access to gene sperling, don't get to have conversations with gene sperling but what they do get is cutting their teeth, don't have the stature of a woodward, that can intimidate and especially if they only have access to a few people on the inside at the white house, they are not willing to burn bridges. they take the intimidation and don't hit hardback the way woodward would. >> ari, what world do you exist in? >> i do think there are other reporters here who would tell you very similar stories about feeling intimidated by the staff. >> you know, this is unbelievable because the right wing and the right wing echo chamber, they have this narrative that this is a tough chicago-style white house. now, i've dealt with a couple of white house in the last 20-plus years. they are like everybody else. they like to get their point of view out there. they like to get their story out there. and if you're some young reporter and you're afraid to pick up the phone and call gene sperling, call me first. i'll try to get them on the phone with you. these are good people. these are people working

i'm joined now from the white house by gene sperling.e's assistant to the president for economic policy. good to see you, gene. >> thanks for having us. >> so what do you think? will these cuts kick in? >> i think it will be unnecessary. we already cut $2 billion from the deficit. the president is serious enough about his desire to close the deal that he's been willing to keep his offer to speaker boehner on the table. so i think if we could come together and compromise, we could get the rest of the way there and stabilizing our debt, bringing our deficits way below 3% of gdp. and i think it would be unfortunate for anyone at this point to start saying that they should take an absolutist position. they can't have a penny of reven revenue. $800 billion in expenditures and loopholes that could be used to reduce the deficit. how can it be now there's not one penny? that you have to do it all in medicare, education, medicaid, but you can't find one penny of a loophole, tax expenditure even for the most well off american that could be part of

let's talk about what gene sperling had to say and the president said. he proposed last night is paid for. >> i have a hard time believing that. i haven't yet seen it. one of the things we believe as republicans that the democrats and president need to do is produce a budget. it has been four years since the senate has presented a budget. he is all right late. if we can agree on a budget, everything else falls into line. >> what about reports that republicans in the caucus want the sequester to go in and it will produce deeper cuts and you have more leverage to negotiate after that. >> we do believe a true balanced approach the president got, we need spending cuts. there should be more of a shared sacrifice. i like to see entitlement reform and tax to get rid of the tax loopholes. i'm in favor of that, but we have to get to the details. some of the things the president said i agree with, but that nothing will cost money in terms of the deficit, that is stunning. i can't believe that's true. if it is, show us a budget where he believes that's true. >> and

we know who bob woodward says, gene sperling. the head of the economic advisors and out front and center for the president during this whole fight automatic decrease to the automatic increase to spending. >> megyn: and the white house says woodward was threatened releases the entire e-mail, i don't know if it's the entire, but releases the e-mail in which the alleged threat is made so now we have it and it's amazing to see the folks rushing to defend the white house and by the folks, i mean the press rushing to defend the white house, but i will say this is, this is what, how the letter reads in part the e-mail from gene sperling to boob woodward february 22. politicalco. i advise for raising my voice in our conversation today you may not believe this, but as a friend i think you will regret staking out that claim suggesting that the president has moved the goal post in this whole negotiation, not to argue on, he said, but my sincere advice. it's your call, my apologies again about raising my voice, do feel bad about that. >> meg

. ♪ ♪ >> greg: it was the president's economic advisor gene sperling saying he regretted saying thated the goalpost in sequest tration. it hate volleyball metaphors. here is woodward yakking. >> share with viewer what is is going on between you and the white house. >> it makes me uncomfortable to have the white house telling reporters you are going to regret doing something you believe in. >> greg: was sperling giving a threat or friendly advice? be? regret comment translates to you look stupid if you write that, which is how the white house man caned the media on benghazi. remember benghazi? the film "argo" won best picture being about heroic rescue of americans. obama won re-election with the opposite. michelle gave out that oscar, the joke was on us. another joke, what do washington politics and diaper have in common? at the end of the day, both are full of crap. we have obama staffer insuspecting woodward on twitter. is this a government or sorority sleepover? is fluff fluf plouffe braiding s hair? what is a few trillion when kim kardashian is pregnant? the fact, is obama is thri

