Female Hair Loss - Causes & Treatment

Hair loss in women comes in two types: temporary, (also known as telogen, transient or non genetic) and permanent (which the same as genetic hair loss or androgenetic alopecia. Women do not lose hair the same way their male counterparts lose hair. In women, the frontal hair line will remain, but the hair loss will be obversvable as a general thinning of the hair on the top and front of the head. This hair loss begins at the crown and moves it's way forward with age.

Treatment options for women with hair loss

The good news is that hair loss caused by external, non genetic causes can be reversed in most cases. For example, hair loss due to iron deficiency (anemia) can be reversed when iron levels are raised. Never try to self-diagnose your hair loss by attributing it to non-genetic causes. Always seek the advice of a doctor with any hair loss problem you might face. Once a woman reaches menopause, the levels of estrogen decrease markedly and the effects of testosterone and DHT become more evident. This in turn leads to the thinning of hair around the crown and forehead areas. The life cycle of the hair follicles in these areas becomes shorter, and shedding of hair becomes more frequent.

The pattern of female pattern baldness tends to be different from men's. Typically, women will notice diffuse hair loss throughout the mid scalp but retain the majority of their hairline.

Some of the pertinent points of the paper include:

1. Male pattern baldness begins with the recession of the hairline and results in complete hair loss across the top of the scalp. Female pattern baldness causes diffuse thinning behind the hairline but there is no recession of the hairline.

2. Male pattern baldness begins in the late teens and early twenties when the testosterone levels are high. Female pattern hair loss tends to begin in the late thirties and reaches its peak after fifty when testosterone levels are falling.

3. Male pattern hair loss affects up to 70% of all males. Female pattern hair loss affects up to 30% percent of women.

4. Females with a predisposition for male pattern hair loss rapidly develop typical male pattern baldness if given high doses of testosterone.