in Navarre, Spain, have warned consumers after discovering that a popular drug to combat baldness could be linked to the development of hyperhair called “werewolf syndrome” in women. newborns.
In Spain, pharmacovigilance authorities are concerned about a possible link between the development of hyperhair in several babies and the taking of treatment for baldness or alopecia by their father.
The Spanish newspaper El País reports that the Navarre pharmacovigilance center (FEDRA) has carried out an investigation into a “serious adverse effect” of minoxidil, a treatment sold without a prescription which aims to slow down hair loss in cases of baldness. According to them, this drug could be the cause of “werewolf syndrome”.
Gabriela Elizondo, head of the pharmacovigilance control department of Navarre, explains to the Spanish daily that this problem was identified “after the notification of a case of an infant who for two months saw hairs appear on the back, legs and thighs as he grew.”
Around ten cases in Europe
This initial investigation revealed that the infant's father was using a lotion “with 5% minoxidil topically for the treatment of androgenic alopecia” and that he was on parental leave to care for his son, “which allowed her to spend a lot of time with him.”
All cases of hypertrichosis – the medical name for this phenomenon – in babies in Spain were thus reviewed and this made it possible to highlight six other cases in children aged 9 months or less whose fathers had uses minoxidil. By expanding the study to a European database, health authorities realized that this concerned a total of 11 babies in Europe.
This anomaly is, however, reversible. The Spanish newspaper reports that once the minoxidil treatment was stopped, the affected babies' symptoms completely disappeared. Since then, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has nevertheless modified the information which appears on the leaflet of pharmaceutical products containing minoxidil. The agency considers that there is “a reasonable possibility” that the use of this product and the development of this hair disorder are linked.
Precedents from five years ago
In detail, Gabriela Elizondo, however, calls for caution to the extent that it is difficult to say how this exposure to the product is transmitted from father to child. According to initial hypotheses, this could be explained by simple skin-to-skin contact, given that babies' skin is thinner than that of adults. This could also be due to indirect oral administration, through a potential suction effect.
Health authorities therefore recommend cleaning your hands thoroughly after using any minoxidil-based medication and preferably avoiding any physical contact with babies after use.
This is not the first time that such a case has arisen in Spain. Already in 2019, at least 17 children in Spain grew hair all over their bodies after taking the wrong medicine following a labeling error. Parents noticed that their children were developing abnormal hair growth after ingesting a medication supposed to soothe gastric reflux. It was actually minoxidil.
Jeanne Bulant Journalist BFMTV
