Let's settle this: Does masturbation cause hair loss?

[Lokus423]

This age old question needs an answer. By masturbation I mean everything including: prolonged sexual arousal, edging (stopping before climax and then resuming), orgasm etc.

Why can't someone do a proper analysis of all the studies linking Prolactin to increase in DHT or sexual arousal to increase in infection fighting cells in the body? Before you equate sex with masturbation, know this: edging is not a normal practice, only by the means of pornography has men started engaging in the practice of edging. Having multiple orgasms everyday cannot be normal in nature either. In nature, man is preoccupied with surviving, hunting and solving the problems of life. Sex is something ritualistic that happens few and far between those things:

"Chimp in state of nature never jerks off, but in captivity he does"

Why do many men report itching and red scalp post-orgasm? I don't want this thread to be derailed into a sex versus masturbation thread because I ultimately think it is a false equivalence.

 

[I wont lose this]

Dude, jerk off as much as you want. Starting the day without triathlon (shitting, jerking off and showering) doesn't make you feel alive to go face the following hours.

 

[Hairful]

Yes, practice strict abstinence if you want hair on your head

 

[mminh]

I believe that too much masturbation can lead to hair loss in the form of telogen effluvium and slow down your recovery.

From the human body's priority point of view, survival and reproduction are the highest priority. Sperm production is a high resource demand. Too much masturbation can make your body stressed, and led to telogen effluvium. And if you are recovering, it can slow your progress too. Too much of something is never a good thing.

 

[Lokus423]

I believe that too much masturbation can lead to hair loss in the form of telogen effluvium and slow down your recovery.

From the human body's priority point of view, survival and reproduction are the highest priority. Sperm production is a high resource demand. Too much masturbation can make your body stressed, and led to telogen effluvium. And if you are recovering, it can slow your progress too. Too much of something is never a good thing.

I believe this too. I also think it is important to distinguish between different types of hair loss. I think your remark is correct by linking Masturbation to specifically Telogen Effluvium, but I do not think that Masturbation can cause Androgenic Alopecia because then I should already be NW7 by now and I know guys who are younger than me that are already on their way to NW7. Maybe you have done some research yourself, by what mechanism does Masturbation lead to Telogen Effluvium you think? Is it nutritional deficiency, hormonal change etc? Any studies to confirm the validity of this?

 

[mminh]

I believe this too. I also think it is important to distinguish between different types of hair loss. I think your remark is correct by linking Masturbation to specifically Telogen Effluvium, but I do not think that Masturbation can cause Androgenic Alopecia because then I should already be NW7 by now and I know guys who are younger than me that are already on their way to NW7. Maybe you have done some research yourself, by what mechanism does Masturbation lead to Telogen Effluvium you think? Is it nutritional deficiency, hormonal change etc? Any studies to confirm the validity of this?

Yes, I think masturbation doesn't cause Androgenic Alopecia.

I don't research much about this topic. I think that sperm production is a very demanding resource process, and it has high priority. If you continue to ejaculate, your body would be stressed and it can lead to telogen effluvium. You can see pregnant women normally have lower hair quality and quantity, but their hair will come back. In nature, animals that are pregnant, or in their mating period all decrease their quality overall.

 

[Hairful]

I think that sperm production is a very demanding resource process, and it has high priority.

Why is it very demanding process than any other body process?

 

[mminh]

Why is it very demanding process than any other body process?

1. I think survival and reproduction are the highest priority in the human body's function. So between things not an emergency like regrowth hair and reproducing sperm, the latter will always come first.

2. I think sperm reproduce are demanding process, by observing in nature. Animals in mating season always have a worse taste. You can see women when pregnant always have lower skin/ hair quality and quantity.
If you want a study, here is an article about male macaques using 0.8% - 6% of their BMR for ejaculate production per day during the breeding season: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10329-005-0171-7

 

[Capone]

Anything that raises DHT isn’t good for free circulation to attach to follicles and choke them weak pos

 

[infamousrodi]

No

 

[Lokus423]

Anything that raises DHT isn’t good for free circulation to attach to follicles and choke them weak pos

Are you suggesting that Masturbation raises DHT in this case?

