Men's Health Summit 2019: Jan 19 2019

Lecturing at the Men’s Health Summit

I was honoured to be invited to speak today at the Canadian Urological Association (CUA) Men’s Health Summit in Toronto, Canada. I spoke this afternoon on “The Diagnosis and Management of Male Hair Loss.”

I reviewed the clinical features of male balding and traced how our understanding of male balding has evolved from Aristotle’s first observations of male balding in 330 BC to the present day. I reviewed the role of the dermal papillae as the master control centre of the hair follicle and how cell death and apoptosis in the dermal papillae likely contributes to the progressive miniaturization of hair follicles (so called “terminal to vellus” transformation). We discussed the role of minoxidil (topical and oral), finasteride, laser, platelet rich plasma (PRP) and hair transplantation ... and how the new era of “post finasteride syndrome” has not only changed how we counsel patients about finasteride but also changed how commonly we use other types of treatments.

The new era of male balding research is focused on understanding a variety of areas including dermal papillae biology, stem cells, PGD2 inhibitors, PGF2 agonists, Wnt activators and janus kinase inhibitors.

An exciting era awaits!