Progesterone

[1750]

Hi Guys -

The best results I've had was using an expensive minoxidil that had a 0.25%proportion of progesterone in it?

What is progesterone meant to do? does this fight DHT in any way?

thanks

 

[bubka]

progesterone is a female androgen, off the top of my head i know it signals menstruation when it drops, also stays elevated during pregnancy

as for hair, who knows, maybe it helps with hair grown, i doubt it has any effect on dht

 

[Bryan]

Progesterone is a mild-to-moderate 5a-reductase inhibitor. I've posted about that many times in the past.

 

[bubka]

it actually inhibits, or binds to the hair follicle dht receptors thus inhibiting?

 

[Bryan]

it actually inhibits, or binds to the hair follicle dht receptors thus inhibiting?

A little of both, according to Orentreich. Below is an old post of mine from alt.baldspot:

Here are some comments from a well-known authority in dermatology, Dr. Norman Orentreich, in his article: "Biology of Scalp Hair Growth", Clinics in Plastic Surgery -- Vol. 9, No. 2, 1982:

"Local Therapy
[...] Progesterone was found to be a natural and significant 5aR inhibitor when tested in vitro, in the human skin microsome system, a rich source of 5aR, and in human scalp hair follicles. When a solution of progesterone in alcohol was applied to the pubic skin of normal males, it caused an average decrease of 75.2 per cent in 5aR activity after 24 hours of treatment.

"Moreover, while less DHT is made, more dihydroprogesterone (DHP; 5a-pregnane-3,20dione) is made. DHP competes with the residual DHT for the cytosol-nuclear binding protein for a further reduction in the amount of DHT interacting with genetic material.

"Progesterone works in reducing DHT production locally by competing for the active site of 5aR and would need to be present at the active site continuously because of the reversible kinetics. Treatment lapses result in the resumption of DHT production from testosterone.

"Since progesterone only partially inhibits DHT production and since DHP only partially inhibits binding of residual DHT, local progesterone at best can only ameliorate androgenetic alopecia and not arrest it.

"Because more than 70 per cent of topically applied progesterone is metabolized in the skin to weak, nonandrogenic by-products, it can be used in women at the rate of 1 ml of a 2 per cent solution BID, whereas higher doses result in menstrual irregularities."

Also, this would be a good place to mention what Sawaya and Shapiro said in their review article "Alopecia: Unapproved Treatments or Indications", Clinics in Dermatology 2000;18:177-186: "Most therapeutic indications for progesterone are for ovarian disorders and contraception. Off-label uses have indicated variable effectiveness as a topical agent for treating Androgenetic Alopecia at 2% concentrations. We have not found that topical progesterone is of great value in the treatment of Androgenetic Alopecia".

So again, it looks like topical progesterone might help a little, but it's nothing to write home about.

 

[bubka]

yeah, i know that a lot of the hormones are pretty good at being able to diffuse through cell membranes, which is a problem with many topicals

 

[1750]

Thanks for the above information.....

so a combo of spironolactone and progesterone is fine then? and not counteracting each other....