Category: Female Hair Loss

Hi,
I am 26 years old, female, and hair loss seems to run in my family. After turning 21 my hair started to fall out. My hair is very thin now all over, but more noticeable on the crown. I beleive I have diffused hair loss. I have tried Rogaine but, unfornately had unwanted facial hair growth. The hair grew in but fell out a month later. I also plan to have a child in the next year and hear that hair loss is associated with pregnancy. Is there any other treatments (pills or topical) besides Rogaine than can regrow hair? How much hair loss is expected and will it grow back?

thinning and desperate

Rogaine does get absorbed through the skin (as will any medication you apply to the skin) and facial hair is a rare but known side effect.

There is no way to tell if you will lose hair with pregnancy and I would not revolve my life around what may happen. A baby is a major life changing experience. If you lose hair with pregnancy, you will probably grow it back and I would expect that regrowth to match what you had prior to the pregnancy within a year or so. Unfortunately, there are few good solutions for women in your situation at this time.

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I posted a question some time ago but didn’t hear back from you so here goes. I am a 33 year old female with hair loss for the past year and 7 months. Started to notice the loss after going off the birth control pills. I went to see a hair loss expert at Duke University who said it was TE. Still hasn’t stopped thinning. I am back on the pill and spironlactone. I also have Hashitmoto’s disease. No family history of female hair loss although my dad has lost his hair. My testosterone levels recently came back at 86 which my doctor thinks is high and probably due to some PCOS. I have several questions. First, could the spiro be making my hair loss worse? What can be done to combat the high testosterone levels? I have a diffuse loss but also hair loss at the sides of my forehead (what I consider the temples) and my hair line has receded (which is what bothers me the most). Thanks for any insight.

The cause of your hair loss seem multifactorial. Birth control pills has been linked to hair loss even if you have stopped taking it. In other words, stopping or starting birth control pills may have ‘triggered’ your hair loss process. Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis is also a reason why you may have hair loss, because of its autoimmune process (your body may be attacking your hair). Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) may also be related to hair loss by the virtue of hormone imbalances that this disease produces. Spironolactone, which is a common blood pressure lowering drug, can also be the cause of your hair loss as much as a help for it (now that sounds crazy, but it does say much about its value). Some doctors believe that Spironolactones may also grow hair, because spironolactone works by inhibiting a hormone called aldosterone, which is similar to testosterone (note: this is a very simplistic way of putting it). To my knowledge, there is no reliable scientific evidence of using spironolactone to grow hair. Most importantly spironolactone is not approved by the FDA to treat hair loss. Finally, your high testosterone levels should be addressed by your primary care doctor or a specialist who knows your complete medical history. PCOS can cause virulizing traits, and with high testosterone, that will just accelerate these traits. You may have already guessed, but spironolactone is commonly used to treat PCOS to decrease the androgenic hormone (testosterone) levels.

You seem to be doing the right thing by seeing the appropriate doctors. Unfortunately, sometimes there are no solutions.

Ok doc, I just saw on the news (and the found it on the web) where it says Propecia is basically ok for women. Please comment on this new study.

Female hair loss treatment hope
Oral Drug for His Hair Loss May Also Help Her

My concerns for this treatment are the following:

1. The study is very limited to only 37 women.
2. The “new pill” is finasteride 2.5 mg (which is 2.5 times the strength of Propecia for men) with an added birth control pill to prevent pregnancy because of the high risk of producing abnormal babies, a known side effect of finasteride in pregnant women.
3. Finasteride for women is not approved by the FDA for female hair loss. We know that in 1 out of 200 or so men who take the 1mg dose of finasteride, that there is some breast nodules (gynecomastia) as a side effect and this makes me wonder what the effect might be on women who carry genes for breast, ovarian or uterine cancer or who may have an early version of these cancers already growing in their body. If they take finasteride as used in this study, what will happen here? Safety is critical to FDA approval for a particular use, so I would worry that without adequate statistics, we will not know about this risk.
4. The study was not a double blind randomized control study. Which in short means there can be a bias in the study.
5. These stories are sensationalistic at its best, causing great interest for desperate women and providing misinformation to the non-medical population. Another example of media hype was this story from a few years ago: Lemon juice ‘is HIV-killing spermicide’.
6. These articles will, without a doubt, drive doctors and women to gather and exploit finasteride for the treatment of hair loss. We will know, the wrong way, about cancer and other such risks in these women when it appears in the courts.