Non-MPB hair loss on TRT

[FunkOdyssey]

I'm age 41 and still have a full head of hair with no change in my hairline. Older men in my family had a full head of hair in old age, so that and the fact that I haven't lost any yet made me confident that MPB is not something I needed to worry about.

What I thought I understood about TRT was that only men prone to MPB need to be concerned about hair loss -- for those individuals, it will accelerate what would have happened more slowly.

Since increasing my weekly dose from 73.5 to 105 mg, my hair has started shedding at an alarming rate. Every time I run my hands through my hair there are several hairs stuck to my fingers. If this rate of shedding were to continue for some months I think my hair would be visibly thinning.

So my first question would be, is there any reason to think that the first few weeks of an increased dose cause increased shedding that subsides later? Or can I reasonably expect the hair loss that is occurring now to continue at the same rate for as long as I remain at this dose?

My second question is whether the conventional story of MPB is accurate: that you either are prone to it or you are not. Is it not possible that it exists on a spectrum? Is it not also possible that someone without MPB genetic susceptibility could lose hair regardless if you jack your testosterone and DHT levels high enough?

If the alternative hypothesis is correct, then almost everyone on moderate to high doses of TRT should have less hair than they would have without TRT, with the final outcome determined by the interplay of genetics and dose.

I'm interested in both your thoughts about how this works and your personal experience. This has the potential to be a dose-limiting side effect for me, because I'm barely average looking as it stands with a nice head of hair, and I'm not willing to mess around with DHT blockers.

 

[Hyrulewarrior1978]

I'm age 41 and still have a full head of hair with no change in my hairline. Older men in my family had a full head of hair in old age, so that and the fact that I haven't lost any yet made me confident that MPB is not something I needed to worry about.

What I thought I understood about TRT was that only men prone to MPB need to be concerned about hair loss -- for those individuals, it will accelerate what would have happened more slowly.

Since increasing my weekly dose from 73.5 to 105 mg, my hair has started shedding at an alarming rate. Every time I run my hands through my hair there are several hairs stuck to my fingers. If this rate of shedding were to continue for some months I think my hair would be visibly thinning.

So my first question would be, is there any reason to think that the first few weeks of an increased dose cause increased shedding that subsides later? Or can I reasonably expect the hair loss that is occurring now to continue at the same rate for as long as I remain at this dose?

My second question is whether the conventional story of MPB is accurate: that you either are prone to it or you are not. Is it not possible that it exists on a spectrum? Is it not also possible that someone without MPB genetic susceptibility could lose hair regardless if you jack your testosterone and DHT levels high enough?

If the alternative hypothesis is correct, then almost everyone on moderate to high doses of TRT should have less hair than they would have without TRT, with the final outcome determined by the interplay of genetics and dose.

I'm interested in both your thoughts about how this works and your personal experience. This has the potential to be a dose-limiting side effect for me, because I'm barely average looking as it stands with a nice head of hair, and I'm not willing to mess around with DHT blockers.

Whenever there’s a medical intervention of any kind (ie pharmaceuticals, including hormones) there will be negative side effects. This is part of the game unfortunately and is a major reason I would venture to say why many men stop trt or never start even if they have low t symptoms. Like everything in life, there’s a trade off. You could always do topicals, but it’s a lot of upkeep, meaning money and time invested. Some men are more susceptible than others as you already know. It’s possible you may have mpb genes and not know it.

 

[ajax31]

1. Topical finasteride (to limit systemic absorption)
2. Raise your progesterone level
3. Long shot - magnesium threonate supplements

Preventable effect of L-threonate, an ascorbate metabolite, on androgen-driven balding via repression of dihydrotestosterone-induced dickkopf-1 expression in human hair dermal papilla cells - PubMed

In a previous study, we recently claimed that dihydrotestosterone (DHT)-inducible dickkopf-1 (DKK-1) expression is one of the key factors involved in androgen-potentiated balding. We also demonstrated that L-ascorbic acid 2-phosphate (Asc 2-P) represses DHT-induced DKK-1 expression in cultured...

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov