How Does a Hormonal Imbalance Cause Hair Loss in Women?
- Any number of contributing factors can cause a woman to experience a hormonal imbalance, including dieting, stress, a sedentary life, birth control pills and low progesterone levels, according to
Safemenopausesolutions.com. When your hormones goes awry, your hair may fall out.
Safemenopausesolutions.com points out that a woman can be having regular menstrual periods but not ovulating and this may be due to stress. It is called an anovulatory menstrual cycle when ovulation doesn't occur. When a woman doesn't ovulate, progesterone, which is a hormone that is produced by the ovaries, isn't produced and its levels subsequently begin to decline.
When progesterone levels are too low, a woman begins to feel moody because her hormones are out of whack. It is at this point that she may notice she is shedding hair at a high rate. - When the progesterone levels are too low and the estrogen (another hormone) levels are too high, this is called hyperestrogen or estrogen dominance. Women with this condition are apt to be depressed and fatigued. They may experience a low sexual drive and an inability to cope with stress. Unwanted facial hair may appear even though the hair on the woman's head may be falling out.
- Pregnancy and childbirth, which alter a woman's hormonal balance, can result in hair loss, according to Healthscout.com. When a woman is pregnant, her hair does not fall out as it normally does. A person generally loses 50 to 100 strands of hair a day but this doesn't happen during pregnancy. That is why women often have beautifully abundant hair during pregnancy: they have more hair than normal. After childbirth, hair goes into the resting stage of the hair cycle. The shedding of hair begins approximately 90 days after giving birth and it makes up for lost time. A significant amount may fall out; however, this is not a permanent condition so don't freak out.
- If a woman has high levels of testosterone (the male hormone), this may result in the loss or thinning of hair, according to Menopausehysterectomy.com. In addition to hair loss, a woman who has too much testosterone may notice that her menstrual periods are abnormal. She may develop increased body and facial hair and experience acne, enlargement of the clitoris and secretions from the breast. The testosterone in the bodies of these women is converting to DHT, or dihydrotestosterone, at a higher rate than it should be and is creating these problems. DHT is the male hormone that is believed to result in hair loss.
- During menopause, a woman's estrogen levels drop. Earlier in her life, the estrogen and DHT levels are in balance. However, when this balance is altered during menopause and her estrogen supply is sparse while her DHT supply is abundant, this can cause hair loss.