Male Pattern Baldness in Women Affects Over 20 Million American Women

For many the idea of male pattern baldness in women (androgenetic alopecia, female pattern baldness, pattern baldness) is an obscure subject that only hair loss specialist talk about in the clinic break room over coffee and donuts. That is until male pattern baldness in women becomes a part of their lives.

Often times the condition is not recognized, and attributed to poor hair care or dieting, which a few simple lifestyle adjustment will correct. But what happens when despite ones best efforts the balding process continues? This is a question that over 20 million American women and countless numbers worldwide are asking right now.

In this article we will delve into the cause of male pattern baldness in women and provide you with a few suggestions as how to deal with this troubling condition.

Male pattern baldness in women can present itself in a couple of different ways. First, if you start to notice hair thinning by the back and front of the scalp, it suggests that you have pattern baldness. Secondarily, if you begin to notice a general thinning of scalp hair that seems to be occurring for no particular reason chances are pretty good that you are in the beginning to mid stages of female pattern balding.

The actual cause of male pattern baldness is an accumulation of dihydrotestosterone (DHT) deep within the hair follicle. This doesn't happen overnight, in fact it is not unusually noticed until the DHT accumulation process has been underway for two hair cycles encompassing 5 to 10 years. As dihydrotestosterone builds up it causes the pouch like sac called the follicle to shrink, which in turn alters the natural resting and growth phases of hair. Some follicles will shrink to a point where they die while others are rendered incapable of sustaining new hair growth. The end result is progressive male pattern baldness in women.

Most experts suggest that confirming the presence of male pattern baldness while ruling out other possible causes is an important next step because of the plethora of possible causes and/or contributing factors.

Now that we know that MPB or androgenetic alopecia is the culprit our next step is to find the best way to treat the condition.

Currently the only FDA approved drug suitable for safe use by women is topical minoxidil. Minoxidil must be applied twice a day. Studies suggest it helps re-grow hair in 20 to 40 percent of those who use it. But it real benefit lies in its ability to slow hair loss in nine out of ten users. It accomplishes this by enlarging follicles, prolonging the growth phase, and stimulating resting hairs to grow.

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Male Pattern Baldness - What Causes Hair Loss?

Most authorities on hair loss and male pattern aldness agree that over 50 percent of American males will lose a substantial amount of hair before reaching old age. Just take a look around you sometime and you will likely see a number of balding heads visible in a crowded place at any given time. If you were to take a count of the number of men with balding heads versus men with a full head of hair, the numbers might surprise you. Many of the men you see with balding heads are at the peak of their lives and should be living life to the fullest. Instead they are experiencing a drastic change in their appearance which could ultimately affect their self image.

What most of these men is experiencing is a condition known as male pattern baldness. Androgens are the male hormones responsible for producing masculine physical traits. These hormones work together with inherited genetic tendencies, also responsible for most of the hair loss experienced by men throughout history in every culture in the world.

Male Pattern Baldness is a genetic syndrome. An individual inherits all physical characteristics such as eye color, build, height, facial features and hair color from his ancestors. Although the tendency toward baldness is an inherited characteristic. The pattern of hair loss and the rate at which the loss will progress are genetically determined. Common folklore says that badness is a masculine trait, actually baldness is carried through the female genetic line. Therefore, if a man's maternal grandfather was bald, the man is likely to bald as well. It is not unheard of for families to exhibit three generations of bald men, genetic patterns are not that simple. Many different genetic codes relating to hormone production, cellular sensitivity and other factors are inherited by each individual in unique combinations. These various genes may be inherited through either the mother's line or the father's line. The genetic programing an individual inherits may reflect either his maternal or paternal heritage. In some cases, the pattern may be recessive dating back to generations long since dead and sometimes the pattern of baldness is not like that of any known relative.

The specific mechanism that causes male pattern baldness is initiated by an androgen, or male hormone, called testosterone, which is acted upon by a specific hormone at a genetically programmed point in an individual's life. Testosterone itself does not cause baldness. However, when it is acted upon by an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase, a new related hormone is formed. The new hormone, called dihydroxytestosterone, or DHT, causes the follicles of the hair to become sensitized and to turn off their typical renewal cycle.

The actual process within each strand of hair is a gradual one. The average two-to six-year growth cycle is shortened so that an ever increasing number of hair follicles are in the telogen or resting stage. Those hairs still functioning within the balding area grow more slowly, and the hair begins to thin out. Finally a few or no hairs grow within the balding area. Tiny Vellus hairs do continue to grow but they are hardly visible. As metabolism in the hair follicles slows, the blood supply to the bald area decreases causing the epidermis of the scalp to become more and more thin. This is a result of baldness, not a cause.

As the scalp becomes thinner, the sebaceous glands in the bald area tend to become more active. This activity causes an oily, shiny scalp as well as a dandruff problem in many cases.

Androgens also appear to be the culprit, at least in part, for hair loss in women, particularly later in life. All humans produce both male and female hormones. Males produce greater amounts of testosterone, and females produce greater amounts of estrogen. When the normal production of the hormone specific to the gender of the person is thrown out of balance by age, disease or surgery, greater amounts of the hormone characteristic of the opposite sex sometimes results. In women whose ovaries are removed during surgery or destroyed by disease, thinning of scalp hair and increased growth of body hair are not uncommon. Those same characteristics can also develop as the body's natural hormone production declines with age.

