What causes hair loss in women?
Female hair loss is a distinctly different entity from male pattern hair loss which has a known cause and usually follows a predicable path. Though some women experience hair loss that resembles male patterned loss, others experience diffuse loss that involves the entirety of the scalp. Such individuals are not candidates for surgical hair restoration in that they do not possess an uninvolved area of hair from which to obtain hair for transfer. Other causes for hair loss in women range from medical conditions associated with hair loss such as anemia, hypothyroidism and connective tissue diseases to adverse reactions to medications or deleterious effects of certain grooming practices e.g. tight braiding of the hair which causes traction alopecia.
It has already been stated that hair loss can result from a series of medical conditions or genetic inheritance. It may also have followed surgery or injury. Because some hair loss in women can be caused by underlying medical conditions it is important that women are either evaluated by their own physicians or if preferred consult the Trichologist at the clinic. Examples include anaemia, thyroid disease, connective tissue disease, gynaecological conditions and emotional stress. There are also a considerable number of medications which can lead to problems.
The female pattern baldness or androgenetic alopecia is the most common type of hair loss accounting for over 95 per cent of cases. A few cases may also have a genetic predisposition, inherited from the father or mother. The main culprit for hair loss is the hormone dihydrotestesterone, DHT. Testosterone, a male hormone (present in small quantity in females) is converted to DHT by the action of an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase. It is seen that people with a lot of this enzyme (density of the enzyme is genetically programmed) make more DHT. DHT binds to the hair follicles making them dysfunctional and causes hair loss. The growth phase of the hair is shortened making it fall prematurely. It also prevents re-growth of new hair. Unlike male pattern baldness, there is usually a general thinning of the hair with loss predominantly over the top and sides of the head. It usually gets worse with the menopause as estrogen level declines that usually keeps check over testosterone level. Anothe
