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The Hollow Men of Hims

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Re: The Hollow Men of Hims

#261

Post by jjcob »

ProfessorLayton wrote: post #243
jjcob wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WTF? Why offer a "pause" on your subscription at all? The only reason to do that is to trick customers. If the company was honest, they'd get confirmation before resuming the subscription. I hate that companies use sleazy practices like this all the time, and then people are like "well it's your fault for not reading the fine print".

Pausing unlocks bulk pricing for customers taking meds as-needed (ED pills etc.). I'm not sure about Hims pricing since they require a questionare/login, but similar sites offer a sizable discount for larger quantities, and then it's just pause/unpause as needed.

I guess my question was "why offer a pause that ends after 6 months when you have surely forgotten about it"

Re: The Hollow Men of Hims

#262

Post by collingreen »

potato3732842 wrote: post #197
sshine wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m 39 and I see my doctor once a year, at most. This year I had a urinary thing. Last year and the year before that I had a rash. The year before that I didn’t go. For all of my twenties I went three times. She still remembers me just fine, asking how is my CrossFit doing. I see my wife’s doctor more often than my own because he is also our newborn son’s doctor. They both have thousands of patients. The waiting room…

>She still remembers me just fine, asking how is my CrossFit doing. That's because just before she walks in she reads your chart.

Which seems plenty good enough for the care op wants

Re: The Hollow Men of Hims

#263

Post by atombender »

yold__ wrote: post #12

Semaglutide / GLP-1 compounding is not limited to just Hims. Lot's of pharmacies do it. The manufacturer (Novo Nordisk) charges 5x-10x for the exact same thing. The author calls the GLP-1s used in compounding "Chinese Knockoffs", but offers no evidence of quality control problems, and is instead relying on the reader's prejudices. GLP-1 drugs may be a game-changer for obesity and diabetes, the same way that cholester…

There are concerns around safety. Compounding is somewhat controversial because they produce versions of FDA-approved drugs that are not FDA-approved, and may use chemical formulations (such as semaglutide salts) that aren't FDA-approved. [1]

The problem isn't that compounding pharmacies provide cheap versions of the same drug, it's that the compounding process doesn't produce exactly the same drug, and hasn't undergone the same stringent quality controls as Wegovy etc.

Ideally, these drugs should be cheap. The compounding is only done because there's a loophole that provides a market opportunity. The correct solution would be to improve the regulations in a way that would let more manufacturers produce safe generics.

[1] https://www.goodrx.com/classes/glp-1-agonists/compounded-sem...

Re: The Hollow Men of Hims

#264

Post by LordDragonfang »

sarchertech wrote: post #29
LordDragonfang wrote: post #10

This buried lede is really the core of the article: > They make these choices not because the products are better, but because the entire experience has been optimized to feel more like shopping and less like confronting the mortality and vulnerability that define the human condition. This is what disruption looks like when applied to the oldest human needs: not improvement, but the illusion of improvement And contra…

Take the case of a antibiotics. A large percentage of people want their doctor to prescribe them antibiotics when they have a virus. It’s been shown that doctors who over-prescribe antibiotics get better patient reviews for example. Now you have a “better UX” that pops up that gives people exactly what they want. They answer a few questions on a website and they get an antibiotic prescription. There is no way for the…

Your example is not a comparable case.

In the case of antibiotics, they provably will not work beyond a placebo.

Despite the article's hang-wringing and attempts to brand them as "chinese knock offs", Hims boner pills work just fine because they're the exact same medication as the stuff you get from wading through the establishment.

Re: The Hollow Men of Hims

#265

Post by ryandrake »

FeloniousHam wrote: post #213
ryandrake wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea the US healthcare system is truly, truly awful, but that does not justify a turn to supplements, quackery, faith healers and witch doctors. The fact that people are turning towards these things should be a wake up call to the medical system, but then again the medical system misses wake up calls over and over…

I like the US healthcare system? At least my on-the-ground, lived experience into middle age has been great. I've always had high-deductible insurance through my employer, never had a problem getting a specialist (even during the supposedly horrible HMO years) or special service, eg. MRI. With an HSA, I'm basically self-insured for everything short of something catastrophic. I don't know if I'm an outlier in this Ame…

Just looking at pricing, I am lucky enough to have a similar insurance setup, yet we are still vulnerable to unlucky pricing and uncertainty about what insurance will cover. The price you pay is an unknown power law distribution random number with an unbounded upper value.

