Treating Female Hair Loss

Posted By on April 22, 2011

Treating Female Hair Loss

Hair loss can be caused by a collection of factors but heredity is the whole one conjecture why men and women lose their mane. Hereditary hair loss in men and women has the same main cause, which is dihydrotestosterone (Dht) attacking our hair follicles. Dht is a metabolite of the male hormone testosterone but it is also gift in the female body. Men and women lose their hair not because of increased levels of Dht in their bodies but due to the susceptibility of their hair follicles to Dht attacks, although the exact mechanism and reasons why confident hairs, mostly those on the top of the head, are more vulnerable to such attacks are not yet know.

The main inequity between the male and female form of hereditary baldness is in its shape. The male form has a characteristic horseshoe pattern whereas the female form is typically a diffuse thinning over the whole scalp and is therefore less easily-recognized. The female form of hereditary hair loss is, in its form, approximately indistinguishable from hair loss caused by varied other factors. The second most coarse conjecture for a woman to lose her hair is hormonal imbalances while and after reproduction or menopause. Such changes are typically of a temporary nature and so also is the hair loss, although post-menopausal hair loss is in most cases permanent.

When it comes to treating hair loss in women there are confident specifics. First, most women do not make very good candidates for hair transplantation due to their diffuse thinning pattern, which makes it impossible to recognize the hair that will be unyielding to time to come miniaturization. Secondly, finasteride, which is one of the only two Fda-approved hair loss treatments ready today, cannot be used on women and neither can dutasteride, which is its closest and assumedly yet more suited relative. Rogaine (generic name minoxidil) is the second Fda-approved hair loss rehabilitation and its popular ,favorite attentiveness for women is only 2% versus 5% for men. However, many doctors propose their female patients use male formulations of minoxidil, with a attentiveness of 5%, such as Rogaine foam. Aminexil is a molecule similar to minoxidil and it is often recommended to women who are pregnant or breastfeeding as a safer choice than minoxidil.

Although some antiandrogens such as finasteride or dutasteride cannot be prescribed to women, there are other antiandrogen medications that can be effectively used to treat female hair loss. Spironolactone (trade name Aldactone) and cyproterone acetate (used in contraceptives such as diane 35, diane 50 and Ginette 35) are antiandrogens most generally used to treat female pattern baldness.

Another rehabilitation with seemingly high rates of success is topical estrogen solutions such as Crinohermal, which use a female hormone, estradiol, as their main active ingredient. Estradiol is capable of inhibiting the conversion of testosterone into follicle-harming Dht. Hormone transfer therapy is another hormonal rehabilitation suitable for women at menopause, with estrogen and progesterone pills and creams being the most coarse forms of treatment. Estrogen levels in the body decline with time. As women enter the menopause, estrogen levels decline and hence more of the male hormone testosterone is then ready to be converted into follicle-harming Dht.

The above list of treatments for female pattern baldness is not exhaustive, though. There are a whole of other remedies that are often claimed to help promote hair growth in women, such as ketoconazole, fluridil, flutamide, alfatradiol, as well as varied substances of natural origin. Despite the fact that there are female patients who will swear by some of these treatments, none of them has ever been sufficiently clinically tested, let alone popular ,favorite by any major national condition supervisory authority as a rehabilitation for female hair loss and the claims of their guaranteed effectiveness should be taken with a grain of salt.

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