I also agree with this. I have spironolactone, but have not experimented with it yet.
So, I've done a lot of experimentation with finasteride and I have some very specific observations that have led me to believe that estrogens are possibly not as significant as I thought they were.
What I've discovered is that finasteride causes the HPTA to shut down steroid production, likely due to an increase in estrogens. After this happens, you have to stop finasteride for 2-3 months to let the HPTA recover before finasteride will be effective again.. and for me, finasteride is extraordinarily effective. If taken the way I've specified, my hair gets extremely thick and dark after a few weeks, stays that way for around a week, and then gets thin and begins to fall out again.
So, in an attempt to verify that these effects were due an increase in estrogens, I injected 250mg of testosterone after my hair had gotten thin and fallen out again. This DEFINITELY increased my estradiol, but it had absolutely no positive effect on my hair.. none whatsoever. So, I thought "ok, maybe I'm looking at the wrong estrogen.. maybe it's actually estrone.".. I tried the same thing with androstenedione and still nothing. I've also independently used both estradiol and estrone and get the same side effects as taking testosterone and androstenedione, respectively. For awhile, I thought that the finasteride had caused my body to downregulate aromatase in order to protect itself... which I think is logical, but.. at the same time, injecting testosterone and androstenedione sharply increased my estrogens and nothing positive happened to my hair. So, this ultimately led me to start exploring other steroids.
So, through my experimentation with finasteride, here is what I do know:
1. The positive effects I experienced from finasteride were NOT due to a decrease in DHT. If this were the case, the finasteride would have worked without the effects disappearing after a few weeks.
2. The positive effects are also likely NOT due to an increase in estrogens, though I still leave room for possibility.
3. The positive effects from finasteride ARE due to the increase of a steroid that would normally have been 5-alpha reduced OR another chemical or hormone that was increased due to the increase in that steroid that would normally have been 5-alpha reduced. To me this is what I absolutely DO know.
So I've researched what steroids are generally 5-alpha reduced and tried to determine which of them seems most likely to cause hair thinning and hair loss in BOTH men and women. I truly believe that, ultimately, men and women lose hair for the same reason. Sure, men generally lose hair in a different pattern than women do, but I believe the underlying cause is the same. Anyway.. I've been led to believe that the lack of a gluco- or mineralocorticoid that would normally be heavily 5-alpha reduced is responsible for the lack of volume and darkness of hair (basically thinning). To me, that points to a mineralocorticoid. Another thing that leads me to believe this is that when I take finasteride and experience the positive effects, it also affects my skin. My skin looks god-like for the short time my hair also looks amazing. The reason it looks so good is because it is retaining more water... it's very plump looking and full. Keep in mind, while all this is happening, my testosterone is SKY high (like 1200-1300 ng/dl) and my skin is also very oily... but not so much oily... more waxy. You might think it would be kind of gross, but it was quite the opposite. It had this waxy (not shiny), smooth sheen to it. So, I also know for certain that testosterone doesn't negatively affect hair in any way.
I have a very strong feeling that the mystery steroid I'm looking for may be 11-deoxycorticosterone... or possibly, indirectly corticosterone after 11-deoxycorticosterone has been hydroxylated through the 11b-hydroxylase pathway. I don't believe aldosterone is the culprit, though it is also 5-alpha reduced. If it were aldosterone, I'm sure that plenty of people would experience hair growth simply by taking licorice root extract. One thing that kind of irritates me is that there are so many steroids that no one really knows anything about... and part of this because some jackass concludes that a certain steroid is just some kind of intermediate to another more important steroid and has no physiological significance... kind of how you may hear that estrone is just an inactivated estradiol or less active estrogen. I think that's total garbage... I believe that each individual steroid has it's own physiological significance. Look up 11-deoxycorticosterone and tell me if you can find anything significant related to what it's function is in the body other than just be a "precursor" to another steroid. You might find that it's 5-alpha reduced version, dihydrodeoxycorticosterone, is a neurosteroid as well as the keto form tetrahydrodeoxycorticosterone.
So, what if the issue is that people who generally have fine, thinning hair that is falling out have low levels of a mineralocorticoid like 11-deoxycorticosterone that is made even lower due to 5-alpha reduction? Then finasteride starts to make even more sense... and also why some people experience this "shed". I never experienced a shed on finasteride until it stopped working.. and this happened because my body was simply just making less steroids due to the HPTA crash caused by finasteride. So, finasteride temporarily increases this steroid.. and then your brain's hormone regulatory center kicks in and decreases all steroid output to protect itself.. and then that steroid lowers in concentration again and you're left with thin shedding hair.