telling politico he had an e-mail exchange last week with a senior white house adviser who was gene sperlingard says that sperling told him he would come to, quote, regret his version of the sequester negotiations. according to politico, woodward perceived that as a veiled threat and a claim the white house denies and we have the e-mails. joining me now, mark murray. mark, there's been a lot of back and forth on this to say the least. here's the quote in question of an e-mail from the white house aide gene sperling. we'll put it on the screen here. quote, i do truly believe you should rethink your comment about saying that potus asking for revenues is moving the goal post. i know you may not believe this but as a friend i think you will regret staking out that claim. >> craig, having covered politics for a while now, i would say that's some of the nicest brush back an administration official or any type of political aide might end up giving a political reporter. oftentimes we end up getting e-mail that is have curse words attached to them. and people saying not so nice things and you end up

here is the e-mail from gene sperling.y believe you should rethink your comment about saying that the president of the united states asking for revenue is moving the goalpost. i know you may not believe this, but as a friend i think you will regret staking out that claim." what about this back and forth? there have been other reporters since then that have come out and talked about the white house. and the pressure they have felt from the white house. the white house obviously pushed back. very hard today. many on the left. we're back with the panel. charles, your thoughts? >> i respect woodward and he is right on the origin of the sequester and on obama changing the terms by including tax hikes. if you look at the memo in isolation, i don't see it as a slet. for two reasons. number one, after he says you will regret, he says the sentence after sentence explaining what he means is you will rebreted it because your facts are wrong in this instance. the telling aspect is woodward's e-mail response. warm and polite, friendly

the director of the national economic council gene sperling joined us from the white house briefing roomhort time ago. it started out by asking him if anything is done now to stop sequestration from happe happening. >> we have seen the house budget committee leader, van hollen. you have seep patty murray put out. we need a balance approach to further reduction. we reduced the deficit over $2.5 trillion. the president made clear and made clear today that we that his offer to speaker boehner is still on the table. that would cut our deficit another $1.8 trillion, bringing the total deficit reduction to over $4 trillion. so there is a path forward. the path forward is no surprise. it's bipartisan about compromise. it will be entitlement savings and there will also be revenue savings, closing loophole it and the tax expenditures. nobody will get 100% of what they want. that is the balanced way forward to help us avoid a self-inflicted would of a sequester. >> bret: republicans obviously have issue with the $2.5 trillion you talk about. we have can go into that. we have on this show many time

i no gene sperling. i'd i'd like to think of gene as a friend of mine.he knows best, he knows what is right. unless and only if you only listen to him will you get it right. it bespeaks a tone in the white house which i think is unfortunate. an unwillingness to bargain and consider alternatives and a sense that we're right and if you disagree with us, woe unto you p. bill: the story caught fire on its own because wood waord kep woodward kept talking e. was on msnbc here he is with wolf blitzer. >> they said, look we don't see eye to eye on this. they never really said, afterward they said this was factually wrong and it was said to me in an email -- it was said very clearly, you will regret doing this. bill: does the white house expect bob woodward to take on the president? >> well,. bill: is that the bottom line? >> i don't know. what is interesting is that if this is in fact a white house attack on bob woodward it's not because they think he's lying, it's because they believe he's telling the truth about the president and his position to the sequester.

>> gene sperling who is the top economic adviser to the president. he's been in the obama administration since the first day, he was in the clinton administration for almost all eight years, he's known bob woodward for a really, really long time. >> two decades. >> these are two people at the top of their professions battling it out over a public issue. frankly i don't see the e-mail as anything that we should all be shocked or superconcerned about it. i mean, every one of us can produce an e-mail from a white house, it doesn't matter of which party, that is far more ominous than what woodward got. >> what do you think? >> i think the bigger picture is -- the woodward thing is fun to talk about for a couple of days but we're on the verge of the perfectly dysfunctional political equilibrium with the sequester that may perpetuate itself indefinitely. this is happening now, the budget stuff at the end of march where the government may run out of funding, you've got the debt limit again coming back in may or june. so, this is going to stretch on for mont

gene sperling, of the national economic coast. bob mcdonnell, and chief washington correspondent jake tapper and the archbishop of washington will be with us as well. a special edition of "starting point," live in washington, d.c., begins right now. >>> welcome, everybody. north korea producing a nuclear test. the minister says it's a defensive measure against "hostile activity of the united states." and more drastic measures could be on the horizon. the u.n. security council calling an emergency meeting in less than two hours. we begin with jill dougherty live at the state department. jill, good morning. what are we hearing from the white house about this? >> soledad, obviously president obama is condemning this, calling it highly provocative. he issued a statement and said north korea's nuclear weapons and bollistic missile programs constitute a threat to u.s. national security and to international peace and security. and he continued the u.s. remains vigilant in the face of north korean provocations and steadfast in our defense

