Tonight I read a very interesting page on the site of the American Hair Loss Association with a list of prescription drugs that can “cause temporary hair loss, trigger the onset of male and female pattern baldness, and even cause permanent hair loss”. I began this research for my 52 year old mother, who after recently having a heart attack, began taking Lipitor, Coreg, Plavix and Altace. I love her and it breaks my heart that she is having to endure a cosmetic issue in addition to everything else. Imagine my surprise when I found that six drugs I have taken for significant periods over the last 10 years were also listed: Paxil, Zoloft, Tazorac (Vitamin A derivative), Retin-A, Synthroid and Tapazole for hyperthyroidism.
How my heart sank.
For about two years, I have been trying to cope with my rapidly thinning hair and temporal recession at age 23. And I really haven’t. If anything, my attitude has gotten worse as it has progressed. I take my Propecia religiously, and I avoid myself in the mirror. It makes me sick – but now there is something that makes me even sicker.
Previously, my abundant good sense would have told me that if my baldness were medicinally linked, pattern baldness, which is genetic, would not present itself, and all hair loss would be reversed upon cessation of the medication. I believe, given the lovely cocktail of drugs I have been absorbing since age 12, I have “triggered the onset of pattern baldness”. The slim chance of (I’m guessing) 10% that one of these drugs would induce what probably would have happened 30 years later increased to 60%. I am sort of fuming – piping hot..really, really angry about this.
Luckily, I am entering a stage in my life where I’m realizing my genetic predisposition to certain diseases. Cancer, Heart Disease, Grave’s Disease, Diabetes and Depression are all thrown in to make my life more interesting. I am trying to realize this and lead a healthy life, taking as many preventative measures as I can. While it does make me angry, the thought of one of my conditions not being caused by faulty genes, and instead by medications to treat what those faulty genes caused, rather makes me sort of hopeful. I am off the acne, depression and thyroid medications, so is there some treatment I could begin specific to my case, and possibly, many other cases? Surely my only option isn’t Propecia. Is there something else I can do to reverse the damage Vitamin A, SSRI’s, and thryroid medications caused? And what can my poor mother do?
I apologize in advance for dropping such a tangled complexity in your lap. Please help us.
Thank you
You are certainly pouring your heart out and taking too much blame for what is going on. We take medications when we are in need of them; some can cause hair loss. Both you and your mother need to see a good doctor. I wish I could offer more than just a physician recommendation, but without an examination I just don’t see this being quite that simple.
As you are on the east coast of the US, I can recommend Dr. Robert Bernstein in New York, who can develop a Master Plan for both you and your mother. The information you supplied is packed with interesting stuff and many readers may find your experience helpful. Thank you for sending this. Good luck.
I am a 30 year old, healthy female and I moved house in 2006 – 3 months later noticed excessive hair loss (300 per day at it’s peak!). I had also given birth 15 months previous to a healthy boy. The hair loss started Oct 2006 and by Nov 2006 I found I was pregnant again. By feb 2007 hair loss had stopped and I had some regrowth (although not as thick as it had been). I have since given birth again to a baby girl and 3 months later I’m suffering hair loss again – to the point where I’ve had to have a fringe cut into my hair to cover the thinning hair line!! I’ve been checked by a trichologist for female pattern hair loss and told I don’t have this. Would you expect my hair to return to its former luster? It’s still real shiny and healthy (the 50% I have left!!!) Thank you so much
