What Do You Think Is Worse For Hair Loss - High Testosterone Or Low ?

[Feelsbadman]

Which is worse for hair loss
having low test or high test?

 

[GoldenMane]

If you have low testosterone then you have low DHT. If you have low DHT and androgenic allopecia, then your scalp must be very DHT sensitive. That's not good.
If you have high testosterone then you might not have super sensitive scalp so maybe anti androgens might help

 

[jgray201]

Personally, i think high test is worse for hair loss. I have only been able to stabilise hair loss by using an anti-androgen. finasteride and dutasteride only seemed to accelerate frontal hair loss for me.

 

[diffuse_thinner]

If you have low testosterone then you have low DHT. If you have low DHT and androgenic allopecia, then your scalp must be very DHT sensitive. That's not good.
If you have high testosterone then you might not have super sensitive scalp so maybe anti androgens might help

I could be wrong but I've read that lower testosterone can mean more DHT as production increases to compensate.

 

[diffuse_thinner]

Incidentally, I believe Dr Bernstein has said that balding men on average have lower testosterone. It's also known that finasteride increases circulating T by 15% on average.

 

[GoldenMane]

I'm not sure how much testosterone actually gets converted to DHT, but given that finasteride only increases testosterone by about 15%, from a normal range of 300-1000 ng per dl, that 15% is unlikely to make a big difference in your testosterone level.
If you have low testosterone to start with, you would still have low testosterone, or at most borderline with that 15% increase.
So low testosterone is worse because it means that even with low DHT, you're still going bald, so anti androgens are less likely to work and you're more likely to get side effects.

Better to be balding due to mild to normal sensitivity and high DHT than to be balding with high sensitivity and low DHT/testosterone. It's just more treatable.