Scared and need support

[Cricket]

I've been noticing some changes in my hair over the last year, but in the past couple weeks, I've realized that I'm actually losing my hair altogether. It's not very thick to begin with so very soon it will start to be obvious to others besides myself that something is wrong.

I'm pretty sure I know what the problem is even without the bloodwork, although I have an appt. with a derm. in a couple weeks, and I have a call into my family practitioner who's on vacation until Monday. After battling with infertility for over 5 years, we discovered that I'm going into early menopause (I'm under 40). I'm pretty certain that my problem is hormonal, especially since I noticed not only hair loss on my head, but some fine hair growing on my face as well.

I'm losing the hair on the front of my head and the sides, plus I have broken hair. The hair that's growing back seems to be getting finer and finer and grayer. I call it "old lady hair" only I'm too young to have it.

If I am correct in my assessment, what will be the options for me? How bad is this going to get? It seems to be going so much quicker than my husband's hair loss. There's been a huge change in just the past few weeks. I'm scared and I would love for someone to tell me that there is hope for me.

Will birth control pills help at all? I haven't actually reached menopause yet. I'd get on hormone replacement therapy, but now you can't even do that without a risk of killing yourself from the side effects. What about the natural supplement (Estroven)?

What do other women do in this case?

 

[FunkyMonkey]

Hi, Cricket! Hey, I had a cat named Cricket once! :lol: Yeah, I know what you're going through. I've had thinning hair since I was 19 (I'm 23 now). I still have a normal amount of hair, but I'm afraid of what the future holds for my hair! People used to be jealous of my hair at one point, and now, noone even hardly notices it anymore. It's tough. At first, it seemed like the end of the world for me! I seriously lost the will to live! I didn't enjoy anything anymore. I was trapped in a deep depression. Just when I thought that things couldn't get worse, my father became sick with cancer. That energetic, fun-loving girl that I used to be just died. It seems like I've aged 20 years in the past 5 years. My father survived. I'm very greatful for that, and it taught me a lesson. It made me realize that no matter what happened to my hair, things could be ALOT worse! My hair loss still bothers me, but I'm beginning to live again. I know I'll never be the same, but I'll still try to enjoy what I can. Afterall, I have so much to be thankful for!

 

[sk8rmom]

It sounds like we are in the same boat..... I've seen an endocrinologist and apparently, nothing is wrong. I have, however, all the signs of perimenopause and my mom and her sisters (6 of them) went through menopause by the time they were 40. I am almost 37. I've reached a dead end in my research but am determined that there must be SOMETHING to help with at least the hair loss. Please pot if you come to any conclusions and I promise to do the same....

 

[mariejoe]

My body pretty much stopped producing estrogen and my doctor put me on FEM-HRT, a very low dose hormone replacement therapy. Last June (six months after I started FEM-HRT, I developed itching/dry skin on my arms and legs. It was pretty intense!! The derm. said it was dermatitis. What next?I'm only 51.

A couple of months after I got that under control, my scalp developed seborrhea--and I didn't go to the dermatologist until I noticed quite a LOT of hair thinning, along the part and on the sides, the left worse than the right side. The hair loss was in the same areas as the seborrhea. The shedding was so bad that I went ot the Intenet and found HairLossTalk.com.

I have read that lack of estrogen contributes to skin problems---itching, dry, flaky, dermatitis, etc.. Like the estrogen helps the skin's immune system stay healthy? Does anyone have a similar experience? Or more information?

Now I use Folligen (0nce daily), Nizoral 2% (once weekly), Rogaine 5% (once daily), tea tree oil shampoo (once weekly) and can only hope the hair will regrow. At least it has STOPPED SHEDDING (after three weeks of Folligen). I also use Lidex (Fluocinide 0.05%) and Elidel when itching starts up.

After 2-1/2 months, still no regowth---but I'm not losing it either. I'm just getting antsy for progress. After re-reading the reasearch on this site, I know it's far too early to expect regrowth.

It seems that thinning hair associatead with menopause is fairly common. Too bad we didn't know anything about it. It is devastating that it happens out of the blue!! I did find that some of my contemporaries are having similar thinning. It just seems that thinning hair is not talked about. But once I found out about other women's experience, I felt somewhat better. At least, it wasn't just me.

There is hope. It takes time and some experimentation. But I would check out the treatment options on this site. See which you are willing to try, and can afford. Even shampoos, some you may have used for years may no longer be good for your scalp.

Good luck... :!: