Preliminary DHT Sensitivity Test?

Dear Dr Rassman

I have read with interest your website and would be keen to ask you the following.

You state that if hairs are not DHT sensitive, medications such as Propecia will not help. Effectively the most probable medication a doctor or dermatologist does prescribe is right Propecia or Minoxidil. But at this point I wonder whether there are some preliminary tests on the scalp or the hair someone might do before even trying with these medications. In fact, if someone wants to know whether his hairs are DHT sensitive and so whether a medication like Propecia would work, what kind of tests would you recommend?

Thank you for your time. With kind regards

There are no tests that I am aware of to test for dihydrotestosterone (DHT) sensitivity or to test for effectiveness in DHT blocking with Propecia (finasteride 1mg). If you are a male and balding with a typical male balding pattern, DHT is likely responsible and Propecia will likely help… but I suspect DHT is not 100% responsible for male pattern baldness, as genetic and biological processes are not so simply constructed. More importantly, try to look at the problem more practically. You may be very sensitive to DHT or not very sensitive to DHT, but even a little finasteride is worth a shot at slowing the balding process when you have nothing but hair to lose.