 

[losingbattle88]

Are you suggesting that Masturbation raises DHT in this case?

It spikes dht yes. But it doesnt matter if take finasteride.

 

[mminh]

There is this study about masturbation and testosterone: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11760788/

"Orgasm increased blood pressure, heart rate, plasma catecholamines and prolactin. These effects were observed both before and after sexual abstinence. In contrast, although plasma testosterone was unaltered by orgasm, higher testosterone concentrations were observed following the period of abstinence"

According to that. Testosterone doesn't change much before and after ejaculation. But if you don't ejaculate for weeks, your testosterone will rise.

 

[Lokus423]

prolactin

Yes, but what effect does prolactin have on the hair? If I am correct, prolactin acts as a cooling agent for sexual desire post-orgasm. So people with higher prolactin should in theory have less sexual desire but what about those with very high sexual desire, is prolactin weak in these people? If prolactin is weak in people who masturbate a lot (this is my inference, not sure it is scientifically true) shouldn't it mean that prolactin cannot be the cause of hair loss in these people because if they had higher prolactin levels they wouldn't have the desire to masturbate?

 

[mminh]

I'm sorry I don't have an answer bro. You can ask here or research a bit for yourself. Search the keyword "prolactin" in this forum and I'm sure this was discussed many times before.

 

[MikeJay]

Yes, but what effect does prolactin have on the hair? If I am correct, prolactin acts as a cooling agent for sexual desire post-orgasm. So people with higher prolactin should in theory have less sexual desire but what about those with very high sexual desire, is p

rolactin weak in these people? If prolactin is weak in people who masturbate a lot (this is my inference, not sure it is scientifically true) shouldn't it mean that prolactin cannot be the cause of hair loss in these people because if they had higher prolactin levels they wouldn't have the desire to masturbate?

Prolactin is actually several times lower during masterbation than during real sex in one study

 

[pegasus2]

Prolactin is actually several times lower during masterbation than during real sex in one study

Another study showed that prolactin increases massively even before orgasm. I think it's about 20 minutes in. I guess it's your body's way of saying "that's enough". If you keep going after that you are flooding your hair follicles with one of the most potent catagen inducing chemicals, that probably causes permanent upregulation of the androgen receptor. If you must m masturbate do it quickly and be done with it. If you edge regularly you will go bald faster and get prostate cancer.

 

[likelycorrect]

Prolactin definitely has something to do with Androgenetic Alopecia given the HMI-115 MOA and its results. That's in addition to the mechanistic evidence of its negative effects on the follicle. From Prolactin and Its Receptor Are Expressed in Murine Hair Follicle Epithelium, Show Hair Cycle-Dependent Expression, and Induce Catagen:

"Addition of PRL (400 ng/ml) to anagen hair follicles in murine skin organ culture for 72 hours induced premature catagen development in vitro along with a decline in the number of proliferating hair bulb keratinocytes. These data support the intriguing concept that PRL is generated locally in the hair follicle epithelium and acts directly in an autocrine or paracrine manner to modulate the hair cycle"

Good to note that they do say here that its generated locally - so does it matter if your serum prolactin goes up from masturbating? Perhaps its only the "scalp prolactin" that does, to borrow the way we talk about T/DHT where it counts.

Everything else aside, if anyone who masturbates too frequently wants to do an experiment where they go cold turkey and take progress photos it could be useful for us. Probably the safest experiment we would have come up with here given the crazy stuff some people are doing...might as well give it a shot and get two birds with one stone.

 

[likelycorrect]

The answer is two-fold.
1.Serum prolactin does matter if it's higher than normal. Hyerprolacinenemia(high serum prolactin) causes severe hair loss in the Androgenetic Alopecia pattern.
2.Even worse, masturbation promotes prolactin in the prostate and penile tissue rather than just the pituitary gland. Hair follicles likely have the same promoter so intrafollicular prolactin likely also rise sharply.

Precisely the type of answer I was after, thank you. Question is then if the temporary rise after masturbation actually adds up to being enough to make any appreciable difference.

 

[likelycorrect]

Depends how long and how often you masturbate

Suppose an upper bound of 4 times a day. If this turns out not to mean anything then (hopefully) 99% of the population can relax.