Hair Loss And Thinning Hair During And After Menopause
Wednesday, March 21st, 2012
A recent study shows that for women undergoing androgen replacement therapy head hair begins to regrow. This turns the current thesis on its head, according to which elevated testosterone levels are supposed to cause hair loss.
Many women complain, during and after menopause, of hair loss and thinning hair. Up until the present, increased testosterone levels were usually held responsible here. By contrast, in many studies no clinical or biochemical evidence of an androgen excess were to be found. Quite the contrary: In a recent study of women who received androgen therapy on account of androgen deficiency, no hair loss was observed. Rather, the hair began to grow again.
In the study, 285 pre-menopausal and post post-menopausal women participated. They were given for at least one year (12-56 months), because of their androgen deficiency, subcutaneous testosterone implants (of mean dose 133.3 mg). In order to investigate the effects of the therapy, among other things they answered questions about head and facial hair and age; BMI and serum testosterone levels were also measured. Before the start of hormone treatment, nearly 27% of the women reported of thinning hair. In these women, lower serum testosterone levels were measured than in women with a full head of hair. Four weeks after the start of the hormonal implant treatment, women were interviewed and a laboratory monitoring of serum testosterone levels was carried out.
Approximately 63% of women with previous hair loss indicated that hair had grown back. The serum testosterone levels however showed no significant differences between the three groups: women who prior to therapy had thinning hair and their hair grew back, women who prior to therapy had thinning hair and the hair did not grow, and women who did not report on thinning hair prior to treatment. However, it was observed that women whose hair did not grow during treatment had a higher BMI level than those women whose hair began to grow again. Women who did not respond to hormonal treatment with hair growth more frequently had other diseases such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, a strongly decreased TSH value or iron-deficiency anemia.