Chronic Thyroiditis and Hair Loss

Dear Dr William Rassman,

I’m a woman and I’m 30 years old. I’ve been losing my hair for 13 months, 150 hairs per day and a lot of them when I wash my hair. They have informed me that I have the telogen effluvium and a miniaturization of my hair. I have no problem with my health and hormones. Only a problem (Hashimoto thyroid), but the TSH is normal. What can I do for that? Can I expect that with the time, the hair loss will be stopped? Have I a risk to become bald? I have a lot of hairs, and 10 years ago I have had the same problem and the hair loss had been stopped 2 years later.

Thanks for your help.

The connection between Chronic thyroiditis (Hashimoto’s disease) and hair loss has been known for some time. Clearly, your thyroid needs to be under good management, then pulling back and looking at the hair loss under the guidance of a good dermatologist would probably be the best way to command what is going on with your hair. I doubt that you will go bald, and you probably will find that control of the hair loss will be like your last episode years earlier. Women almost never go bald, but they can push thinning at times. If it had reversed before, then you might safely assume that it will reverse to some degree again. The focus, as you so rightly concluded, is to stop/contain the hair loss. Like a chicken and an egg scenario, what came first? Chronic thyroiditis may have layered on top of the female balding genetics in your family line.