Hello everyone,

I have recently joined this group.  My FFA was diagnosed (finally) in October 2013.  However, the road to get this diagnose has been long. 

I started losing my hair and eyebrows in 2010, but since I was in menopause, I thought this was probably part of it.  However, the loss continued and in April 2011 I finally had my eyebrows tattooed, as I had completely lost the lateral part of them.  I have also lost the hair on my arms, legs and armpits.

In March 2012, I went to see a dermatologist, who told me that it was perfectly normal to loose hair at my age (I was 62).  I am generally in good shape and my health is good, so I just did not accept that this was ‘‘normal’’.

I had been researching about hair loss for a while, so in April 2012 I decided to start laser treatments and they did helped.  Although my hair was still falling, the quantity of lost hair diminished a lot, and I even got some regrowth on upper part of my hairline.  To this day, I still have the laser treatments.

About 6 months ago, I noticed that the hairline of my temples, especially the right side, had receded about two centimeters and maybe 1 cm on the left side.  Last month, I went back to see the dermatologist and told her that I now had bald spots; she immediately started to examine me and said that everything seemed to indicate that I had FFA.  She recommended cortisone injections every 6 weeks.  No antibiotics, no creams, no biopsy just the injections. 

After reading all your comments, I am wondering if this treatment of just injections is the right one.  I have an appointment to see my family doctor and I will ask that he refers me to another dermatologist.

Also, I started seeing a Chinese doctor for acupuncture.  I firmly believe in acupuncture since it cured me of a chronic sinusitis some 15 years ago.  I had my first visit this week and the doctor told me that Western medicine will probably not do much for my FFA, since creams and injections alleviate only the symptoms, but they don’t go to the cause of the problem. 

So, right now, I still have my laser treatments, steroid injections and now acupuncture.  I am hoping something will work.  I will keep you posted.

Patricia (Canada)