Androgenetic Hair Loss in Women

It is the most common: over 80% of women’s alopecia is of androgenetic origin 

Contents
• What triggers it?
• Aggravating factors
• Symptoms of androgenetic hair loss
• Men's vs women's
• Treatment

What triggers it?

It is caused by an excessive and innate (genetic) responsiveness of the scalp to androgen hormones. The combination of the two words, gene + androgen, explains the term ‘androgenetic’ alopecia/hair loss.

Women produce androgen (although much less than men do), through their ovaries and suprarenal glands. The androgen’s action accelerates the life cycle of some of the hairs. This abnormal acceleration imposes an unmanageable production pace to the hair follicles and the roots, forcing them to create thinner and shorter hair. In the long run, exhausted, the follicles shrink and end up only producing a down, then nothing. Find out more about androgen Impact of Androgen Hormones on Hair Loss

Family history (mother, grandmother, aunts, but also father, grand-father as it can come from both sides) is an important factor for the diagnoses. However, over 20% of the women affected do not have family history, and yet they have the clinical signs of androgenetic alopecia.

Aggravating factors

Stress. It increases the secretion of androgens, and is the most common aggravating factor. Androgenetic hair loss can thus be reinforced by stress in general, but also by the stress caused by the hair loss itself. The process is then endless: stress increases the hair loss, which in turn increases stress, which increases the hair loss…Over the past fifty years, the increased harshness of women’s alopecia has more than likely largely been due to their modern lifestyle and the stress it causes  Stress and Hair Loss.

Contraceptives or HRT (hormone replacement therapies), the progestin of which is metabolised into androgen (See The Hair and Contraception and our info file on Menopause and Hair Loss). Those two info files include an exhaustive list of the contraceptives and HRT available on the international market, with a positive or negative rating of their impact on the hair.

Seasonal factors, especially in Autumn, but also in Spring. A physiological phenomenon we still know little about, the secretion of androgens can be significantly increased at the beginning of seasons. If the phenomenon proves to be without consequence for the non-androgenetic part of the hair, it can aggravate, each year a bit more, the loss in density of the part of the hair with a predisposition.

Polycistic ovary syndrome (PCOS). A benign endocrinal condition, PCOS induce hyperinsulinemia, which leads to an excessive secretion of ovarian androgens (ovarian hyperandrogenia). This excess of androgen causes, among other symptoms, irregular or absent periods, and, frequently, being overweight... Skin problems can also settle in: acne, hyperseborrhea, hyperpilosity and hair loss, in women with an androgenetic predisposition.

Excess of bad cholesterol  Cholesterol and Hair Loss

Symptoms of androgenetic hair loss

• The hair loss is progressive and is always accompanied by hair refinement. It also sometimes comes along with hyperseborrhea (but not always).

•  It is localised on the top of the hair, most of the time (and sometimes the temporal lobes and the sides). In its most common form, androgenetic hair loss starts with an enlargement of the middle parting and the hair thinning out. The top of the head then gradually lights up, as part of a process that is irreversible if the person is not treated Thinner and Fewer Regrowing Hair (with sketches). What to Do

• The symptom’s severity varies strongly from one woman to another: it depends on the scalp’s degree of sensitivity to androgens, and the measures taken to fight the deterioration process. 

• Age is not a reliable criterion: androgenetic alopecia can begin at any age, as of 14 or 15 years old. However, some periods are more favourable to triggering or aggravating the condition : they correspond to the three key moments in a woman’s biological life:  

After puberty Hair and Puberty
With child-bearing Child-bearing and Hair Loss
During premenopause or at menopause Premenopause, Menopause and Hair Loss

Men vs women

Women’s androgenetic alopecia is very different from men’s, and its evolution is slower. Women secrete infinitely more female hormones than male hormones: their oestrogen, the feminine hormone, is used as an antidote to counter the androgen’s nuisance and prolong the hair cycles’ length.

Treatment

Treatment result: even in the harshest cases, although the frail zones can progressively thin out, women never turn bald like men can. The problem is thus also easier to manage, for as long as it goes through a good hair diagnosis and a treatment adapted to your specific characteristics. In many cases, a local treatment, eventually combined with a hormonal anti-androgen treatment based on cyproterone acetate, yields good results. The first reactivates the hair’s vital functions and the second (if judged useful) decreases the androgen’s negative action of the hair follicle’s cells.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION
'Androgenetic’: A Word that Scares Women
List and rating of contraceptives (based on the hair's perspective)
List and rating of HRT (based on the hair's perspective)
Greazy Hair
Hair Loss Treatments FAQ
DAILY Hair Loss: What is the Norm?

FOR TREATING
Baicalein, the new anti-hair loss Clauderer natural plant extract
Hair Growth and Regrowing: Where Exactly to Act?
CLAUDERER Anti-Hair Loss Treatments
Three Massages to Stimulate Regrowing Hair
Clauderer in-Depth Hair Diagnosis

Diagnosis In-depth Clauderer Diagnosis: Have a complete hair checkup