No matter how hard you try, you will lose hair daily while bathing or brushing. Losing 50-100 strands a day is perfectly normal as it is a process of hair regrowth. However, anything more than that reminds you that you need to check for other health conditions. Apart from aging and heredity, there are many culprits responsible for your hair loss. Women often wonder, can hormone imbalance cause hair loss? Well, yes, any kind of imbalances with your hormones has a direct affect on your tresses.
We wish to cut it, style it and pamper it, but nobody wishes to lose it. Let’s be honest – good hair makes us feel confident and sexy and losing them can be the biggest nightmare. So what conditions can lead to hair loss in women. After giving birth, reaching menopause years or experiencing other hormonal imbalances, it’s not uncommon for women to lose hair. And while hair loss is a normal process, it’s also something that can be rectified by addressing the underlying health and hormonal problems. In addition, there are some effective hair loss treatments that can help you with the same.
There are innumerable factors that can cause a woman to experience hormonal imbalance, including a sedentary life, birth control pills, dieting, stress and low progesterone levels. When your hormones goes awry, your hair may fall out. Experts points out that sometimes, a woman can be having regular menstrual periods, but not ovulating may be due to stress. When ovulation doesn’t occur, it is called an anovulatory menstrual cycle. In this condition, 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. At this point, she may notice she is shedding hair excessively.
Causes of Hair Loss due to Hormones
Pregnancy and Childbirth
Pregnancy and childbirth are among the many reasons which alter a woman’s hormonal balance and can result in hair loss. When a woman is pregnant, her hair becomes healthy and shiny because during pregnancy, changes in your hormone levels cause your hair to stay in a resting phase for longer so you lose less hair on a daily basis. However, after giving birth, your hormones settle down and push more hair shifts into a shedding phase. The shedding of hair begins approximately 90 days after giving birth. A significant amount may fall out but, no need to worry as you will get your hair back within a year.
DHT
If a woman has high levels of testosterone (the male hormone), this may result in thinning or loss of hair. In addition to hair loss, a woman who has too much testosterone may notice that her menstrual periods are abnormal. She experience acne and may develop increased body and facial hair, 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 a male hormone that is believed to result in hair loss.
Menopause
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 due to menopause, and her estrogen supply is sparse while her DHT supply is abundant, this condition can cause hair loss in women.
Tips to deal with you mane
If you are tired of collecting hair from your pillowcase, bathroom drain and brush, then here are some of the most effective strategies that can prove beneficial to reduce hair loss.
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Get tested – In order to find the root cause of the problem, it’s best to ask your doctor for a few different tests. Checking iron levels, fasting glucose and complete blood count as well as thyroid, estrogen and testosterone levels. These assessments should give you a better understanding of what hormonal issues are causing your hair to shed.
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Eat clean– Incorporating more fiber into your diet will help to lower estrogen levels. Include lots of fresh fruits and veggies in your diet to maintain a balance.
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Opt for a multivitamin – By adding a suitable vitamin in your diet, you can actually save your tresses. For instance, Vitamin A helps fat synthesis in hair follicles, encouraging growth; vitamin E helps protect your hair cells from damage, and B vitamins also help to restore hair thickness and shine. Vitamin C and zinc also help to repair cellular damage from the inside out, which makes for a healthy mane.
