I'm really sorry! I keep shedding a ton of hair too this week, it's because I'm in my luteal phase. I swear if I have PCOS, the symptoms only emerge during my luteal phase...which makes sense as T is the highest at that stage in the cycle...I guess I'm just sensitive to it. Would you be willing to share a photo of your hair loss with me in a DM? I know I most likely/do have Androgenetic Alopecia, but no biopsy was ever performed. Just curious how your hair looks.
Rapid Norwood Progression In Female
- Thread starter Bluelilac
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I'm really sorry! I keep shedding a ton of hair too this week, it's because I'm in my luteal phase. I swear if I have PCOS, the symptoms only emerge during my luteal phase...which makes sense as T is the highest at that stage in the cycle...I guess I'm just sensitive to it. Would you be willing to share a photo of your hair loss with me in a DM? I know I most likely/do have Androgenetic Alopecia, but no biopsy was ever performed. Just curious how your hair looks.
Sure i will in the next few days. Don't want to rn bc it'll annihilate my mood lol
Do you remember when you first noticed your hairline in pics? Gaaaah that was such a horrible feeling. I think I was ~30. And I just lay in bed for a few days
@Bluelilac What is your hair loss diagnosed as? If you aren’t diagnosed with something, then you should see a hair specialist. In that case, you should seriously consider flutamide/bicalutamide; do not bother with spironolactone or cyproterone acetate or 5AR inhibitors, since they don’t seem to be effective in treating FPHL.
Yep, the area highlighted in black used to be all filled in with normal healthy hair. My entire sides have receded a bit as well and all over my hair thinned out and I have visible vellus hairs not just at my temples but also all over my scalp. I honestly don't know how else to relax after trying everything I previously mentioned. I don't even know what I enjoy anymore, I'm pretty depressed so I know that's something I need to get under control as the rest of my life seems to be fairly balanced and I have a good diet, etc. I just feel really hopeless right now, everything in my life feels like a dead end and now on top of running out of time to meet someone so I can start a family before I start transitioning into peri-menopause, I have to deal with hair loss/balding as a new barrier, as if dating isn't already difficult enough. I feel like men won't be too receptive of a woman balding in a Norwood pattern. It's hard to believe how aggressive my hair loss rate is, the photos you highlighted are from the winter and my hair is much worse since those were taken. I'm losing the hair all along my forelock now. Basically the entire front of my scalp decided it wants to be bald.
Don’t even bother with spironolactone, the effects of it being a diuretic (e.g. tiredness, weakness) will seriously get to you. I have used spironolactone, and it made me feel so horrible!
I've seen three dermatologists, two were hair specialists, one of which specializes in hair transplants. The one I regularly see is pretty good and well known, she even has people from other countries flying in to see her. I never had a biopsy, but I was told it's not really necessary. At first everyone said Telogen Effluvium, but things never improved and it's clear it's Androgenetic Alopecia. I probably have a case of CTE and it just sped up the onset of my Androgenetic Alopecia.
March 2018 is when I realized there was a SERIOUS problem and that was also the onset of my worst Telogen Effluvium shed, but it was when I realized my temples were legit balding and receding and I had (what I thought at the time) a huge bald spot on each side. HA. If I only knew what was to come, those were the teeniest tiniest bald spots...ugh...and I didn't even need extensions. This time last year I had maybe around 6-8 small extensions in, now I have 56 and my hair is still less thick then it was this time last year during a Telogen Effluvium shed! Before March 2018 I noticed around late 2015-2016 that my sides (in front of my ear) were thinning and see-through, but because it was such an unusual location, I ignored it and just assumed it was a thyroid issue that I kept pressing my dr to diagnose as I felt incredibly sick (thanks IR and hyper/hypoglycemia) and sometimes I even thought it was just normal age related thinning and maybe even premature peri-menopause or something due to my crazy hot flashes. I had seen many doctors about my sides thinning so it's not my fault for not getting help sooner, I tried, but drs didn't care/didn't listen/didn't believe me. I still have friends who think I'm being dramatic and not losing hair other than thinning due to age, but they seem to not be able to comprehend hair extensions and bangs lol, without these my hair would for sure need to be cut short, otherwise I would look like a swamp creature.
spironolactone does absolutely nothing for me, it's useless in my case. I have zero side effects from it but zero benefits...other then preventing me from bloating up a ton during my PMS every cycle...that's the only reason i still take it. I'm planning to ask my doctor for bicalutamide, however when my DHT was recently tested it was flagged too low as <5. So in my case I think it's just a sensitivity to androgens, my DHT can't get any lower.
