Comment by Sarah McA on February 10, 2010 at 12:10pm

Hey Diana,

It's great to hear you have found a doctor who actually cares. I am having the same experience as you previously did. My doctor just brushes me off every time I speak to him about it. Until yesterday he told me there was no point in me seeing a dermatologist or going on oral steroids. This might be the case but it had been bothering me a lot so I phoned him up and told him I appreciated his help but would be more comfortable in my own mind knowing I had tried everything, whether it works or not. After this conversation he said he will transfer me to a derm...fingers crossed.

Comment by Jeff W on February 10, 2010 at 4:22pm

The range of how doctors approach this covers the full spectrum. Here are some of the things I was told by the numerous doctors I saw through this process (parahrased):

1) "It's not a big deal. You can always just shave your head" - True, but not particularly encouraging.

2) "Given your degree of hairloss it is highly unlikely it will spontaneously recover" - This from a derm specializing in hair after I suggested I wanted to delay the prescribed anthralin treatment to give my scalp a chance to spontaneously recover (which it did totally without any treatment).

3) "I have no idea when or if the hairloss will stop or recover" - This was my first dermatological evaluation which I initially found to be very unsatisfying. It turns out it was the best and most truthful answer any doctor ever gave me.

I like to believe all of the doctors care. Unfortunately, they can't all understand what we're going through and some are just better than others at presenting us with helpful answers. Some of the most encouraging ideas on how to deal with and live with alopecia came from my hair stylist!

Comment by Suzi on February 10, 2010 at 5:58pm

Every time I was visiting my dermatologist, I was totally depressed, and lose more hair then usually...
I wonder... how would she feel if something like this happen to her, or her daughter?!
Maybe she would develop more human approach to her patients.

Comment by lynne on February 10, 2010 at 6:15pm

thats so true diana, i had a horrible experience with my dermatologist, i cried my eyes out after my app cause there was no interest and got me out very quick, i never want to go bak to them again unless i really nd to, my doctor was amazin but i had to find these sites myself which if my derma, had told me all this then it would have helped and saved the wks to find somewhere amazin like alopecia world,
dermatologists really nd to be told how to treat people no matter wat the problem. i think i would have got more interest if it was a skin condition which i have bn before about, ridiculous way to treat anyone,
sorry for that rant there but it angers me that they get away with it,

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