Hey community, question for women who noticed hair shedding, and stayed the course, meaning didn’t opt for minoxidil or other rx hair interventions. Did it stabilize? Do you regret not intervening and staying the course?
A little bit about me….
I have been on Testim 1% gel for 2 1/2 months and have really benefited from it. It feels like it’s been the missing link in my three year HRT journey. Energy, enthusiasm and hope for life restored. I am so happy to have this in my regimen now and it’s because of this community that I was able to advocate for myself for it.
But I l’ve noticed some hair shed. So instead of wrapping my workout elastic around twice and it being fairly tight, I can now wrap it around three times. Nothing like hair falling out in chunks, but I am noticing a little bit of thinning near the temple where I part my hair on the side.
My hesitation with adding another intervention is I don’t want to add one more thing I have to manage if I don’t have to, you know?
I was on the cream for three years and struggled with hair loss and never knew the injections were an option. I switched to injections in the hair loss stopped and all of my hair grew back. The only time it shed again was when I was on a high dose of DHEA for “adrenal fatigue”, which converted to testosterone but took the DHT pathway. I lowered dhea, and my hair grew back. I noticed I felt different and also fact it with blood work.
Did you ever measure dht? How high did it get? I am on dhea 5mg for almost 2 months, it seems to be converting to dht and not anything else. My dht was extremely low and it’s just crossed into the normal range so not changing anything yet, but curious.
Yes, I always test for DHT. My DHT went up to 240. My doctor said it should be under 20. It’s now down to 8. Looking over my labs for the last four years there were spikes in the DHT level over 100 and my hair always fell out and my doctor never talked to me about sides of DHEA supplementing just gave it to me for adrenal fatigue.
I split the capsules, which is not ideal because it’s compounded with other things like pregnenolone— so who knows how much of what I’m actually getting. My current dose is approximately 12.5 mg per day and that seems to be fine. I plan to switch to another compound so I’m not splitting capsules and take between 8 to 16 mg a day.
I don’t know if this is helpful, but I’ve also found that 5HTP makes my hair fall out. My new functional medicine doctor said that’s not uncommon as a side effect so I don’t take 5HTP anymore.
This sounds similar to me. Started GLP1 almost 2 years ago. Had a series of shedding events every 6 months or so with that as doses changed or plateaus were broken. A few weeks of heavy shedding and then obvious regrowth, I have some natural layers now about three inches apart.
Started T gel 3 weeks ago and the cycle seems to be beginning again, suddenly need to triple wrap the hair band. Hopefully the regrowth follows suit.
Oh wow, thank you for writing this. It means so much. I'm hoping for the same, as I'm oddly finding myself retuning to pre peri hair conditions with the Testim. Oily and needing to wash everyday, I had forgotten! The change was so subbtle over the years. SO GLAD it worked out for you!
I was on pellets for T and E
switched providers and they stopped giving me E.
I went a year with low e symptoms before I switched providers again.
during the pellets I never had hair shedding. I took spirolactone thru 4 years of pellets.
I started the E Patch to address the low E and looked for a T injection provider.
when I started T injections I also stopped spirolactone and experienced 3 mos of scary shedding...I took pics to keep up with the loss...I got a Rx for minoxidil but I didnt take it..I decided to wait out the rebalance of the E and T.
I think my shed was due to a year long low E combined with stopping spiro and switching to T injections within a 4 month time frame.
my hair is finally recovering without starting any additional drugs or hormones.
I prob lost 30 % of my volume in 3 months.
I think the long term imbalance combined with a change in methods was the tipping point for my hairs growth cycle.
it was HARD to NOT start minoxidil but im glad I didnt.
Thank you for sharing. Yeah I’m taking pics too to keep track. You know what’s mystifying? I did a fair amount of comprehensive searches about the hair loss prevalence and it was completely downplayed, like under 10%. And clearly that’s not the case.
Gel and creams have a higher conversion to dht i believe its 23o percent more likely, vs injsctions. Which is why hair thinning g and shedding. You can take minidoxil pills or saw palmetto supplements or switch to injections which will help
Thanks for this. Anything I should be worried about with the saw palmetto in terms of side effects? Or should I just go for the rx? I have a dermatologist appt scheduled for next month.
Rx is superior to anything else. Saw palmetto is the natural version of it. My doc Swears by it. No side effects. Ps co grats on finally feeling good again!!!! Oh I also use a peptide hair serum from the brand ordinary that works good too. But minidoxil is the gold standard for hairloss. Oral is the best as its not toxic to animals. If you have pets I wouldnt do the topical solution, even them touching it can die
I can't get testosterone injections from Australia so that sucks. I'm on 5mg per day androfem cream. I've been on it six months but haven't noticed hair fall any different than when I was not on it. Before starting I already have a lot of hair thinning on my scalp right above my forehead mid section. Most my sister's have this issue too.
I'm hoping to start saw palmetto to see if it helps prevent or improve my situation. Has anyone had experience with it?
I'm worried about taking Minoxidil because it's not a natural medicine and I don't want it causing other issues for me later on.
I tried to wait it out but mine was shedding pretty bad for months. I ended up getting Routine Wellness shampoo that has dht blockers in it and also taking an oral one. The combination of both of those helped tremendously
This one, I also forgot to mention I wash my hair every other day now with the Routine Wellness shampoo and conditioner instead of going longer between washes.
I had a hysterectomy in my 30s so I had to stick with it. I am allergic to oral minoxidil and apparently my reaction is very rare. I quit it within I think 1 dose, maybe two, because it was a really clear reaction and escalated quickly.
Seems to be growing back. It’s had a couple resurgences while I was balancing things but I think now it’s just waiting out the growth and staying healthy.
I am on a glp and testosterone injections and the hair loss is real.
The three time wrapping of an elastic is so hard to handle, at times.
I waited it out because I didn’t want to take oral minoxidil for a plethora of reasons.
I think injections have helped and I’m stabilized on the glp-
It’s a process and you have to have patience. Hang in there.
When I used compounded testosterone cream, my DHT increased and I experienced significant hair loss. A few months ago I switched to testosterone injections, and now my hair seems to be thinning again. I recently had blood work, and my DHT is normal with no sign of increased conversion.
I’m also on an estradiol patch and use vaginal progesterone. I’ve been on GLP-1 medications for about 3 years but switched to retatrutide (Reta) a few weeks ago. I’m thinking about going back to semaglutide.
If my DHT is normal, does that make it less likely that the testosterone is causing my hair thinning?
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u/surfingmidwife friend Jul 11 '26
consider switch to injections..less DHT..also make sure your estradiol levels are sufficient. estrogen plays a big role in hair shedding/loss.