Age, naturally is a contributing factor to hair loss and male pattern baldness. As a man grows older the likelihood that he'll also grow bald increases dramatically. As testosterone levels decrease with age, baldness continually progresses as more and more follicles become sensitized to the hormones.

Tag : male pattern baldness,baldness,hair loss

Testosterone And Male Pattern Baldness

You are an aggressive, highly sexed, macho male, pumping testosterone throughout your body. You may be proud of your muscles, of your sexual drive, your testosterone-filled body. Yet the very thing that makes you a big strong sexual male can also make you bald. And to add insult to injury - the more hair you lose on your head, the more hair you will grow in your ears, nose, upper back, and shoulders.

The first signs that testosterone is linked to male pattern baldness were the eunuchs, who unlike their uncut male friends, never lost any hair. Fifteenth century castrati in the Italian opera always had a full head of hair. So did all soldiers whose battlefield injury happened to include any harm to the testosterone and DHT manufacturing center - the testes. But the hormonal link in balding is complex. Eunuchs, who produce no testosterone, never go bald even if they have a baldness gene. However, if castrated men with a family history of baldness are given testosterone, they lose hair in the classic horseshoe-shaped pattern. So how does the testosterone affect the male pattern baldness?

Normally the scalp loses roughly 100 hairs a day and sprouts 100 new ones. But the sex hormone testosterone can upset this break-even dynamic. Testosterone, in the form of DHT, or dihydrotestosterone stimulates hair growth on the face and the body. But in men who carry a certain common gene, the same hormone gradually defoliates the scalp, causing their aging heads to grow shiny even as their ears, noses and shoulders sprout more hair. Scalp hair loss is influenced by the transformation of testosterone into dihydrotestosterone (DHT). If there is already a hereditary tendency for hair loss, chances are, the scalp hair will thin and lead tomale pattern baldness.

How does testosterone, the very same hormone that in your mother's womb made you a male instead of a female, actually promote hair loss on your head? Studies show that while balding men don't have higher than average circulating testosterone levels, they do possess above-average amounts of DHT in the scalp follicles. So it isn't the testosterone itself that promotes your shiny noggin. Testosterone transforms into dihydrotestosterone (DHT) by an enzyme called 5-alpha reductase, which is produced in the prostate, various adrenal glands, and the scalp. Over time, the action of DHT causes the hair follicle to degrade and shortens the active growth phase in the hair follicles. Although the follicle is technically still alive and connected to a good blood supply (it can successfully nurture a transplanted follicle which is immune to the effects of DHT) it will grow smaller and smaller as the male pattern baldness progresses. However, the sebaceous gland attached to it remains the same size. As the hair shafts become smaller, the gland continues to pump out about the same amount of oil. So as your hair thins, you will notice that your hair becomes flatter and oilier.

Some follicles will gradually die, but most will simply shrink to the size they were when you were born. Meaning the hair that grows in these "baby" follicles is weaker, thinner, just as it was when you were a couple of days old. With a steadily shorter active growing cycle in the follicles, more hairs are shed, the hairs becoming thinner and thinner until they are too fine to survive daily wear and tear. Balding hair gradually changes from long, thick, coarse, pigmented hair into fine, un-pigmented "peach fuzz" hair, just like those fine little hairs on your forehead or on women's cheeks.

But excess DHT doesn't cause male pattern baldness on its own. Most men who lose their hair have a hereditary condition called androgenic alopecia. If such men indeed have increased levels of a hormone known as 5-alpha reductase and this transforms testosterone into dihydrotestosterone (DHT), then they may suffer from hair loss. The rate of hair shedding in androgenic alopecia is speeded up by three forces: advancing age, an inherited tendency to bald early, and our already most familiar friend, excess DHT in the hair follicle.

So who's at most risk for hair loss? Genetically, light-haired and skinned men are more likely to lose their hair than dark-haired and skinned men. Furthermore, Caucasian males are much more likely to lose their hair than non-Caucasians. So, if you are a blond, light skinned Caucasian, with a family history of male pattern baldness, you are several times more likely to lose your hair than a Japanese man, for example, or an African-American man.

Of course, genetics and over-production of DHT in the hair follicle are not the only causes for hair loss. Hair loss is aggravated by your diet, which in turn can affect the way your body produces hormones. In a recent study in Japan, it was found that more and more men are suffering from baldness and hair loss the more westernized their diet becomes. It is known that fatty foods and red meat, two staples of a westernized diet, contribute to hair loss. And of course stress, which activates production of adrenaline (the same family of testosterone), encourages hair loss as well.

So what can you do aside from pray to wake up tomorrow as a big strapping black basketball player? Keep calm. Eat balanced and healthily, even adopt a more eastern diet with more vegetables and soy products. But as far as male pattern baldness, remember this. There is nothing to be ashamed of. Your bald head and hair loss is just nature's way of indicating that you're a guy pumped to the gills with all the good stuff that makes you a sexual male - testosterone and DHT.

Tag : male pattern baldness,baldness,testosterone