How Does Estrogen Affect Male Hair Follicles? Is Estrogen Anti-dht And Protects The Hair Follicle?

[LicoriceSucks]

This study abstract claims that Estrogen NEGATIVELY affects a WOMAN'S hair follicle: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0040124

Since Finasteride raises Estrogen, and Estrogen can negatively affect the phases of hair growth, can this be the reason why some people don't experience hair growth on Finasteride and must resort to the stronger Dutasteride (which also has more sexual side effects.) ??
source: http://www.hairlosscure2020.com/how-does-finasteride-impact-testosterone-and-estrogen-levels/

I take Finasteride and I have noticed a large amount of water bloating/water retention (stomach area.) I've been eating the same diet for about 10 years now, so I know it's nothing diet-related. I take Finasteride every other day and by day 2 bloating has gone down, but I feel bloated the second I re-dose finasteride.

I always assumed Estrogen is the reason so few women have hair loss, but I could be off the mark here.
If testosterone is Aromatised to Estrogen, can this affect male hair follicles negatively too? Is there any difference in male and female hair follicles or is it only the endogenous hormones that are different?

 

[ManinBlack]

I don't know, there is so many conflicting accounts of what estrogen does, like there is stuff like this, but also there are transgender people, several of which have posted on this website, who have even regrown from slick horseshoes after going on transgender MTF HRT. The users cocona and recedingyt are some examples.

 

[LicoriceSucks]

I don't know, there is so many conflicting accounts of what estrogen does, like there is stuff like this, but also there are transgender people, several of which have posted on this website, who have even regrown from slick horseshoes after going on transgender MTF HRT. The users cocona and recedingyt are some examples.

Hmm, interesting. What hormones do MTF take to transition? Just estrogen/estradiol?

There's so little information about what Estrogen does with hair follicles if anything, and too much focus on DHT (which is obviously not the entire picture either.)

 

[ManinBlack]

They take Spironalactone, a powerful antiandrogen as well as estradiol.

 

[LicoriceSucks]

Bump, would still like some replies and more answers to this question.

 

[yourworld001]

They take Spironalactone, a powerful antiandrogen as well as estradiol.

Are you transexual?

 

[ManinBlack]

Are you transexual?

No.

 

[IdealForehead]

The reason estrogen helps with hair regrowth in MTF trannies is not that estrogen itself is directly beneficial for hair. It's that when you add estrogen systemically, it suppresses production of testosterone and thus DHT.

When trannies go on cyproterone/spironolactone, those drugs will reduce test/DHT somewhat, but at least half of these trannies still need estrogen to hammer their test/DHT levels down to the feminine range.

Overall for them it is a net benefit, because even if estrogen is not great for hair, it's not nearly as bad as test/DHT which are highly hair toxic.

You can recognize that estrogen is not a good hair growth treatment based on the side effects listed for estrogen products for women.

eg. Vagifem: "The most commonly reported side effects of Vagifem® include: headache, breast pain, irregular vaginal bleeding or spotting, stomach/abdominal cramps, bloating, nausea and vomiting, hair loss, fluid retention, and vaginal yeast infection."
https://www.vagifem.com/about/how-it-works

I've never seen an estrogen product that lists hair GROWTH as a side effect, and adding estrogen in postmenopausal women who are losing hair is of no benefit for them and not considered a valid treatment.

Chasing estrogen as a hair loss solution is a dead end, unless you are going the MTF route and trying to suppress your test/DHT with it. In that case it will work, but only indirectly by helping to castrate you.

 

[Switzer]

The effect of estrogen on hair growth is site/gender specific.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15948678

In humans, the effects of oestrogens seem more complex. In vivo, oestradiol prolongs the anagen phase of the hair follicle, which is also evident during pregnancy when an increase in the number of hairs in anagen is seen [84].

Post partum, this excess number of anagen follicles enters telogen resulting in an increase of hair shedding, leading to a transient thinning of the hair. In some countries, oestrogens are employed in the treatment of female pattern hair loss, as trichogram evidence suggests that oestrogens decrease the telogen rate and prolong the anagen phase, although data are very limited [85].

Further evidence comes from the use of aromatase inhibitors, which prevent the synthesis of oestrogens during the treatment of breast cancer; in these women, a common treatment-related side effect is scalp hair thinning [86].

The development of whole follicle in vitro assay systems to investigate hair growth has enabled the effect of individual hormones on hair growth to be investigated. In organ culture of human hair follicles, the biologically active 17β-oestradiol can modulate human hair growth in vitro [87-90].

However, in female occipital scalp, 17β-oestradiol has an inhibitory effect on hair shaft elongation in vitro [88], although it stimulates hair shaft elongation in fronto-temporal male hair follicles in vitro [89,90].

In situ, immunohistochemical studies have shown that ERβ is strongly expressed in human scalp anagen hair follicles in contrast to ERα [13,14,16]. However, to date, there have been no reports of ER expression in human telogen follicles; therefore, it is unclear whether or not ERα expression changes with the human hair cycle as seen in the murine hair cycle where ERα expression is maximal in the telogen follicle [83].

However, the response to oestrogens by human hair follicles in vitro appears to show differences in terms of gender and site. This is clearly a topic for further studies and clarification.