by Sarah Rowe

There are a number of different reasons as to why a woman would suffer from hair loss in the same way as a man does. Yet even though some women will begin to lose their hair, they do not lose it to the same extent that a man does. Below we look at one reason which is the cause of female hair loss in women today and which is the most common of all the causes.

Although it has always been considered to be predominantly a male problem, today you will find that some women are just as likely to suffer from serious hair loss as well. In fact, according to the American Academy of Dermatology, it is a problem that now affects around 30 million women in the United States alone.

One of the main causes for a woman to start losing her hair is because of her genetic makeup. All of us have hormones known as androgens, which work in perfect harmony with all other hormones in the body. However, for some women because they have a genetic predisposition these hormones can actually interfere with the way the body functions. One particular hormone that is part of the androgen group is testosterone, this can cause problems for certain women.

For some unknown reason because of a woman’s genetic makeup, there are times when the testosterone hormone in her body comes into contact with an enzyme that makes it convert easily into DHT. When it does this the DHT is able to bind to the receptors deep inside the hair follicles which prevents messages from being able to gain entry and so prevent them from growing as normal.

Over time, there will be a build up of DHT in the hair follicles, this then will begin to cause them to shrink. This in turn results in the disruption of the natural hair growth patterns and often results in hair loss occurring. This will then result in suffering from female pattern baldness or referred to medically as androgenic alopecia.

Even though the cause of this form of baldness in women is much the same way as it is in men, the pattern of the baldness is different. With women their baldness will be somewhat diffused and generally occurs as a thinning of the hair on top of the scalp. On the other hand men will normally start to lose hair completely from specific areas of the head, namely at the crown or around the temple or at the back.

As well as this difference in the two types of baldness, the other is that it only occurs in men as they grow older. Whilst for women they can start to suffer from female pattern baldness at any stage in their lives. For some women who get it when they are young it is because they may well be suffering from some other medical condition.

Along with the reason above, as to what can be the cause of female hair loss in women, there are other factors that may be the cause of this problem. Some women may, as previously mentioned, may have an underlying medical condition. Whilst for others the reason that they have begun to lose their hair is that they have suffered some kind of traumatic event in their lives.

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