I know this is the great unanswerable mystery, but are there predictable time parameters regarding male pattern baldness.
I started losing my hair at about 23. I am now 43. I have had several surgeries over a 15 year period ( starting when I was 28).
I had my most recent surgery in mid January ( 700 hairline grafts)
I have not noticed any real thinning in past 5 years.
Do you think it would be fairly safe to assume that my baldness has stabilised?
Back to my original question, is a 15 or 20 year balding cycle about it?
Is the initial stage of MPB usually the most aggressive or can it get a little nasty after an extended time , as in my case, after 20 years?
Any tips would be appreciated.

Unfortunetly, there is no perfect answer to your questions. I have seen patients that lost the majority of their hair early and then remained stable while others lost the hair very slowly in their 20's-30's and then had significant loss between 40 and 55 years of age. My advise is to gather as much information about your family history of hair loss as possible. Concider taking Propecia for the provention of further hair loss. And establish a game plan thinking worst case scenario, that you will continue to lose more hair. That way you will be prepared if you do and pleasently suprised if you don't.

Doc...please don't take this as a personal thing...but if you're trying to establish some credibility here as a medical professional, PLEASE try using spellchecker before posting your responses....your comments read like a 2nd grade essay.....

spelling really doesn't matter in the scheme of things...take an ativan already!

Steven..youre right..spelling doesnt matter...and i guess you're quite comfortable getting your scalp carved up by a surgeon who is so unprofessional as to post a message with not one, not two, but numerous spelling errors...

I think it reflects poorly on his ability to understand that as a physician, the expectations are a bit different when it comes to his postings...and that his business will possibly suffer from this perception of unprofessionalism...certainly doesn't mean he's a bad surgeon, but "perceptions" and "first impressions" are everything.....

I dont know the gentleman, and for all I know he had one of his staff post it...

take your own drugs, Mary...

[This message was edited by Rugger on February 17, 2004 at 05:54 AM.]

Personally, I am grateful that Dr Charles takes the time to respond to my posts.
Thanks again Dr Charles, and much appreciated.

Thanks again Dr Charles, and much appreciated.

Yes, same go's for me. Thank's Dr Charles for your help on the board's.

No matter how hard I try I will alway's be a poor speller, just one of those thing's I'm not good at no matter how hard I try.

Rugger, I know you ment no harm by it. But your post had nothing at all to do with this thread so it looked out of place. Come to think of it mine is too.

I just want more Good Doctor's like Dr. Charles to post. Good speller's just don't add much to these board's if they don't have anything worth while to post.
Thank's again Doc.

You are like that geek in class who would always raise his hand just to point out that the teacher had misspelled someting on the blackboard. lacking normal intelligence the kid would never realise that the spelling is unimportant and correting spelling mistakes would not make him look smarter. On the contrary it makes you look like you are dumb and that maybe your parents never paid you any attention.

Dr Charles can touch my head anytime I just wont have him teach grammar.

El Grande Gordo

When referring to someone as an idiot should the word idiot be capatilized?

lolol...im dying here.....

Guapo..congratulations!...in attacking my comments and not really comprehending the point I was making to the doctor ( that being that his posting "might" cause someone to think that his incorrect spelling and grammar would have something to do with his competency as a medical professional), you made it quite clear that you yourself might be in need of a spellchecker program...lol....smile mate, life's too short..

Tberry...since I didn't use the word "idiot" in my comments, I'm not certain if it should be in upper case or not..but i'm pretty sure the word "capatilized" isn't spelled like that...lol..I cood be miztakin thogh

thanks Mo...im retiring my "grammar nazi" button as we speak..

in hindsight, it would have been better to write the doctor directly...his post here is puzzling for a couple reasons - 1) I've read many of his posts, in addition to his articles and discussion papers, and have never seen anything but a professional and polished presentation..2) I'm more convinced that perhaps someone in his office may have typed the response?...certainly a possibility....

Again, in all honestly, I could care less how someone spells..my intent was not to question his professionalism or surgical skill, but merely to suggest that perhaps a one paragraph set of comments not filled with a half dozen spelling errors, would be more appropriate for someone of his reputation and stature in the industry.....would be interesting to see how and if he responds to this...

As for me, I'm going to hunt for another word for "thesaurus"....

...or perhaps he was just a bit tipsy at the time he posted the response. Let the guy live a little.

Foxlox

I think some of you are doing all of us a great disservice, by unduly criticizing Dr. Charles' gramatical prowess. He is invariably extremely busy and does not have the time to scrutinize his rejoinders for typos. We are fortunate to have an expert respond at all, when you consider just a mere handful of Drs that actually take the time to answer our questions on-line. I hope some of your petty and acerbic comments do not deter him and other physicians from participating in this forum in the future.

HI All,

My spelling is certanly the worst on the site, is there a way of spell cheking while on-line, writing in the "window" above the post now button, you all suffer my spelling and I do feel moderatly guilty about it.

Best

NV

Write your post in a word document first, spell check and then paste into the on-line post.

UNC

"TEMPLES 'n CROWNS Forever!"

Uncjim's Journey

I was anticipating lots of information regarding my question when I noticed that there had been 15 replies.
After checking, I felt a little differently when I realised that about 12 responses were about Dr Charles' spelling prowess.
Once again, thanks Dr Charles for actually answering the question. You certainly get full marks from me for staying on task.

Sorry, your are quite right, this is not a grammar bee.

Just as well in my case

NV