Do Women Also Experience Pattern Baldness?

People have usually heard of male pattern baldness, but some are unfamiliar with the fact that women can also experience pattern baldness. Just within the United States alone, there are roughly 30 million women who are suffering from female pattern baldness. There are many different reasons why women experience this, including:

• Hormonal changes
• Hyper or hypothyroidism
• Lifestyle choices
• Pregnancy
• Stress/anxiety
• Side effect of medication
• Arthritis
• Birth control pills
• Depression
• Heart disease
• High blood pressure

It is not easy to determine when or if a woman is going to experience pattern baldness since there are so many different factors at hand. In order to get an accurate assessment of what is causing the woman to experience hair loss or baldness, a hair loss expert should be consulted.

Although there are many different factors that can contribute to female pattern baldness, the most common are hormonal changes in the body, aging and heredity. When women start to go through menopause, many of them start to experience hair loss. Hair loss associated with the hormonal changes of menopause generally shows up as an all over thinning of the woman’s hair, or a more pronounced thinning or baldness at the crown of their head. This differs from male pattern baldness, since
most males notice male pattern baldness when their hairline starts to recede. Women rarely experience a receding of their hairline though.

There are some different treatment options for women who are experiencing female pattern baldness. Some women opt to use the topical solution Minoxidil, more commonly called Rogaine, since this is the only hair loss drug that has been approved by the FDA as a hair loss drug for women. Other women choose to go through a laser therapy or have a hair transplantation surgery.

Rogaine works for some women in slowing or stopping hair loss, but if treatment ceases, the hair loss will continue and in some cases, it could actually speed up the hair loss process. In order to reap the benefits of using Rogaine, treatment needs to be continued in order to maintain the results.

Laser therapy is another treatment that offers great success for some women who are experiencing female pattern baldness. Laser therapy is known to help with hair retention and stimulate hair growth. However, just like with Rogaine, most women will need to continue having laser treatments in order to maintain results. Getting a hair transplant is the only permanent solution for female pattern baldness. A hair transplant restores the hair that has been lost and in many cases requires only one treatment.

The Ludwig Scale is used to classify female pattern baldness and there are three different stages:

• Type 1 – hair has thinned on the top of the head
• Type 2 – you can see the scalp through thinning hair in some areas
• Type 3 – hair loss on the crown of the head

A hair loss expert can help you to determine the cause of your hair loss and can give you options as to how it can be treated.