Hairloss Blood Work: Low T + High DHT + High Progesterone

Orangeyouglad

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I've been going through a lot of tests to try and see if there's something that could be causing my early-onset MPB. I recently received my blood work back and found interesting results.

  • Free T was low but DHT was at the upper limit.
  • My progesterone is high. Double the higher end amount for men.
According to many theories here, these would be optimal stats to have in terms of hair loss which leaves me confused.

This leaves me wondering what causes high DHT when T is low, and also if there is a reason my progesterone would be so elevated. Any thoughts on all this?
 

brix

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Test is protective of hair. DHT is a stress hormone if T is low I believe. Your Estrogen might be really low.
 
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Orangeyouglad

Orangeyouglad

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@Trix Here are my estrogen results according to a recent dutch test...

646526973_ScreenShot2019-08-20at2_10_58PM.thumb.png.aa0c87938fb17354186fa7dea0f8ed2e.png
992787684_ScreenShot2019-08-20at2_11_13PM.thumb.png.906745fc984c04d34a8fbb12875711a4.png
 
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I am no expert on the steroid pathways and how all of this works, but I have a wild guess. As a layman I could only imagine your T to be low due to it so quickly be converted into DHT (since T is the only direct precursor of DHT). That would require a high 5a-reductase activity (which is an enzyme). Afaik enzymes do not get "used up" in such a conversion process but are "blocked" (as they are used as catalyst in the process). That again could mean that all your 5a-reductase is "blocked" in the non-stop conversion of T to DHT, so it can not be used for the conversion of progesterone into DHP (the precursor of allopregnanolone), which could leave you with high progesterone levels. Do you have any low allopregnanolone symptoms? Still this would leave the question WHY that enzyme is all used for test conversion but not for prog conversion...
 
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Orangeyouglad

Orangeyouglad

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I am no expert on the steroid pathways and how all of this works, but I have a wild guess. As a layman I could only imagine your T to be low due to it so quickly be converted into DHT (since T is the only direct precursor of DHT). That would require a high 5a-reductase activity (which is an enzyme). Afaik enzymes do not get "used up" in such a conversion process but are "blocked" (as they are used as catalyst in the process). That again could mean that all your 5a-reductase is "blocked" in the non-stop conversion of T to DHT, so it can not be used for the conversion of progesterone into DHP (the precursor of allopregnanolone), which could leave you with high progesterone levels. Do you have any low allopregnanolone symptoms? Still this would leave the question WHY that enzyme is all used for test conversion but not for prog conversion...

@Peater Griffin Very interesting hypothesis! What are some low allopregnanolone symptoms? A quick search of the forum says depression is a common one.

I'll actually leave some more testing here because I think this is pertinent. It appears that I might have higher than normal 5-ar activity.

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victormgc

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My hormonal situation is really similar to yours. The only difference is that my DHT is actually double of the upper limit. This is causing hair loss and acne (acne is what bothers me the most).
How old are you?
 

gaze

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wait, free T was low or total T? or both?those are two very different things. Also what pattern is your mpb? are you 100% sure it isn’t a more mature hairline?
 

lampofred

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Low T/high DHT means prolactin/serotonin/ACTH is high. As your energy production declines and metabolism lowers, you lose the ability to make enough pregnenolone to suppress stress and produce more of the adrenal androgens and other downstream steroids instead. The increased adrenal androgens cause balding.

Cortisol lowers ACTH, pregnenolone/sugar/aspirin lower both cortisol and ACTH.
 
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Orangeyouglad

Orangeyouglad

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My hormonal situation is really similar to yours. The only difference is that my DHT is actually double of the upper limit. This is causing hair loss and acne (acne is what bothers me the most).
How old are you?

@victormgc I'm 29. If you're younger, I would expect the DHT to be higher but double the upper limit is crazy.
 
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Orangeyouglad

Orangeyouglad

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wait, free T was low or total T? or both? those are two very different things. Also what pattern is your mpb? are you 100% sure it isn’t a more mature hairline?

@Kammas I have T tests from both the DUTCH test and some blood work. The blood one is Total T, the urine test I'm not sure.

Screen Shot 2019-10-18 at 6.09.22 PM.png
Screen Shot 2019-10-18 at 6.10.16 PM.png


100% sure it's not just a mature hairline. See the unfortunate evidence below lol...

IMG_5698.JPG
 

Kunstruct

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  • Free T was low but DHT was at the upper limit.
  • My progesterone is high. Double the higher end amount for men.
According to many theories here, these would be optimal stats to have in terms of hair loss which leaves me confused.


There is no theory here that high progesterone leads to hairloss, quite the contrary that low progesterone leads to hairloss
A theory is that high progesterone will lower dht, in this case it is not so, but the great majority do not really do any bloodwork it's a lot of guesswork.


Are you stressed? Do you have anxiety? Are you worried often? Or none of these were present until you got concerned about the hair?
 
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Orangeyouglad

Orangeyouglad

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There is no theory here that high progesterone leads to hairloss, quite the contrary that low progesterone leads to hairloss
A theory is that high progesterone will lower dht, in this case it is not so, but the great majority do not really do any bloodwork it's a lot of guesswork.


Are you stressed? Do you have anxiety? Are you worried often? Or none of these were present until you got concerned about the hair?

We are saying the same thing. I was pointing out that many people suggest that we lose our hair because of low progesterone, which is not true in my case at least. The DHT theory seems tricky and people seem split on whether or not it does cause hair loss.

From what I've gathered, a lot of this seems to point to some form of adrenal issue. However, I don't really feel all that stressed so I'm not sure if that is the issue.
 
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Orangeyouglad

Orangeyouglad

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Prolactin is higher than idea. I have a prolactin around 10 and same hair line. Hm

I am not sure but think that Ray recommend prolactin below 5, do you have fat around hips or abdomen section?

This is good to know. I'll do more work on lowering prolactin.

There is a bit of fat around the mid-section, but not too much. I have visible upper abs but the thighs, butt and lower abs gain fat very quickly.
 

Kunstruct

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We are saying the same thing. I was pointing out that many people suggest that we lose our hair because of low progesterone, which is not true in my case at least. The DHT theory seems tricky and people seem split on whether or not it does cause hair loss.

From what I've gathered, a lot of this seems to point to some form of adrenal issue. However, I don't really feel all that stressed so I'm not sure if that is the issue.

Yeah, so the progesterone is so high and the DHT is not low. This is a major difference between guesswork and bloodwork.


I see total Testosterone is in serum 429.74 ng/dl (14.9 nmol/L), which is almost low total testosterone, definitely not optimal, but for doctors they could care less, you are still in the range and actually many people around around that range in reality.
Lots of Androsterone excreted in urine, seems interesting, curious if this is good actually?
What was your serum DHT value and serum Progesterone value?
 

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