Male baldness is physically benign though it is increasingly described as a “disease” based on claims that it is profoundly distressing. The medicalization of baldness was assessed using data extracted from a review of 37 male baldness psychosocial impact studies. Findings revealed most studies likely had commercial influences (78%), represented baldness as a disease (77%), were conducted on biased samples (68%), and advocated for baldness products/services (60%), omitting their limitations (68%). Health psychologists should challenge baldness medicalization so that men can make informed choices about what, if anything, they do with their baldness.

男性秃发在身体上是良性的，尽管它越来越多地被描述为一种“疾病”，因为它声称它会让人非常痛苦。使用从 37 项男性秃发心理社会影响研究的回顾中提取的数据评估了秃发的医学化。调查结果显示，大多数研究可能具有商业影响 (78%)，将脱发视为一种疾病 (77%)，是在有偏见的样本上进行的 (68%)，并提倡脱发产品/服务 (60%)，忽略了它们的局限性 (68 %)。健康心理学家应该挑战秃头的医学化，这样男性就可以就他们如何处理秃头做出明智的选择。