With all the bad press that “cosmetic” drugs get these days, it’s nice to find one that is lauded for its medical abilities. While the hairless have long been persecuted by the haired, they have also called bald people vain for worrying about their appearance. It’s just hair right? Surprisingly, it’s not just hair. Prostate Woes The same thing that causes male pattern hair loss and baldness plays a big part in the development of prostate cancer. The culprit is a hormone, dihydrotestosterone, which is common in all men, but comes in higher levels at certain times for some than for other men at other times.
Dihydrotestosterone is an androgen, a class of hormones named so because they are essential to men and the development of male characteristics (andro is from the Ancient Greek for male). While you can thank dihydrotestosterone for the development of the external male sex organs, because it is produced in the prostate, there are unwanted complications that come with it: namely, benign prostatic hyperplasia and prostate cancer. And, oh yeah, male pattern baldness. Some of our knowledge about this androgen has come through research into pseudohermaphroditism, a condition in which the affected person is born with sex characteristics in between what is typically expected of males or females.
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