Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Maddy, California, U.S. on March 11, 2015 at 2:56pm

I am pretty sure that I did use some sort of hair removal product a few times prior to my FFA loss (prior to 2006). I understand those thoughts...I have them all the time...so many possibilities!

Permalink Reply by sallylwess on March 11, 2015 at 4:46pm

No, I never used them.  I have those thoughts too.  It is amazing to me that I waxed my eyebrows, and even my face because I had so much hair growth from taking hormones just six years ago or so.  Now, I questions the hormones.  What that a bad decision?  Should I have left the bio-identical hormones alone?  Probably.  It doesn't matter though.  I can't change the past.  

Permalink Reply by Maddy, California, U.S. on March 11, 2015 at 4:55pm

Very interesting Sally! I also used bioidenticals (Vivelle patch) for about 4-5 years...and that was definitely during the time my FFA started. I even spoke to my doctor about it and called Vivelle. Of course, they both reassured me that it could have nothing to do with the FFA. I'm not so sure!

Permalink Reply by Will Be Healed on March 12, 2015 at 9:29pm

I have used a hair removal from Sally for years. I have now stopped using it. My gut feeling is that I may have had my immune system compromised when I got the flue shot during my last pregnancy, in the last month of pregnancy. I had never had a flu shot before this and shortly after I starting losing hair. Anyone else have a flu shot and then start losing hair?

Permalink Reply by sallylwess on March 12, 2015 at 11:05pm

I've been getting the flu shot for over twenty years. If flu shots caused FFA, I think a lot more people would be walking around with FFA. I think that auto-immune prone people are susceptible to all kinds of unknown triggers that cause inflammation to attack various random places in our bodies.

Permalink Reply by Maddy, California, U.S. on March 13, 2015 at 9:54am

Will Be Healed, I also think the flu shot triggered my FFA. I had never had one before (but had the flu really bad the year before I got my first shot-that is why I got my first one), and that is when my FFA started (about a month after the shot, I noticed the hair on my temples thinning a lot), and went to my dermatologist. I did not connect the flu shot at first, but each November for the next two years, I found myself losing tons of hair and ending up in my dermatologist's office. Finally, I went to see an endocrinologist and an immunologist, who both said that the flu shot could definitely have been a trigger for me. I have not had a flu shot since and my FFA has been stable for about 5 years now. So, I don't know. It's all pretty confusing.

Permalink Reply by PJ - MN, USA on March 13, 2015 at 1:08pm

I've never gotten a flu shot, so that's not what triggered my FFA. But who knows. Our immune systems I think were compromised early on in life from whatever reason and combine that with our various genetics and maybe that's why we all react differently to different treatment. There's got to be some genetic component to this I think.