i know gene sperling. conspiracy of all he's 5'6" or 5'7".t going to bring it at you that way. he's clearly saying you would regret this in terms of your future reputation as a journalist. he's right. woodward got that wrong and that's really what can't be lost here. when woodward said that obama moved the goal post, he's dead wrong and doesn't understand the situation. >> michael: explain that. explain what he's wrong there in terms of the facts. major news outlets are not reporting the facts that were "r" wrong. what are they? >> it's a little bit technical but i'll try. i guess woodward's understanding of the sequestration was that as you recall this legislation called for the creation of a super committee right? the congressional super committee, six from each party to get together and to try to come up with some cuts. and if they didn't come up with some cuts, then these sequestration cuts would kick in--excuse me, if the super committee did in the come up with whatever, a deficit reduction. a very important distinction a mixture of cuts

bob wood ward, we are back to gene sperling. you don't ever have to a poll joiz to me.points and you believe them. i also welcome your personal advice. i am listening. so i asked him today about this exchange and why sperling used that phrase to wood ward, you will regret your reporting. here's what jay had to say. >> in keeping with the demeanor i have been with was incredibly disparaging. referring to him has his friend and apologized for raising his voice. you cannot read those e-mails. come away with the impression that he was threatening anybody. >> i will tell you anyone knows he can get very high spirited and he does raise his voice in phone calls. i personally have never felt threatened. >> context here for this whole spat. this is a huge disagreement over the $85 billion. the deadline is midnight tomorrow. because congress couldn't agree to undo this, this is going to happen. why the meeting tomorrow. you have the usual suspects from congress scheduled to meet with the president and here they are. is there a chance they will be looking down the road in march ta

woodward then revealed that a bhous official, later identified as economic advisor gene sperling saidregret wrying the article. in an e-mail dated last friday sperling writes i apologized for raising my voice in our conversation today. my bad. i do understand your problems with the couple of our statements in the fall, but feel, on the other hand, that you focus on a few specific trees that give a very wrong perception of the forest. perhaps we will not see eye to eye here, but i do truly believe you should rethink your comment about saying that the potus asking for revenues is moving the goal posts. as a friend i think you will regret staking out that claim. >> i read that e-mail, and it seemed fairly benign. bob woodward is saying he felt threatened about it. >> he felt threatened. >> gene sperling is about this high, and he starts out -- he starts out -- he starts out -- right. he starts out his threatening e-mail by apologizing profusely. >> and saying my bad. >> not very good a threat. i have been on the receiving end of threatening phone calls from various white houses. they don

. >> and that white house official is gene sperling, a top economic obama aide. that's according to democrat aware of the situation. listen to what woodward said a white house official said to him. >> they're not happy at all and some people kind of, you know, said, look, we don't see eye to eye on this. they never really said, though, afterwards they've said this is factually wrong and it was said to me in an e-mail by a top white house -- >> what was said? >> it was said very clearly, you will regret doing this. >> who sent that e-mail to you? >> well, i'm not going to say? >> a senior person? >> very senior person. >> first of all, i think a lot of people realize when you're at the white house and the beat you're doing, done many years, you get a lot of pushback, that's what we call in the business, a lot of pushback from the white house when you put out something they don't like. do you think bob woodward has gone a step too far? do you think there's an exaggeration in how this is being portrayed as a threat? >> reporter: you do get pushed back, that's true,

. >> narrator: the president's top economic advisor, gene sperling, ran after ryan. >> sperling jumped up like he'd been sitting in an electric chair, rushed out to mollify him. >> all i was trying to do was to let him know that we did not know they were coming. his response was that he felt the president had poisoned the well. >> ryan was deeply offended by having been put into that position. and his republican friends were even more angry. >> president obama blasted paul ryan's budget this weekend... >> they're furious that the president was so partisan... >> the president took to task in his remarks yesterday... >> narrator: the republicans were outraged. that afternoon, ryan and cantor capitalized on the moment. >> what we got was a speech that was excessively partisan, dramatically inaccurate and hopelessly inadequate to addressing our country's pressing fiscal challenges. >> the only concrete proposal that he proposed was raising taxes, and that solution falls far short of dealing with the kind of crisis that we're facing as far as the debt's concerned in this country. >> narrato

