What Are Androgen Receptor Antagonists?

• Do Androgen Receptor Antagonists Help Stop Hair Loss?
• Safety Warnings

Androgen receptor antagonists are drugs used to treat female pattern hair loss (FPHL). These systemic drugs inhibit the androgen DHT from attaching to hormone receptors at hair follicles. This prevents DHT from triggering cellular and genetic activity that stimulates hair loss.^(30, 203)

Some of the most commonly used include:⁽²⁰³⁾

• Cyproterone acetate
• Drospirenone
• Flutamide
• Spironolactone

Do Androgen Receptor Antagonists Help Stop Hair Loss?

Some expert protocols indicate that there is not enough high-level evidence to supporting using any oral anti-androgens for hair loss except for two:^(104, 204)

• Cyproterone acetate
• Spironolactone

In addition, these may only be effective in those women who have clinically evident excess androgens.^(104, 204)

However, these older protocols do not include the results of a lengthy clinical trial involving over 100 women with FPHL without excess androgen hormones. Results showed that flutamide produced significant improvement in hair loss. ^(104, 204)

Warning: Men Should Not Use These Drugs to Regrow Hair

Because of the risk of feminization (e.g., breast enlargement) in men from these drugs, they are not used to treat common male balding. However, flutamide is used to treat prostate conditions in men.^{(30, 196, 204)}