The Link Between Hormones and Hair Loss

Can hormonal changes be the reason for your hair loss? There definitely is a connection between hormones and hair loss as they can dictate your hair growth patterns. It is because hormones control the way how cells work and if they don’t work the way they should, then a lot of things can go wrong. Hormone imbalance is a much more common cause of hair loss in women than in men.

Hormonal changes and imbalance.

Every woman experiences hormonal changes several times during the course of her life. First, it happens during the school years when puberty strikes. Later on, it happens again when she gets pregnant and then again when menopause comes roaring. These are some of the most common periods of hormonal changes for women but before going further, let’s first understand what exactly hormonal changes mean.

There is a certain level of balance that has to be maintained between 2 essential hormones in woman’s body – estrogen and progesterone. You can always feel if this balance is disturbed because hormone imbalance has a big impact on the entire body. If the estrogen level is too high or the progesterone level is too low than you might experience depression, bad mood, extraordinary fatigue, acne, weight problems and even memory loss.

Besides these symptoms, hormonal imbalance can also trigger hair loss because it changes the way the cells work. If cells start functioning incorrectly then it may impact the hair growing patterns and, in a lot of cases, hair is the first area of your body that suffers from hormonal changes.

Hormone imbalance usually occurs when:

• You are taking some medication which is high in estrogen.

• You are taking contraceptive pills.

• You don’t consume enough valuable vitamins as a result of a poor diet.

• You are overweight as a result of a poor diet.

• You are experiencing a lot of stress in your life.

Different types of hormones and hair loss.

Estrogen hormone: As it was already mentioned earlier, if there is too much of this hormone in your body then you may very well experience hair loss among a bunch of other nasty things. Estrogen is the most important sex hormone in any women’s body and there is a wide variety of different possible reasons for having high levels of this hormone. This problem can be treated by changing your lifestyle or, in some cases, by undergoing a hormone replacement therapy.

Thyroid hormones: The main thyroid hormone which is often associated with hair loss is thyroxine. Too much of thyroxine in your body can easily cause hair shedding and too little tyroxine can also cause hair loss by making them brittle, so, once again, hormonal balance is the key to keeping your hair on your head.

Testosterone: This is a hormone that most men absolutely want to have a lot of because it is always linked with great workout results and a lot of muscle, however, testosterone has some disadvantages as well. The risk of hair loss is high when too much of testosterone is being converted into dihydrotestosterone and it usually happens when there are high levels of 5-alpha reductase hormone. This tendency to have a lot of testosterone converted into DHT is usually inherited from parents.

Cortisol: Researches have shown that people suffering from androgenic hair loss, very often have a lot of cortisol in their bodies. Probably the main reason for cortisol’s connection with hair loss is that high levels of this hormone make the hair matrix too saturated and as a result it starts having difficulties with forming a thick and healthy hair follicle. The most common reason why people may have elevated levels of this steroid hormone is stress.