Female Hair Loss from Stress

I am a 44 year old female. Over the past 4 years, I have experienced a series of extremely traumatic events (far above average) resulting in a variety of stress related symptoms. Approximately 18 months ago, (almost overnight) I began to notice a significant amount of hair loss. It only caught my attention at first because of the dramatic increase of hair in the tub after showering. I was put on thyroid medication approximately one year ago (my levels were normal but my MD thought the hair loss might be related to a thyroid condition.) This did not seem to be effective. At this point, it seems the hair loss (although all over to some degree) is primarly at the temples / sides of the head, where the hair is now patchy and thin, with visible bald areas. Could this be a reaction to the years of extreme stress? I am at a loss as to what to do next, and so is my physician.

Stress is a major cause of hair loss in women with a genetic predisposition to it. You need to have a complete medical work-up to try to identify diseases or conditions that cause hair loss (such as hypothyroidism, eczema, alopecia, dieting, malnutrition, autoimmune, drugs, infection, genetics, etc). Then you need to have your hair mapped out for miniaturization to determine if your have the genetic patterns of female hair loss. The following laboratory tests are often useful if underlying problems are suspected: Estradiol, FSH, LH, SHBG, Prolactin, T4, TSH, ANA, Iron, TIBC, Ferritin, Free and Total Testosterone. Show the information from this blog to your doctor to help him point to the various medical tests he should perform.