Womens Hair Rejuvenation
with the Revage 670

"With few options for women who are losing their hair, especially after childbirth, Hair Solution's laser therapy helped stop hair loss and thickened my hair."

Ziba Chavoshi MD
San Gabriel Valley

Depending on the personal perspective of the practitioner, treating women's hormonal hair loss can either be a very challenging or very frustrating experience indeed! What cannot be denied is General Practitioners, Dermatologists, Plastic Surgeons and Hair Clinics are seeing more women - and younger women - with hair loss from hormonal origins than ever before.

Half a century ago female androgenetic alopecia, also termed female pattern genetic thinning, was almost exclusively a problem of post-menopausal women. Following menopause the female sex hormone produced by the ovaries (& the adrenal glands to a lesser extent) diminish, but androgen (male hormone) production continues at the same level. In susceptible women this may then show as a thinning of scalp hair in a genetic pattern, with sometimes-excessive facial or body hair, termed 'hirsuitism'.

It's estimated than more than one third of all post-menopausal women will now exhibit this condition to some degree.

The exponential rise in the numbers of younger women developing genetic thinning is multi-factorial, but is thought to be in part due to the introduction of synthetic hormones used in contraceptive and hormone replacement therapies.

Additionally, modern society's continuous exposure to xenohormones, which have the potential to disrupt the hormonal and reproductive capacity of all living creatures, are also thought to be a predominant factor. Xenohormones are found in solvents and adhesives, nearly all plastics, pesticides, motor vehicle emissions, and the meat of livestock "bulked up" by hormones and antibiotics. Xenohormones exert hormonal - mainly oestrogenic effects, and are suspected to play a role in triggering a number of reproductive and autoimmune disturbances in susceptible persons.

Typically a presenting woman will be in her mid-thirties to mid-fifties, but often younger. She may be pre or post-menopausal, or undergone hysterectomy for irregular, heavy periods, uterine fibroids, or cervical/uterine cancer.

She will often relate a familiar picture of irregular periods in cycle and/or flow. Breast tenderness, cramping or bloating, (especially pre-menstrually), irritability and/or feelings of depressed mood are common, as are decreased libido, headaches (again, especially pre-menstrually), sensitivity to cooler temperatures, memory recall difficulty, body weight increase, poor sleep patterns, thinning scalp hair, and facial/body hirsuitism. What symptoms individual women demonstrate will vary, but any combination of these is a good diagnostic indicator of possible hormone imbalance.

Hormonal hair loss may originate from a number of causes such as increased prolactin levels associated with polycystic ovarian syndrome, failure to ovulate in a premenopausal woman, or some other physiological disturbance causing her body to produce excessive amounts of male hormone. When a woman consistently fails to ovulate, her body does not produce the hormone progesterone in any significant amount. In a complex 'negative feedback' mechanism, the body attempts to compensate for the low progesterone levels by increasing the adrenal glands' production of a steroid hormone termed Androstenedione. Androstenedione can exert androgenetic effects such as thinning of scalp hair in a genetic pattern, excessive facial or body hair, 'T-zone' facial oiliness or acne.

Severe or prolonged emotional/physiological stress, dieting, or heavy exercise regimes are the more common reasons for ovulation failure in a premenopausal woman. Again, severe or prolonged emotional/physiological stress, post-hysterectomy, following childbirth or the use of certain contraceptive/hormone replacement therapies can, in susceptible women, trigger scalp hair thinning in an androgenetic way.

"The Revage 670 laser was introduced into my asthetics practice approximately 18 months ago. We have found that our female patients who were diagnosed with a telogen effluvium, peri-menospausal related thinning, or female pattern baldness demonstrated the greatest amount of improvement."
Joseph S. Cervone MD