In the News – The Connection Between MPB and BPH

Snippet from the article:

According to Spanish researchers, screenings for urinary symptoms in men with androgenetic alopecia (AGA, more commonly known as male-pattern baldness) could help with earlier identification of those who could benefit from treatment to prevent benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS). Their rationale: Men with male-pattern baldness have higher than normal levels of 5-alpha-reductase, the chemical that converts the male hormone testosterone into dihydrotestosterone, the active form of male hormone within the prostate.

Male-pattern baldness, which accounts for almost all hair loss in men, results from a genetic malfunction that causes hair follicles to become more susceptible and shrink in the presence of dihydrotestosterone. Over time, the affected hair follicles stop producing hair. The chemical 5-alpha-reductase also plays a key role in the development of BPH. When testosterone is converted to the more potent dihydrotestosterone by 5-alpha-reductase, it can cause the prostate to enlarge, eventually leading to BPH and LUTS.

Read the full story — Male-Pattern Baldness and BPH: What’s the Connection?

In case you don’t want to read the whole thing, here’s a quick two sentence summary: If you’ve got genetic hair loss, you should get screened for prostate problems. The researchers found that in the 30 men they examined, all of them had larger prostates than the control group of men without hair loss.