we will talk to president obama's right hand xhan on the economy been gene sperling.nd we will talk about what action or inaction means in corporate america and the markets. among our guests today, larry bossidy. he will be our guest host today. evercore's founding partner, roger altman. >>> in the headlines this morning, royalty pharma is making an $11 a share bid to acquire elon. it hasn't received a formal response, but acknowledges it has been unsuccessful so far in its efforts to engage with the drugmaker since making that offer. shares rising this morning. take a look. also today, voluntarily recalls all lots of anemia treatment in the u.s. by royalty pharma. the drug is used to treat anemia. shares of affy defendant's exhibit madz down sharply in early trading this morning. >>> and hewlett packard announcing it's making a tablet that uses google's operating system. the hp7 will be in a similar size to the amazon fire. hp had a failed attempt back in 2011 with a device based on palm's web os software when it bought that for a nice sum -- actually, it paid way to

gene sperling will join us as well.car nominated director who was detained at l.a.x., guy davidi. it is monday, february 25th, and "starting point" begins right now. >>> welcome, everybody. our starting point, it was oscar's big night. we'll take a look at all the big winners, and they never call them losers, but just nonwinners. all the singing and dancing, all the red carpet fashions. whom was wearing whom to the big dance. also, oscar's most memorable moments like jennifer lawrence taking a tumble. the newly minted best actress was asked about it backstage, and here's what she said. >> the fall on the way up to the stage. >> was that on purpose? absolutely. >> was it a fall? what happened? >> what do you mean what happened? look at my dress. i tried to walk up stairs in this dress. that's what happened. >> much more on oscar's morning after on this special edition of "starting point" this morning. john, good morning again. >>> we have breaking news this morning. just as pope benedict xvi is entering his final days as

here with some insight is director of the national economic council, gene sperling.g, thanks for having us. >> gretchen: give us the 20 second preview. what are we going to hear tonight? >> you're going to hear the focus on what we can do working together in bipartisan way to strengthen the middle class because first that's our goal for economic policy. but we also think that's the engine of future economic growth. a stronger middle class, better educated, working in manufacturing, innovation, entrepreneurship, small business. these are the things that drive further economic growth. we've made a lot of progress since the deep recession of 2009. but this president is going to make very clear we have a lot further to go on job creation, on bringing down the deficit and investing in our people. >> brian: so here we are starting a year five in the first term. the president goes in, saying that we had zero growth in the last quarter and unemployment went up to 7.9. we did a poll here at fox news. does government have a spending problem? 83% say yes. 14% say no. nancy pelo

gene sperling defending the president of the use of executive orders.e's what he had to say. >> the president is going to do whatever is best for deliver results. he can do that through executive orders are action, we will do that, but a lot of the big things we need to do as a country can really only happen if we have bipartisan cooperation. gerri: they're coming. what do you think? >> again, we have seen this playbook. if you look back they have stretched the boundaries of what the president can and should do. they overrule the notion of sending a so-called war at notices in advance of the sequestered. suppose to get layoff notices and that did not. you look at obamacare and they have again and again stretch the boundaries of what the law says to deliver benefits on exchanges and the like to really get the epa, look at race to the top party is basically that bother to reauthorize the notes out left behind law and instead done it all by executive order. there is a place for executive order, but the reality is we have mixed government in the united stat

>> the gene sperling said with respect to medicaid, many of us made the decision to expand and it was based on the deal on the table at the time. 100% for three years. it is pretty clear that this will not change. >> there is going to be a bipartisan messages shou to the president. >> a couple of months ago a total delegation of three democrats and republicans came to washington. we met with the president and vice president. we met with john boehner and his leadership team. we met with harry reid and his leadership team. our message was we think it is very important that governors have a seat of the table -- at the table. we are partners. we wanted to make sure there were a few principles we could lay out. one is to the extent money is taken off of federal spending but he shifted to state spending, that is not accomplished much for our constituents. my view is that that they understood. they have reached out to us. we are pleased with the outrage. the main bipartisan message to us is that governors should continue to have a seat at the table. we know cuts are coming. we do not want to

