Signs of Female Pattern Hair Loss

The usual victims of hereditary, or pattern, hair loss are men. However, females can also be subjected to the rigors of baldness, and the resultant psychological trauma is oftentimes more severe than that affecting males. Difficult to detect and equally difficult to effectively treat, female pattern baldness can wreck havoc on a woman's confidence and self-image.

Definition

• Medically, pattern hair loss is referred to as alopecia, and can affect both men and women, though men are far more likely the targets. One's hair is in a constant state of growth, with the average hair follicle having a lifespan of two to six years. Ordinarily, following the cessation of the life of one hair follicle, a replacement soon arises and begins growing anew. Alopecia occurs when the regrowth of new hair follicles slows below the rate at which other follicles are dying. The hair gradually thins over a long period of time, culminating in baldness.

Causes

• Unfortunately, no one is entirely certain how or why alopecia affects women. Hormonal balance, more specifically the production of androgens (such as testosterone and its derivatives) has been indicated as one possible cause. Another is inheritable predisposition to the condition--when others in one's family are affected, it is more likely to manifest in future generations. Menopause can also provide a trigger for hair loss.

Symptoms

• The symptoms are, not unpredictably, the gradual thinning of hair on the head. For women, the hair loss tends to occur across the entire head relatively uniformly, from the crown to the hairline. Unlike male hair loss, women tend to maintain their frontal hairline which makes diagnosis difficult, as it is far easier to quickly detect a receding hairline than it is to notice thinning at the top of the head. Oftentimes, the thinning will continue undetected until a substantial portion of the hair is gone, as even when the loss is noted by the individual, they wrongly ascribe the cause to some other transient condition such as stress or recent illness.

Detection

• Diagnosing female pattern hair loss is a process of exclusion. There are a variety of other reasons that women can experience hair loss other than through alopecia, and a physician's first task is to rule them out. Other likely culprits include hairstyle treatments, side effects from medication, some skin diseases, deficiency in vitamins or thyroid conditions. Unlike male pattern baldness, which is the usual suspect for male alopecia, female pattern hair loss is the last resort. For this reason, women who are concerned over a noted pattern of hair shedding should immediately consult their doctors.

Considerations

• In most cases, female pattern hair loss is, regrettably, permanent. Minoxidil, otherwise known as Rogaine, has been used as an effective treatment in a limited number of cases. But for most sufferers of female pattern hair loss, the primary treatment is learning to cope psychologically with the new look.