Spearmint & Facial Hair Growth

Excess facial and body hair in women can cause embarrassment. Depending on the cause, treatments may include topical and oral medications; mechanical or chemical removal, such as through tweezing or depilatories; and exercise and dietary vigilance. As with any condition requiring medication and care, new treatments are welcome, and spearmint tea is now under investigation as a possible new treatment. However, all results are preliminary, and spearmint tea has not yet been approved--or proven--as an effective treatment.

Definition

• Women produce small amounts of androgens--male hormones--under normal circumstances, including testosterone, dehydroepiandrosterone and androstenedione. However, sometimes the body produces too much or is simply sensitive to the hormones, which can result in excess, darker hair on the face and body. Excess facial and body hair are known as hirsutism and are usually due to an underlying cause such as polycystic ovary syndrome or Cushing syndrome; side effects from medications; or, in some cases, a general sensitivity to androgens. This sensitivity is called idiopathic hirsutism. Treatments vary by condition; PCOS and idiopathic hirsutism may be treated with oral contraceptives or spironolactone. A low-calorie diet and exercise, plus weight loss, may also help alleviate hirsutism from PCOS. Surgery may be necessary if the hirsutism is due to a tumor.

Significance

• In 2007, researchers studying spearmint tea as a cause of lowered libidos in men in a particular region in Turkey decided to see how the tea would affect testosterone levels in women with hirsutism. Subjects with PCOS and idiopathic hirsutism drank spearmint tea twice a day for five days at a certain point during their menstrual cycles. Free testosterone levels were reduced and some female hormones increased, although other androgen levels remained the same. The conclusion was that spearmint tea could have an effect on female facial and body hair, although more research was needed to see if this was really the case. The study was published in the journal "Phytotherapy Research" and was led by Dr. Mehmet Akdogan.

Reactions

• Reactions to the study results were overwhelmingly cautious. Both the BBC and Healthfinder.gov’s Women’s Newsletter cited co-researcher Dr. Mehmet Numan Tamer as emphasizing that the results were preliminary and not translatable into clinical guidance. The BBC also spoke with Professor Richard Sharpe of Edinburgh’s MRC Human Reproductive Sciences Unit, who agreed that more research was needed but that “the study was yet another indication that naturally occurring plant products can have an effect on human hormones.” However, Healthfinder.gov quoted Associate Professor Kursheed Navder of New York’s Hunter College as calling the speculation “absurd.”

Further Study

• Research into spearmint’s effects on facial and body hair has continued with a 2010 study published in "Phytotherapy Research." Dr. Paul Grant of Eastbourne District General Hospital in the U.K. conducted a 30-day trial in which subjects with PCOS drank either spearmint tea or a placebo tea twice each day. Testosterone levels showed a definite reduction in the spearmint group, and the subjects’ subjective opinion of their hirsutism levels was that the hair was reduced. However, an objective rating scale, the Ferriman-Galwey score, showed no difference in the amount of hair.

Cautions

• The effect of spearmint tea on hirsutism is still under investigation--research results look promising, but they are still inconclusive. It may be tempting to try spearmint tea as an alternative to medications you’re already using, especially if you are tired of taking the medications or don’t think they are working as well as you’d like. However, do not replace any hirsutism treatments with the tea without talking to your doctor--remember that the tea’s effects were on hormone levels, not on cysts or other conditions, and the tea may not be an effective treatment for those.