Why there’s always hair in the shower, and what she can do about it
Hair loss in women is a frequent complaint in the family doctor’s office: it can begin in the early 20s and by age 30, it becomes a problem for 30%: men aren’t the only “suffferers”!
However the pattern of scalp hair thinning is different in the female: rather than an even line along which hair growth recedes, women’s hair tends to become uniformly thin: they don’t develop a “bald patch” but the thick, healthy hair growth of the teenager becomes generally thinner in the third decade, producing a “worn-out” appearance which is psychologically distressing.
The cause may be genetic (female pattern baldness); it may be hormonal (PCOS, thyroid issues, postnatal), or may seem to result from stress. Occasionally, it may relate to dietary deficiencies of iron, Vitamin D, Iodine, Selenium or other items.
In my practice, early hair loss was almost always accompanied by Brittle fingernails, anxiety, foggy thinking, hoarseness, dry skin and / or other hypothyroid symptoms.
The symptoms of DHEA deficiency, in females
Of 359 women, seen from 2006 to 2015, 335 (93.31%) were deficient in DHEA.
Only 24 (6.68%) had a normal DHEA level (>6.0), when first seen.
Symptoms
As the chart below shows, the most frequent symptoms among my 359 female patients, were Hair loss and brittle nails, Fatigue, Brain Fog and low libido. Of these symptoms however, the most obvious. hair loss (universally accompanied by brittle nails), was the major source of distress.
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