and gene sperling, one of his top economic aides today, said we'll hear a lot about the economy, deficit entitlement reform. take a listen. >> with we need to reform programs like medicare in a way that still protects that basic guarantee. unfortunately, negotiations, you know, speaker boehner decided to break off associations last december with the -- negotiations last december with the president. that was unfortunate because president obama had significant entitlement reform. >> reporter: you can hear right there gene sperling going after speaker boehner. we're told by some of the president's aides we can expect sort of a tougher tone from the president tonight in terms of, as opposed to sort of reaching out to congress. he realizes this is one of his last chances to have the megaphone in a state of the union before he's really a lame duck president, so he's going to try to prod republicans on some of these issues like jobs and the economy but also deficit reduction as well, arthel. arthel: speaking of speaker boehner, he's going to be sitting right behind the president tonight, and he

we talk to gene sperling and house armed services committee chairman buck mcruen.ramatic aboutface on obamacare and rick scott says he will take federal money to expand medicaid to a million more floridaps. how the effort to include gays and lesbians in the medicare could lead to discrimination against straight couples. "special report" from washington starts at 6:00 eastern. now have back to new york and my colleagues with "the five." ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> greg: a new study suggests that a parent switch channels from violent shows to educationm one to improve a brat's behavior. they found the modest changes faded over time to which i add duh. it's not violence on tv that is harmful. it's the cliches there that kill. for the longest time i thought everyone who had an eye patch was evil. not true. just huppinggarians. tv tells us that tepees are always the smartest family members. that homeless folks are gentle types and never junkies. the doctor acting weird is adorable, not crazy. the geeky girl is secretly beautiful but the religious mom is cold and up feeling and disapprov

>> bret: ed, yesterday, we had gene sperling on with the national economic council of advisors.sked about the warn act, notices sent out 60 days in advance. letter sent out in september saying that the office of management and budget would cover the legal costs if the government were sued, if the companies were sued rather that the employees didn't get the notices and they would pick up all the legal cost. gene didn't have an answer about that. did the omb get back to us today? >> we were asking budget officials today about some of the issues. today they put out some paper that basically said look, it's not even clear the way the warn act is written that the layoff notices, the furlough notices have to go out, because there are evidents made to shut off the sequester. so it's not clear that the sequester will go forward, though a lot of people think it will. it's not clear that the legal cost, for people suing the contractors over losing their job they have to be covered. bottom line, there are decisions issued by the both to suggest that the legal costs would have to be picked

now, whether gene sperling meant to be threatening, my nest given says it comes down from the top. you say the chief sets the tone. >> the culture. the president has been running around like an attack dog, scaring the hell out of the american public, at best being somewhat disingenuous about the sequester, which was his idea. plenty of time since 2011 to do something about it. and i step badge and if i had a message to the american public there isn't a corporation in the united states, if you have a business that is 100 million you're telling me you can't take out 2.3% in costs? >> neil: has to draw back the harsh rhetoric, and from the top he has been saying, we face hell tomorrow. so, if we don't, he has got to somehow then say, everything i said up to this was either wrong or i was scaring you. isn't he going to be sort of like the guy who kept crying wolf? >> the truth of the matter is he is not acting as a leader. a leader brings in his sub bored nantzs, whether they be democrats and run are yous and sit around the table and say, we have a problem. let's work on the solution.

gene sperling is director of the national economic council and adviser for the president. good to talk to you. the president want to replace forced cuts with a deal that includes tax revenue. i don't entirely get it because if revenues were so important to the deal, why didn't he put them in there in the first place 19 months ago? >> i'm happy to explain that. i think everybody who was there remembered exactly how it happened, which was there was a long negotiation that included the president and speaker boehner. we had agreed to an amount of cuts on dishcretionary spending, boast domestic and defense. as you remember, what kept us from coming to the big agreement is we couldn't quite reach an agreement on the amount of entitleme entitlements, things like medicare savings, and the amount of revenue. there was significant revenue, at least $800 million on the table from republicans, but we didn't come to a deal. as we were working out how to avoid going into default, there was an agreement we needed an enforcement mechanism that would be so painful for both sides, that woul

and joining us now from the white house, director of the national economic council, gene sperling., josh green and michael steele. >> what is the president going to say tonight that will get people back and back to work. >> we are not setting him up. >> not for failure at all. especially on the issue of getting america back to work. >> the president is going to talk about the things we need to do to make united states the magnet for job creation that we need to be in the global economy. that is going to mean calling for bipartisan effort to go further on reducing the deficit and he will say that's not all we have to do. we have to have innovation and manufacturing and the energy future. these are all part of the ingredients with skills to the type of higher wage growth and he will make clear we have made progress. the deficit has come down, but not far enough. he will also make clear we have a lot further to go. we will work and be willing to compromise to make that progress for little class americans. >> while we were talking, we showed a poll about the most important issues facin

