Some of your posts were intertaining. I read as far as the bottom of page 4 before getting annoyed with everyone's reasoning, including scientist and the original poster for failing to think of tests that are more measureable. If their hair loss does not completely reverse, but just slows or stops for a while, how do they know it was not genetics or their regimin? I've made mistakes on these forums too, though. Here are my comments:
1. I doubt masterbation contributes much to hairloss, especially if you are on propecia, and it contributes only if it raises testosterone levels and they don't fall below normal later. Do a search on testosterone and masterbation.
2. Before asking believers for proof, first ask yourself if the doctors who say masterbation does not cause hairloss have any proof. Since there are no hits on Pub Med, that means no study was done and our guess is as good as a Doctor's guess.
3. Increasing testosterone should increase hairloss at least a tiny amount. All androgens cause hairloss. DHT is just 30 times as potent to follicles as testosterone is. Increasing testosterone production does increase DHT some, but not by a proportionate amount. I doubt masterbating raise testosterone by more than 10%, and don't know how long the spike would last, if there is one. You should get your testosterone checked instead of not masterbating.
4. More weight lifters are bald, but this could because many bald men compensate by lifting weights. There is a myth that wearing hats causes hairloss for this same reason.
5. Because of the benifits of masterbating daily, and the stupidity of turning down sex, I'm going to continue masterbating. Would you stop lifting weights to slow your hair loss a small amount?
6. In the first 4 pages, I have not seen any intelligent reasons call the masterbation-hairloss theory stupid. I just think those concerned should test their testosterone levels instead of not masterbating, and they should get on propecia if they are that worried, and they need to decided if they are willing to go without daily sex to keep their hair, since there is no point in testing the theory if they don't want to do it for a life time.
7. If masterbating does cause testosterone increases, they should get a small testosterone patch that causes this same increase and have a lab test to see how much the DHT increases with this dose. Then they should look at some clinical finasteride trials and see how much more hair proscar grows than propecia and how much DHT is inhibited by each and compare the magnitude of the trial DHT differences to the testosterone cause DHT differences.
8. The existance of folk legends about masterbation is irrelevant to the validity of the question at hand. That is like saying that since the retarded kid next door believes in God, there must not be a god.
Note: Brian would point out that only the DHT produced by the follicle causes hair loss.
So serum DHT does not matter. However, by upping serum testosterone, follicle testosterone will increase, and 5ar2 will bump into testosterone more often and make more DHT. If cells are smart enough to make less 5ar2 in response to higher DHT, they may be smart enough to make more in response to finasteride. But we don't see that happening enough to stop fiansteride's effect. Therefore, even if the body makes less 5ar2, the DHT levels will still be higher. Since finasteride 1mg grows 83% as much hair as finasteride 5mg, the difference in DHT levels from masterbatioin could have some effect, but I doubt masterbation raises testosterone a lot or else muscle magazines would recommend it.