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Yeah I noticed my sides thinning next. I would lie around taking pics nonstop...it's like too much skull showing, looks sickly. AND I blamed thyroid/ferritin for literally everything.
I think the nape of my neck is fine tho...but I rarely look at it
Holy sh*tThat's my DHT when last tested...still balding though.
Same, I have way too many photos of this from 2018-present, its excessive and embarrassing. but it's really traumatizing and women who don't go through this dont get it.
It's definitely a situation of a sensitivity to androgens, which is similar to myself. Within women suffering with androgenic alopecia, there can be a significant sensitivity to androgens; spironolactone and 5AR inhibitors are too weak of an anti-androgen to do much. You would have to use strong anti-androgens such as flutamide/bicalutamide to see results, which is evident within studies. Both of those medications also appear to have a synergetic effect with estrogen which is why my gynecomastia has worsened since switching to bicalutamide (I was using spironolactone and estradiol, but then switched to bicalutamide and estradiol).
I've read that DUPA may not even be directly related to DHT in regards to the cause...so maybe that's why my DHT can be so low and I still lose hair. Or it's simply just a genetic sensitivity and no matter what I do, I'm just destined to be bald...which seems extreme for a woman though. I don't know, I still have abnormally elevated cortisol levels in 24 hour urines so I'm still betting on it that its the driving force behind this...nothing else makes sense. Drs are pretty much useless. Perhaps my levels are constantly jumping around, so maybe one day my DHT is very low and weeks later it's sky high? That could be a possibility, all I know is I wish it would slow down but it's just getting worse by the week, seriously. I just want my life back and to look in the mirror and recognize myself and be able to wash my hair and not feel like I'm touching someone else's thinning scalp. I just see the hairline of a man when I style my hair every day, it's so defeminizing.
It's strange because if I'm so sensitive to androgens, I don't get how I supposedly have "lean pcos" and no facial hair or hirsutism and what I do have for body hair on my arms and face, etc. is blonde and colorless and fine. My hair is balding sooo rapidly, wouldn't I be sporting a beard by now if I've always been sensitive to androgens my entire life? It's strange. I did develop hypertrichosis basically within the span of a week at the onset of my shedding a year ago, but that hasn't really progressed to much and there are times that my body hair seems to not grow much (legs, armpits) and other times that it speeds up. i think my androgens just might be up and down so like they are going too low, normal, too high. I've had episodes of elevated total T in the past, but never elevated free T.
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I stopped believing in the age-related thinning myth. I've seen old people with insanely thick hair. It's just the texture of hair changing due to age and hair look thinner.
The stats on balding for Caucasians are real sh*t and not true. Especially the 10% rule. Only one in ten men 60 or older has full head of hair. 90% of men are affected by balding at this point and not only 60%. And this number will never reach 100%. There will be always people who will have great hair despite their extreme age. Like this guy.
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/K8K34M/centenarian-K8K34M.jpg
He is over 100 year old. In his case none of his hair is lost or just a mature hairline at the worst. And no signs of thinning either.
The stats on balding for Caucasians are real sh*t and not true. Especially the 10% rule. Only one in ten men 60 or older has full head of hair. 90% of men are affected by balding at this point and not only 60%. And this number will never reach 100%. There will be always people who will have great hair despite their extreme age. Like this guy.
https://c8.alamy.com/comp/K8K34M/centenarian-K8K34M.jpg
He is over 100 year old. In his case none of his hair is lost or just a mature hairline at the worst. And no signs of thinning either.