So what do you do after all the testing?

[Guest]

Hi all,

I am a newbie here. I have been sufferring from hair thinning for 2 and a half years now. I have gone to several derms, taken many tests...and everything comes back negative. I was told by one of the derms that I could be suffering from telogen effluvium, but based on what she saw, she didn't think that I was loosing any hair. She told me that it was normal to loose about 100 hairs a day. My hair is thinning at a really dramatic rate...it is so thin that I can't even style it anymore. I think that for people who have the 100 hairs a day to spare...that it would be normal, but for someone like me...with this rapid thinning...100 hairs a day seems like a big problem.

So if all my tests come back negative and they can't seem to diagnose me with any type of female hair loss...what can I do when I know personally that I am indeed loosing my hair?

 

[lisaG]

I KNOW !

When the Doctor's got nothing to say its Telogen Effluvium.....I'm looking for some real answers myself..

 

[lentara]

Hi.
I'm not real familar w/Telogen Effluvium. I have Androgenetic Alopecia. The "experts" say that a lot of the time Telogen Effluvium reverses itself. Not a lot of comfort in that!
Possible try Tricomin spray and Minoxidil 2%. May speed up recovery and/or slow loss.

 

[lisaG]

This is wrong..................

Listen if you don't understand say nothing...We are peolpe with REAL issuses...And anyone with Androgenetic Alopecia go somewhere else...

 

[totaldispHAIR]

Lilith,

Did you have your gynocologist look at your results? For hormones, while your results may fall in "normal" range, it's the ratio of the hormones to each other that's what's important. If I hadn't continued to pursue this issue, I never would have known that my progesterone/estrogen ratio was totally whacked. Everyone kept saying the results were normal. Also, you didn't mention if you were on BCP, taking any medications, etc.

 

[Guest]

Hi all,

Thanks for all the response. I am not on any type of medication. I went to see my gynocologist after my general practitioner told me that my hair thinning was probably just an age thing...or perhaps stress, I am turning 25 next week. We did some bloodwork, tested to see if I had hypo/hyper thyroid, checked my iron, blood count...all that stuff. My gynocologist didn't seem to think that there was anything wrong. I went to see several derms after that...and we did the hair pull test, they examined my scalp and said that they didn't see any type of balding. We did more bloodwork and everything was normal again. They said that it was most likely Telogen effluvium and that most of the time it reverses itself...I am now going on 2 and a half years. The only thing that they could prescribe for me was a vitamin called "Dermavite." I've been on them ever since...and basically I am still loosing my hair. I was thinking about using rogaine for women...but I have heard so many horror stories that I am afraid of trying it.

 

[totaldispHAIR]

Lilith, did you have a thyroid antibody test when you did your thyroid work? A positive test is an indication of Hashimoto's--an autoimmune disease where your body starts attacking your thyroid. This will happen long before you reach thyroid failure, which is picked up on the standard TSH, T3 type of tests. So, while your thyroid tests are "normal", there still can be something going on beneath the surface.

How's your mineral level? Are you deficient in any particular vitamins? Your doctor can do a blood test for this as well, but you need to stop taking any supplements for 4 days before the test. Zinc deficiency is a very common thing that causes hairloss; so is B12 deficiency.

 

[Guest]

Hi totaldispHAIR,

I'm not really sure if my doctor performed a thyroid antibody test. We have gone through so many tests within the last 2 years that I really can't remember. But thank you for mentioning it. I will call him and see if the antibody test was done. Maybe I should go in for new tests without the supplements in my system? He did check to see if I had any mineral deficiencies and the results came back fine. He didn't want to test for any mineral deficiencies at first, so I had to really push for that test. When I went to see him about my hair...I also mentioned that I was having irregular heartbeats and sufferring from severe heartburn. He told me it was stress...and 6 months later I had severe chest pain and went to see a doctor from urgent care. They didn't find anything wrong with me....but they did however find that I have Tachycardia. I'm not sure if that would cause hairloss. I've been doing research on Tachycardia and really can't seem to find a link with hairloss.