Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Carol on August 4, 2011 at 4:33pm

hi lynn, i developed alopecia universalis (au) after my first child was born. During the following 3 pregnancies i did have hair growth. some eyebrows, some lashes and a lot of dark stubble on most of my head. following all 3 deliveries all hair that had grown fell out. so i guess the extra hormones did that plus the luck of not having to tear my hair out
strand by strand, raising 4 kids!!!! ha and good luck!!!!!!!

Permalink Reply by GinaG on August 4, 2011 at 7:08pm

I just wanted to say that I'm so glad to see a woman with alopecia who is pregnant! My gynocologist has warned me that I may have trouble conceiving because of my alopecia, and this has really made my husband and I anxious (we're currently trying to conceive.) Congratulations to you and your husband on your upcoming baby!

Permalink Reply by Tallgirl on August 5, 2011 at 9:04am

I had two kids, who always had thick hair...no alopecia.

Permalink Reply by VanillaPlum01 on August 4, 2011 at 9:36pm

Well, during my pregnancy I did not grow any hair back... at all. I can tell you that when my daughter was about one and a half years old she developed a small bald spot on the top of her head. I FREAKED OUT!!!!! I took her to the doctor who said it wasnt a fungus such as ring worm which could have caused it to fall out. I immediately began putting hydrocortizone 5%on the scalp and thank God it grew back! Luckily we have not had a reoccurance of this and I pray that she doesn't go through this. Nobody on bothe sides of my family has alopecia so I am not sure of the statistics. I remember my Dr. telling me it was not hereditary. Sometimes I think doctors are so confused as to alll the information that is out there with this disease...who knows

Permalink Reply by MiNAH on August 5, 2011 at 3:49am

My hair never grew back during or after my pregnancy ...

Permalink Reply by Dominique Cleopatra on August 6, 2011 at 1:55am

Why would alopecia make it hard to conceive? Has anyone else ever heard that before? I haven't.

Permalink Reply by Tallgirl on August 6, 2011 at 4:17am

Me, neither. The women at my old alopecia support group also had children.

Permalink Reply by GinaG on August 6, 2011 at 8:55am

I hadn't heard it before either, but my doctor says because it is an autoimmune disease, which is a disease that attacks parts of your body, it could not recognize the growing fetus and see it as something that's a threat and attack it. So, I sort of misspoke - although it may not make it hard to conceive, she is worried that my chances of miscarrying are higher than normal.

Permalink Reply by Tallgirl on August 6, 2011 at 11:00am

I think this is nonsense, and that your doctor needs to go back to school. They have changed opinion in research in the last year, and the auto-immune thing is giving way to a genetic theory. Just look at all the women on this site with children. No one has mentioned miscarriage AT ALL!!! Don't you think that would have made major news around the world if it was true????

Alopecia affects HAIR...not babies!

Permalink Reply by Kim Karacz Caudill on August 7, 2011 at 10:24pm

Hi Lynn,

I have AA most of the time (a few bouts of AT in my past). I had about 60% hair re-growth during my first pregnancy and about 80% with the second. I normally have anywhere from 25% to about 50%. The 80% was very short lived, about 10 months after I had my son I was at 0% - no re-growth at all. My eyebrows also fell out (for the second time n my life) after I stopped breastfeeding my first. I thought perhaps they would come back during my second pregnancy but they did not. All very interesting and who knows if there was any connection or not. I can also tell you that most estimates for passing AA down to your children range from 7 - 10%. It is very rare. And to reply to Gina G - I've never heard of any issues with keeping a pregnancy or an increase in miscarriage. That is a very heavy burden to be carrying and I hope now with all of these responses it puts your mind at ease! Best of luck to you both!

Permalink Reply by Lynn on August 8, 2011 at 8:32am

Thanks, Kim! Very informative!

Permalink Reply by cathy clark on August 8, 2011 at 10:23pm

This is a reply to Gina G. I have never had any info that says that a person with auto immune disease might have antibodies attack a fetus and cause the body to reject it. I really think that your doctor needs to site chapter and verse of some Medical Journal article before saying that.

I lost all my hair after having mononucleosis for over two years-that in itself would lead some doctors to say that I should not have decided to have children-but because of chronic fatigue. But ease of getting pregnant is most likely a genetic thing-my mother got pregnant easily and I did too. I think it has to do with the kind of "environment" that the sperm contends with.

But of course your doctor is talking about probabilities of miscarriage. Again, I think you need references. I have heard of people who are prone to miscarriage-one of my friends had an infection post partum that altered her production of a certain hormone and caused a miscarriage in her next pregnancy. Eventually it got sorted, by having injections during the next pregnancy and she was able to have another successful full term pregnancy.

I think if you were to read about this in depth you would hear more info of that type-that miscarriages happen because something has caused a certain important hormone to get disrupted. Not auto immune type of activity. Hope your doctor can do a little more digging on this subject, because it is certainly interesting. But maybe helpful for you to know that this doesn't seem to be a pattern at all with those of us who have total alopecia.