Causes of Hair Loss in Women Overview
Before discussing causes of hair loss in women, allow me to set the record straight. All people both female and male do lose hair each and every day! Even those people with no underlying problems will generally lose between 50 or 100 strands of their hair daily. Therefore there is no need for panic if you suddenly notice that you are finding hair strands in your brush, comb, bathtub/shower/sink after washing or combing your hair. Still it is very important to discover some of the causes of hair loss in women to be able to seek effective solutions to your hair loss problems.
What the heck?
Causes of Hair Loss in Women Overview
1. Temporary Causes of Hair Loss in Women
Unfortunately women’s hair loss in some circumstances may greatly exceed the generalized statistics mentioned earlier. This may announce one of the more common causes of hair loss in women, a condition known as telogen effluvium, the medical name for a sudden and unnatural loss of hair. For a majority of women this may be the first sign that they may be facing a hair thinning in women problem.
The causes of hair loss by telogen effluvium are not specific to any single factor and it may be brought on by any number of triggers including:
- post pregnancy
- hormonal birth control pills
- emotional stress such as a death in the family or a divorce
- physical stresses such as illness or a medical procedure
- sudden weight loss due to dietary supplements
- certain medication/drug side effects
- poor nutrition (lack of iron or vitamin A)
- certain disease side effects
- scalp infections
- hair treatments or products
- hormonal imbalance in the body
- thyroid problems
- cancer treatment (radiation or chemotherapy)
The good news is that these causes of hair loss in women are due to telogen effluvium,which is the fact that this may be only a temporary condition, and hair loss will decrease to normal levels once the specific causes are identified and dealt with. This could be as simple as a change in nutrition or getting some medication to treat the underlying problem. The passing of a crisis situation and a return to normality may also mean one of these causes of hair loss in women to disappear on its own. Obviously some of these triggering factors may be more difficult to deal with than others, and have a much longer time frame before normal hair loss is once more achieved. Now for the more serious causes of hair loss in women.
2. Permanent Causes of Hair Loss in Women
Some women will suffer a much more dramatic and permanent type of hair loss due to the onset of a condition called “female pattern hair loss” or androgenetic alopecia. This type of thinning hair in women may progress to the point that a bald spot may appear, generally on the top, sides of the head, or above the forehead.
(Now for a short biology lesson!) The main culprit of this problem is linked to a substance in the body called DHT (dihydrotestosterone), which is responsible for encouraging blood to flow to your individual hair follicles causing the hair to grow. DHT is created from hormones called androgens (namely testosterone and DHEA), and in some women, their hair follicles start to deny access to the DHT meaning no more blood flow to the hair follicles. So when the hair strand is lost, no more hair will grow to replace it, leading to hair thinning or even baldness.
The triggering event for one of the causes of hair loss in women being described above is a natural condition brought about by normal aging in women called menopause. As we women age, our levels of a hormone called estrogen fall, and when this happens the body is able to convert more testosterone, which in turn produces more DHT. As discussed above, at some point the hair follicles get too much of the DHT and “the door is closed” to any further hair growth. It is therefore this hormone imbalance between the falling levels of estrogen and rising levels of testosterone that is one of the root causes of hair loss in women during menopause.
Presently the causes of hair loss in women triggered by the hormonal imbalance associated with menopause is generally considered permanent. There is on-going research into drugs that will block testosterone production in the body, thereby restoring and maintaining the hormonal balance in the body, and perhaps even reverse some of the major causes of hair loss in women in the future.
Now that we have a better understanding as to some of the causes of hair loss in women it is time to look at some ways of preventing hair loss in the first place.
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