Unusual Causes of Hair Loss in Women

Hair loss in women is experienced differently than in men. Alopecia in women develops progressively, varies in its methods of occurrence, and differs in its pattern of affected areas on the scalp.

Men’s hair loss usually follows this pattern: losing hair at the temporal areas, otherwise known as a receding hairline, then losing hair at the top of the head or the crown. With women, on the other hand, hair loss takes a diffused pattern; random patches of the scalp lose hair, but the crown area is where hair loss is most apparent.

Often, a person experiences hair loss for hereditary reasons, but medication, lifestyle, medical conditions, and other factors may also be held accountable. Androgenic alopecia or hair loss in men and women are influenced by 5-alpha reductase enzymes; hair loss in women, though, involves another enzyme—aromatase, found predominantly in women and promotes the conversion of androgen into estrogen.

Other than the commonly known causes of hair loss—DHT (dihydrotestosterone) and androstenedione, recent studies have hair loss in women leimoconcluded that there is a variety of other causes hair loss in women. The following are a few of those newly discovered causes:

* Polycystic ovary syndrome. Women who are diagnosed with this syndrome are expected to experience hair loss twice its normal rate of shedding strands. The syndrome directly causes hormonal imbalances, thus predisposing hair loss.
* Medical conditions. Iron-deficiency anemia, throid problems, and other chronic diseases foster secondary hair loss.
* Stress, trauma, surgery, childbirth. Physicians highlighted on their latest findings that traumatic events, a stressful lifestyle, major surgery, childbearing, and childbirth are proven to afflict hair loss and hair thinning because of fluctuations in homeostasis.
* Autoimmune diseases. Women with an autoimmune disorder are more likely to undergo an alarming and more dramatic type of hair loss, that is, alopecia areata. Autoimmune disorder is a condition wherein the body attacks its own cells, causing inflammation and destruction to random and various parts of the body.
* Crash diet, bulimia, protein deficiency, vitamin A overdose. Women and girls overconscious of their figures tend to resort to unhealthy eating habits; though less harmful and appalling, those conditions still prove to cause temporary hair shedding.

For such causes of hair loss in women, it is advisable that specialists be consulted so that thorough analyses and laboratory details be considered to arrive at a definite diagnosis, hence coming up with the best treatment also.