Menopausal Woman Losing Hair

Dear DR. I’m suffering with great deal of hair loss, I’m a 53 yr old woman who is currently going through menopause, I went to my family Dr. and showed him the amount of hair that had fallen out of my head for 3days and he said it was way to much for menopause so he did some blood work on me and everthing came back ok. So I know its not my thyroid…. This happened about last yr as well, and I went to my hairdresser and he gave me some shampoo that seemed to help. But I haven’t had to use again until now..Why is my hair falling out like this? I also notice that even after washing my hair, if I sweat that my hair and scalp really smell bad. Please help if you can. Thanks

The cause of hair loss in women is not as straight forward as it is in men who usually follow a specific male pattern balding. Over 50% of women going through change of life homone fluctuations experience significant hair loss. All women need to be medically evaluated for a variety of causes of hair loss reflecting medications that they take and conditions that are known to produce hair loss, best reviewed by your doctor. There are many potential causes of hair loss in women and most are not readily treatable. If the cause is genetic, treatments are not very effective. Minoxidil is one of the few drugs that work for some women.

If you have seen your primary care doctor and have ruled out medical causes of hair loss, you may want to have your scalp hair evaluated for a specific pattern of hair loss by getting a miniaturization study. I often sound like a broken record when I talk about miniaturization, but it may provide a clue or help monitor your hair loss/gain. With respect to menopause, it is often a contributing factor that may have started a cascade of events for your hair loss, which may be irreversible.