Women and Hair Loss: Diagnostic Tests

Hello Everybody!
I'm currently writing an article for a health magazine about women and hair loss. Specifically I went to 3 different dermatologists and 1 GP and 1 physician assistant. Everyone agreed I had a hair loss issue and proscribed a panel of diagnostic tests. I'm a female in my late thirties btw. What was interesting to me was that each doctor proscribed a different set of tests. I was curious as to the overlap of tests and to what was left out or added by each doctor. My article explains each of these tests and how to best interpret the results. Unfortunately, this information is very hard to find online at this time -- and even the doctors can't always explain stuff -- frequently they seek something in a published general range but don't fully understand the result, or what the results mean relative to other tests. But I'd like to share my information on this board if anyone is interested. These panel tests include: iron, thyroid, androgens, female hormones and other diagnostics. Thank you and best to you all!

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Permalink Reply by kastababy on April 17, 2008 at 1:22pm
The thyroid test is very important -- most alopecians develop some sort of thyroid issue at some point in their lives, which can exacerbate hair loss. Me personally, I spent my whole life with no thyroid issues, only to be diagnosed with hypothyroidism in 2003 during a routine checkup by my dermatologist. Getting put on thyroid medication has helped a little bit as far as making me feel better in general, but has had no effect on my alopecia.

So please explain to me (and you can ask the doctors you questioned this too) how a panel of diagnostic tests is able to provide you with a diagnosis of alopecia when this is an immunity disorder?
Permalink Reply by CaliGal on April 17, 2008 at 3:56pm
Hello YoKasta:

Well for Alopecia Areata which I know many of the people (most?) on this site have, these panel tests may not be that useful because as you note it's frequently a complex autoimmune problem. But they can be very useful for women, like myself, who don't have patchy hair loss but rather diffuse overall thinning. I still lost at least 50% of my hair which is pretty severe alopecia. But the tests are key in identifying the type of hair loss a person has. And even in cases of Alopecia Areata, things like low iron or poor thyroid function can be a cofactor and inhibit hair regrowth. For diffuse, general hair loss like myself, there seem to be 2 basic classifications/etiologies of hair loss that these tests can help indicate. They are:

1. Endocrine disorders (thyroid problems, excess estrogen/lack of progesterone, excessive circulating androgens (total and free testosterine &DHEA-S)
2. Nutritional deficiencies (iron or copper, then zinc being the most common by far)

Probably the key thing for women with alopecia areata to consider is that if your iron (or circulating ferritin) is below a certain threshold, even if your alopecia condition improves (as it sometimes does on its own), you may not grow any new hair. Particularly if a woman has heavy periods or a low-iron vegetarian diet this can greatly compound any hair loss condition.

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