but i also asked the president's, one of his top economic advisers, gene sperling, this morning whatdent would say about energy. for example, would he announce his support for the keystone pipeline? here's what sperling said. >> the president thinks that energy is a critical part of our economic future, and he will certainly talk about that, and he'll talk about that in many ways but most specifically on the importance of what that can mean not just for our energy security, but for our economic security and for jobs and innovation in our economy. >> reporter: so i didn't get an answer, obviously. [laughter] now, on the question of spending cuts and how serious the president would get about proposing those, speaker boehner told reporters this morning, quote: >> r eporter: and by the way, the senate democratic leader, harry reid, said that he would have his first meeting in quite a while with speaker boehner later this week. david and liz? david: all right. well, you asked the right question. it wasn't for want of trying that you didn't get an answer of some kind. thank you, peter. we'

. >> gene sperling told bob woodward that he might regret this reporting. what was intended by that? >> i don't think it would be a responsible thing to ask that question in the context of the full e-mail since we don't know what the full e-mail said. the e-mails incredibly respectful and referred to mr. woodward has his friend and apologized for raising his voice. i think you cannot read those e-mails and come away with the impression that gene was threatening anybody and as i think others have observed. the point though, which reporters would pay attention to the policy substance of that e-mail because the point that gene was making was a point that i and others have made and the president has made. this is really important policy and one thing that is absolutely irrefutable is that the president from day one of signing the budget control act has been absolutely clear in dealing with deficit reduction going forward and in replacing and eliminating the sequester he believed we had to have balance. you would have to have your head in the sand not to know th

. >> according to "democrat aware," the situation, the top economic aide for the president, gene sperlings the one who warned woodward that he would regret his reporting. the white house has responded saying no threat was intended as mr. woodward noted, the e-mail from the aide was sent to apologize for voices being raised in their previous conversation. the note suggested that mr. woodward would regret the observation he made regarding the sequester because that observation was inaccurate, nothing more. the white house says woodward responded to the e-mail in a friendly manner. >>> well, history now in the making. we're watching this closely. the dow flirting with a new high, hovering below the last record high of, 14,164. we're now looking at 14,091. last record set october 9, 2007. alison kosik joining us. tell us what this means as we keep a close eye on this? >> reporter: it means investors are feeling optimistic. the way the market has been since beginning of january, it's been this moving freight train. a lot of investors, they vaebt been wanting to miss this train, especially sinc

we heard from gene sperling earlier on "morning joe" that he is xlitd to entitlements.n the table. is he willing to do what john boehner today with reporters said he wasn't willing to do, which is have the guts to challenge his base and make some really tough decisions, call for some tough decisions on entitlements? >> well, i'm not going to speak for the president who is more than capable of speaking for himself tonight. i guess i find it ironic that john boehner would be talking about an unwillingness to challenge his base, if you look at the history of the last two years, and the white house's continual attempts to find common ground and really to find a brand bargain, a big fix, which, unfortunately, the congressional republicans have never been willing to really consider, but i think that this president has shown that perseverance and sticking to the task at hand is really one of his great strengths. you know, state of the unions are the story of america, and every year it's a time to take account of where we are and for the president to say where he thinks we need

. >>> then the threat of massive spending cuts hanging over the market, coming up i'll talk to gene sperlinghouse today. they want more revenue. representative tom cole says more taxes are off the table. is there any hope of a compromise to be reached? back in a moment. , , you should know that axiron is here. the only underarm treatment for low t. that's right, the one you apply to the underarm. axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18. axiron can transfer to others through direct contact. women, especially those who are or who may become pregnant, and children should avoid contact where axiron is applied as unexpected signs of puberty in children or changes in body hair or increased acne in women may occur. report these signs and symptoms to your doctor if they occur. tell your doctor about all medical conditions and medications. do not use if you have prostate or breast cancer. serious side effects could include increased risk of prostate cancer; worsening prostate symptoms; decreased sperm count; ankle, feet, or body swelling; enlarged or painful breasts; problems breathi