does testosterone make your hair start to thin? im scared lol
Depends on genetics. Check out the cis men in your family- how much hair do they have left and how early did they start losing it? Your hairline will almost definitely change but that isn't drastic, and it happens to a lot of estrogen-dominant people over time as well.
Androgenic hair loss (hair loss caused by testosterone) is caused by a form of testosterone called DHT, which promotes hair growth on the body and hair loss on the head. That said, not all men go through significant hair loss, it really depends on your body.
The good news is theres preventative measures, you can always take a DHT blocker like finasteride, and topical treatments like minoxidil are also an option. Theres a couple other meds as well like dutasteride, and some people say that anti-dandruff shampoos like Nizoral, which contains a DHT blocker called ketoconazol, can help prevent hairloss if used 2-3 times a week.
There's also options like hair transplants and lazer therapy if the hair loss has progressed further.
At the end of the day it's possible that treatments wont work or that you wont tolerate them, but that doesn't seem to be the case for the majority of people. Hairloss from testosterone doesn't happen all at once, none of the changes do, so if you're paying attention to your body you should be able to notice if/when it starts.
Hair loss has been a big fear of mine being on T, but I think its important to remember that there's lots of hot bald people out there, and also that human bodies always have downsides in the aging process, and it just matters which ones you would prefer to deal with.
If you try testosterone you might find that the other benefits and changes make the possibility of hair loss worth it for you, or you might not, and both of those options are totally fine. But if you think T might be good for you don't let yourself be scared away because it might have aesthetic results down the line that you don't like.
You can be on T for as much or as little time as feels right for you, and if you pay attention to the process and check in with yourself you'll have lots of time to stop if it doesn't feel right. You might also consider going on a low dose, so changes come on slower (though if you do that you may not get the maximum changes in terms of stuff like cartilage growth and body fat redistribution).
Theres a lot of fear mongering about HRT and frankly it's some real bullshit. We're just opting into the same hormonal effects that cis people have. No human body is perfect, testosterone and estrogen both have their up sides and down sides, and you just need to figure out which one gives you the balance of pros and cons that you feel comfortable with.
