Re: My reply to extension shift…
u/drwillpowers
r/DrWillPowers2026-10-08T16:05:34Z
Dr Will Powers’ own statements and theorizing
Mentions treatments or doses — not guidance
Summary (paraphrased)
Reacting to a community member's discovery of a twelve-year-old propeciahelp comment that independently derived the neurosteroid-excess model, Powers says the remaining barrier to treatment is characterizing each patient's specific neurosteroid profile and then "calibrating reversal." He says all the necessary information sat available for over a decade while researchers pursued only the allopregnanolone angle, and contrasts that with a year's rapid progress under the new model.
Key points (paraphrased)
- Current stated program: measure the patient-specific neurosteroid profile, then calibrate reversal.
- Retrospective claim: the data supporting the model existed for 12+ years; only the allopregnanolone frame was pursued.
- A year of progress under the new model framed as faster than the prior decade.
- 32 upvotes — one of his most-endorsed recent comments.
Why it’s in the corpus
The most explicit statement yet of his current treatment program (profile → calibrated reversal) and a theory-history marker: an independent, pre-existing derivation of the model from a forum archive. Connects to the five-phenotype framing in tranche-2.
Context — the post Powers was replying toVerbatim third-party text, shown for context only — not Powers’ statement. Usernames removed.ShowHide
Replies to [username removed] in the "My reply to Extension Shift" thread, who argued the subreddit's post was defending Powers rather than criticizing the Melcangi group — while adding their own criticism that the Melcangi group's direction (rat work, then dopamine mapping) was low-return given that forum members had been "on the nose" about the mechanism over a decade earlier, whereas Powers rebuilt the model from scratch.
(Comment text and parent context recovered from the r.genit.al mirror on 2026-10-09; post-dates John's 2026-10-07 export.)
Some fields on this page come from the release’s Markdown edition, which carries text the JSON edition omits.
Related records
- Powers · Reddit commentCurated Powers pick
Re: Pssd an odd signal can pssd people keep an eye…
u/drwillpowers · r/DrWillPowers
In his PSSD lab-signal request thread, Powers reports that PSSD patients trying zuranolone had horrific effects. His point, he stresses, is not that all PSSD is high-neurosteroid — but that some cases could be, and ignoring the possibility is unwise…
PRH-15172026-07-15T15:17:25ZPFSPSSDPowers Reddit history - Powers · Reddit commentCurated Powers pick
Re: My reply to extension shift…
u/drwillpowers · r/DrWillPowers
Powers marvels that a non-physician reached the same conclusion he did about the mechanism a decade ago using only forum access, calling it astounding and expressing a wish to know who the author was.
PRH-15342026-10-07T23:16:50ZPowers Reddit history