Women's Hair Loss & What Medical Health Issues May Lurk Behind?

As many as one in four women will experience hair loss at some time in their lives. Women's hair loss is difficult to pinpoint until it is in a progressive or severe stage.

Hair loss in women begins in most cases in the 40s or 50s at the onset of menopause, though it can occur as early as the 20s, and being seen in increasing numbers. According to the American Academy of Dermatology hair loss in women is a growing problem, affecting more than 30 million women in the United States alone.

Society accepts a bald man, but it's not a socially acceptable for a woman to be bald in public. Female pattern baldness is just as common in women as it is in men, though the timing and pattern is different. Hair does not grow back to its previous stage of full thick hair. It does progress to various degrees of baldness. Women are better at disguising their hair loss than men, and in women it is generally less extensive in terms of severity. Women with hair loss who develop female-pattern baldness, the hair becomes thin over the entire scalp, rather than concentrated in one or two spots. Hairs become progressively finer and shorter. Bald spots appear here or there, some with short hair that are broken off. Total baldness is very rare in women with female pattern hair loss. Female-pattern baldness starts with the replacement hairs becoming progressively finer and shorter. They can also become almost transparent.

Women during their life time may encounter forms of losing hair condition in a variable period of time. In most cases and second to female pattern hair loss, it is Telogen Effluvium condition due to pregnancy or child birth. It is a hormonal factor, an estrogen level is lower, and in other words it is an estrogen deficiency period that causes hair thinning. Telogen Effluvium can occur due to crash diets, use of harsh chemicals, due to an emotional trauma or due to medical health issue such as lupus, ovary cystic, abnormal thyroid, anemia or hormonal imbalances. It can also be due to side effect of medication such as antidepressants, hypertension drugs, chemotherapy and others. It is a temporary hair loss in which a higher than normal percentage of hair go into a shedding phase. However, in most cases the hair grows back. When female pattern baldness occurs, only after time elapses and large thin areas or baldness is noticed, women realize that this time it is different. When excessive hair loss is present, a health care professional diagnosis is advised to pinpoint the underlying medical problem, not just the resulted condition.

Female pattern baldness is most likely affected by male hormones called testosterone, which cause a shut-down of the follicles in response to DHT, a byproduct of testosterone. "Over time, an excess build-up [of DHT] in the follicle causes it to begin shrinking, which in turn alters the natural resting and growth phases of the hair," says Reed, clinical associate professor of dermatology at NYU Medical Center. This is the same condition as in male pattern baldness, androgenic alopecia. Scientists at Bonn University recently found that women who pass a gene conferring high testosterone to their sons also make them more prone to premature baldness.

Many doctors immediately begin treating the patients with hair growth medications such as Rogaine. However, diagnosing the underlying medical problem with series of tests will benefit the patient in the long run. Although research is still in the early stages of assessing the causes of women's hair loss improvements in treating underlying illness or abnormality in ones health is greatly improved in the past few years. A woman who experiences hair loss will benefit by consulting initially with her doctor for medical advice about her overall individual health condition and not just the hair loss condition outcome.

Founded in 1966, NuHair is a full-service hair-replacement restoration company whose services include hairpieces, wigs, extensions and hair-transplants referrals. NuHair has been providing answers and solutions for hair loss at the Dallas, Texas and the Cleveland, Ohio facilities for over 40 years.

Nu Hair provides information on hair loss and hair loss treatments including hair transplants at http://www.hair-transplant-source.com, also you can find more information on hair loss in women at women's hair loss page.