Re: The Hollow Men of Hims

#266

Post by ljf »

sizzle wrote: post #233
ljf wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to add, for anyone considering using minoxidil and/or finasteride - I can highly recommend both for the recovery of my hairloss. But - read up in the side effects and potential risks, they can both cause other issues in some people, and for me it took a while to find the right finasteride dose. Another downside is oral finasteride use means I can no longer give blood.

Did it fill in your crown area??

It is far better than it was, my thinning was definitely crown but also hairline - I went for a walk one day and got really wet and when I looked in the mirror I could see just how thin my hair was. I've applied liquid minoxidil for 5 years now, and it reversed the balding to a good degree, but my hair is still thinner than it was at 30, but it is far far better than it was at 40. I've been using finasteride (tablets 1mg ever 3 days) for a year and it has certainly helped, but at my low dose I expect it to be another year before I know if it is really making a good difference.

My hair is very grey now which I think makes it also look thinner, but I don't want to dye it - though I tried Alpecin 'grey targeting shampoo' and it turned my hair blue... Not a good look for the office and extra visible in video calls

Re: The Hollow Men of Hims

#267

Post by sshine »

potato3732842 wrote: post #197
sshine wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m 39 and I see my doctor once a year, at most. This year I had a urinary thing. Last year and the year before that I had a rash. The year before that I didn’t go. For all of my twenties I went three times. She still remembers me just fine, asking how is my CrossFit doing. I see my wife’s doctor more often than my own because he is also our newborn son’s doctor. They both have thousands of patients. The waiting room…

>She still remembers me just fine, asking how is my CrossFit doing. That's because just before she walks in she reads your chart.

My chart doesn’t mention my hobbies. But yes, she does read my chart. It’s not very interesting.

Re: The Hollow Men of Hims

#268

Post by selfhoster11 »

eurleif wrote: post #255
throw10920 wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The number of times the article specifically calls out "shady Chinese knockoffs" is honestly, actually, racism. Factually incorrect. A country is not a race. You cannot be racist against a country, by definition, and China in particular has a very well-documented pattern of making low-quality clones of products from other countries (often using IP stolen from those countries), so the concern is well-justified. More…

It's interesting to consider why criticisms of China in particular are often interpreted as racism. No one makes the same accusation if you criticize America. Part of the explanation may be that China is much more ethnically homogenous: Han Chinese are 92% of the population. It seems that in the name of opposing racism, people are effectively rewarding China for being an ethnostate.

> It's interesting to consider why criticisms of China in particular are often interpreted as racism.

Astroturfing of the criticism of China = racism view is presumably a part of it. I don't consider investigating bot account networks to be a hobby of mine, so no, I don't think it's "interesting to consider."

Re: The Hollow Men of Hims

#269

Post by selfhoster11 »

827a wrote: post #86
yold__ wrote: post #12

Semaglutide / GLP-1 compounding is not limited to just Hims. Lot's of pharmacies do it. The manufacturer (Novo Nordisk) charges 5x-10x for the exact same thing. The author calls the GLP-1s used in compounding "Chinese Knockoffs", but offers no evidence of quality control problems, and is instead relying on the reader's prejudices. GLP-1 drugs may be a game-changer for obesity and diabetes, the same way that cholester…

Agreed. The number of times the article specifically calls out "shady Chinese knockoffs" is honestly, actually, racism. If there's evidence that Hims' drugs are harmful: Present it. The article doesn't. I know tons of people who have used Hims and companies like it, for a variety of things. I'm aware of no specific or general problems anyone has had with their medication.

China provably has seen issues with adulteration of food: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal

That is not to say that Hims's drugs were unsafe, or that they even came from China to begin with. What I am saying, is that it's not racism to mention that Chinese products are, in fact, occasionally shady (of poor quality).

Re: The Hollow Men of Hims

#270

Post by selfhoster11 »

827a wrote: post #89
parpfish wrote: post #30

> The genius of Hims lies in understanding that consumers will pay almost any premium to avoid the humiliation of discussing erectile dysfunction or hair loss with an actual human being. Does the telemedicine appeal to people because they want to avoid embarrassment, or because they know that traditional doctors will schedule you for an appointment three months out just to say “have you tried getting better sleep, lo…

Every human is just one "are you drinking enough water? how much water are you drinking" interaction with their doctor away from instant radicalization against the traditional healthcare system. You can really tell the author of this article hasn't yet actually had to use the non-emergent American healthcare system for anything significant.

You really should be drinking water, though. I get all sorts of odd effects that aren't obviously linked to not drinking enough water. I increased my intake for a few days and they all disappeared.
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