What Causes Balding in Women?

While hair loss is often associated with men, balding in women is also quite common. Female pattern hair loss and male pattern hair loss are not the same, but the effects can be just as devastating for women, if not more so. Women can find themselves with thinning hair for a number of reasons, but several causes tend to be the main culprits.

Genetic Hair Loss

• Women can experience genetic hair loss just like men. The genetic predisposition to hair loss can come from either the mother's or the father's side of the family. Two enzymes, 5-a reductase and aromatase, cause the hair loss. In women, genetic hair loss is usually experienced by the thinning of the hair along the crown and, unlike men, doesn't necessarily mean the complete loss of hair, or balding.

Drugs

• Many drugs can cause hair loss in women. This type of hair loss is called "telogen effivvium" and happens when the hair sheds after several months of being in a resting state. The shedding of the hair can be reversed when the medication is stopped and can often be confused for female genetic hair loss. Some of the drugs that can cause hair loss are blood thinners, blood pressure medication and thyroid medications.

Menopause

• Low thyroid function is the most common cause of hair loss. Many menopausal women experience low thyroid function and, in turn, experience thinning hair. Also, as ovulation decreases in menopausal women, the body's steroid levels can increase, which can cause some male-like traits in women, including male-pattern baldness.

Alopecia Areta

• Alopecia areta is a condition that causes hair loss all over the body, but particularly the scalp, and is far more common in women than in men. Alopecia areta is also called "spot baldness" because it causes patches of complete hair loss that bald spots on the scalp. In a very small percentage of cases, alopecia causes a completely bald scalp. Also, hair will grow back sporadically in places, but a person who suffers from alopecia isn't likely to have a full head of hair again.

Stress

• High levels of emotional stress or experiencing a traumatic event can cause hair loss in women. Physical stress--for example, the stress caused by surgery or the effects of anesthesia--can also affect hair loss. This type of hair loss may reverse itself when the stressors are no longer an issue. There are also treatments available to help with hair loss caused by stress.