Female Pattern Baldness
In contrast to male , female patterned baldness follows diffuse and scattered fashion, this means no specific area on scalp bear brunt of hair loss;here ,loss is explained as hair thinning,miniturisation as well as global hair loss,it is worth mentioning that male pattern ie frontal vertex pattern may be encountered in females ,it is imperative to assess endocrinal status for excluding virilism/polycystic ovaries,adrenal insufficiencies,malfunctioning thyroid and few other rare presentations .
Female pattern baldness is most often caused by a change in a woman’s hormones. Often times this change occurs during a major life event, such as menopause or after pregnancy, but it is possible for this change to occur out of the blue, simply because the body works in strange ways. Once a woman’s hormones change, her body becomes less able to process certain proteins. Some of those proteins are directly involved with how well you are able to grow your hair, so that when your body stops processing them, your hairs stop receiving nutrients.
While androgens are often the cause of female alopecia, there is another hormonal factor – estrogen. unlike testosterone, estrogen helps hair. It does this by helping the hair grow faster and stay on the head longer – resulting in thicker hair. This is the reason women’s hair gets fuller during pregnancy when estrogen levels are quite high, then sheds several weeks after the baby is born.
Estrogen deficiency alopecia generally starts some months before menopause, that is during perimenopause or shortly after menopause. Because estrogen levels start to fall before periods stop, this form of alopecia can be the first sign of approaching menopause. Women vary in this regard however. Not all women get noticeable alopecia after menopause but most have at least mild thinning.
The alopecia due to low estrogen has the same pattern of distribution as that due to testosterone and dermatologists generally fail to make a distinction. Estrogen deficiency as a cause of hair loss has not found its way into medical textbooks but this does not stop it from happening.