Mistakenly thought to be a male only thing, up to forty percent of American women suffer from genetic hair thinning which is also known as female pattern hair loss or female pattern baldness. While losing one’s hair can be traumatizing for any gender it can especially be stressful for women as it is far more acceptable in our society for men to go through the balding process.

Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS), a metabolic disease affecting up to 5 million women in the united states alone is roughly the equivalent to male pattern baldness. In other words, women suffering from Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome will typically experience some degree of hair loss and those who are pre (PCOS) still might be experiencing hair loss if they have a genetic predisposition. Uncommon or extended menstrual periods, a surplus of body hair growth, and acne, can all appear in women with polycystic ovary syndrome too.

The reason behind this has everything to do with hormones. Hormones play a vital role in the health of your hair follicles and can affect the quality of the hair that your scalp produces. Typically, women have higher levels of estrogen than a man, which safeguards against genetic hair loss. However, women with metabolic issues as seen in those with female hair loss tend to have an excess of specific hormones such as testosterone. These unchecked hormones can wreak havoc on the hair and explain why those susceptible to androgens will see increased hair loss.

http://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(14)00033-8/references

The good news is that female pattern hair loss can be halted and fully reversed. The field of epigenetics (which was a direct result of the work carried out at the human genome project) has shown us that while the DNA in our make-up remains fixed the epigenome continually responds to our diet and living conditions, enabling an entire alteration in genetic expression. In other words, the key to reversing female hair loss is getting to the root cause of the problem as opposed to treating the symptoms with drug based products which often make the problem even worse.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12610534

In order to start reversing the hair loss process we recommend following our Top 8 Recommendations For Reversing Female Pattern Hair Loss.