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Loosing Hair since starting HRT. (MTF)

Started by ARIA FAYE, August 10, 2016, 06:21:55 PM

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ARIA FAYE

Hello out there cyber friends.

I need help, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE. I am starting to freak out, and I don't do that very often. I am normally a pretty level headed person. Though if this continues I am going to be a balled headed person. We don't want that because I won't be a very pretty balled headed girl. EW  :icon_omfg:

This is what is happening.

I have been on my HRT since March, (six months now.) Since that time I believe I have noticed my hair coming out more regularly, in higher quantities than it should. I feel like I am loosing much more than the average person does. I have noticed a decrease in the quantity of hair on my scalp.

I want to make it clear that my hair is not necessarily brittle and breaking off. It is actually coming out of my scalp with hair follicle and all. I can see the white hair follicle on my individual hairs that come out. I also think the follicles are much smaller than they should be.

How my scalp feels:

My scalp has been tender on and off for weeks now. I thought I was just getting too much sun. Though I am not in the sun very much - One, because I hate the sun - Two, because I am actually allergic to the sun. (It make me sick when I am in it longer than several hours a day.) - (Yes I wear sun screen. I burn way too easy to not, wear it.) My scalp has also been getting small amount of scaly things on it too. They are like scabs but not bloody. It is more like small areas of  built up skin. My head has been itchy on occasion. (No, the itchiness has not been making me scratch excessively.)

I will explain how I treat my hair daily:

I work as a merchandiser and I am naturally very active. My hair is just under shoulder length. I keep it tied up in a loop. I don't make it super tight or anything like that. just loose enough to keep it from coming undone. Sometimes I will have to undo it, shake it out and put it back up. When I come home I let it down and put a head band on in order to keep it out of my face, or I will use a clam clip to keep my hair off my shoulders.

I wash my hair ever two or three days, and I condition the lower half of my hair every other two or three days. in between I rinse my hair while I'm in the shower with no additives.

I do not blow-dry my hair, or aggressively dry it with a towel. I squeeze it dry, pat it, and let it air dry, and try to not comb, or brush it while it is wet.

I do not often braid it for bed. I usually push it to the side, or behind my head while I sleep.

.                                                                                                                                                           .


I am not sure why I am having problems with my hair. My hair is very important to me, if you can't tell already. I try to take very good care of it. I don't heat treat it, or abuse it in any fashion. It looks beautiful in its natural form, and I get comments on it all the time.

Before HRT I never had problems with my hair.

Any kind of answers are greatly appreciated.   
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Dena

Welcome to Susan's Place. I am not really sure what is happening either and this is something you will need to discuss with your doctor. Depending on the blocker you are using, you might get a surge of testosterone before the blocker takes effect. Hair loss from that should be temporary however you should have your testosterone levels checked to be sure there are no surprises. In addition it's possible the rebalancing of your hormones caused by HRT is also causing temporary hair loss. Should the doctor determine there is another problem you may receive an additional medication to prevent further hair loss.

We issue to all new members the following links so you will best be able to use the web site.

Things that you should read




Rebirth Date 1982 - PMs are welcome - Use [email]dena@susans.org[/email] or Discord if your unable to PM - Skype is available - My Transition
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  •  

Jacqueline

Aria Faye,

Welcome to the site.

You should not include dosages. However, what blocker are you using? Have you contacted your endo? I think that would be an important thing to do.

I hope you get this taken care of quickly.

With warmth,

Joanna
1st Therapy: February 2015
First Endo visit & HRT StartJanuary 29, 2016
Jacqueline from Joanna July 18, 2017
Full Time June 1, 2018





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ARIA FAYE

Quote from: Joanna50 on August 11, 2016, 11:47:12 AM
Aria Faye,

Welcome to the site.

You should not include dosages. However, what blocker are you using? Have you contacted your endo? I think that would be an important thing to do.

I hope you get this taken care of quickly.

With warmth,

Joanna

I am taking Spironolactone, Estradiol, and Progesterone.

I don't have an endo. He was a list of terrible words that some might find offensive, which fits him perfectly. Currently I only have a physician that is prescribing me with my hormones. I recently just found out that the insurance I am on covers nothing under trans healthcare. My doc is a lovely person; he some how gets my blood work and hormones payed for by my insurance provider. I have been having my blood work checked every month, or every other month. The time before last, all my levels were in the range of female. he said my levels were at a point of 10 days into a females 28 day cycle. He said that was a good place for me to be. Then I messed it all up by not taking my pills when I should. This last time I had my levels checked I was back into male range. I started to forget to take my meds when I should. Now I am on a plan where I am able to remember when I take them, and when I haven't. I always take my meds when I should now. Tomorrow I am getting my results back for my blood work, and I'll update y'all. 
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Jacqueline

Aria Faye,

I know some people have problems with Spiro(though I have not heard of any hair loss attributed). I have heard others and my own Endo (when I mentioned concern about hair loss) talk about an alternative finestride. I can't say it is right for you but you might ask your doctor about it.

If you are in for blood work, I assume you will discuss this with your doctor.

I hope it goes well.

With warmth,

Joanna
1st Therapy: February 2015
First Endo visit & HRT StartJanuary 29, 2016
Jacqueline from Joanna July 18, 2017
Full Time June 1, 2018





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ARIA FAYE

Story time.


I went to the doctors today. I think everything went pretty well.

Physician:

My doctor and I are confused why my levels are lower than we expected them to be. It is possible that one of the last times I had my blood drawn I had recently just taken my medication causing a large influx of hormones to surge through my body affecting my results.

This most recent time when I went to have my labs done, I did not take my medication before I went. When the results came back they were just out of normal male range.

This is something my doctor and I need to figure out together. He did up my dose on Estradiol. I guess we will see what happens.

Dermatologist: 

I got better news than I thought I would get.

It is not my medication causing my hair loss. Apparently since I am dealing with so much stress with my transition, and my family it is causing my hair to fall out. I am also going back to school for psychology. I am trying to figure out how to pay for everything. I do not know how I am going to go to school and work.

I AM SUPER STRESSED

Also, dermatologist lady said that my follicles have synced up, and are shedding all at once. I asked her why my follicles are small and she didn't really know why.

she gave me a steroid to help halt the hair loss, and gave me a shampoo to stop the itching.

and my hair loss is not permanent.  ;D ;D ;D ;D
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Yamamaya

Sorry for replying this old post, but it looks I'm having exactly the same problem ARIA FAYE had last year, My hair keeps drooping down while I'm posting this even without touching it, and my doctor didn't really know what was going wrong. So ARIA FAYE are you still loosing your hair? If not, How long did it took to stop it? Will you tell me the names of those medicines your doctors give you? Thank you!
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Janes Groove

Quote from: Yamamaya on June 15, 2017, 08:51:41 AM
Sorry for replying this old post, but it looks I'm having exactly the same problem ARIA FAYE had last year, My hair keeps drooping down while I'm posting this even without touching it, and my doctor didn't really know what was going wrong. So ARIA FAYE are you still loosing your hair? If not, How long did it took to stop it? Will you tell me the names of those medicines your doctors give you? Thank you!

I was having the same problem and I first noticed it about 6 months after I started HRT.  Then I did some research and found out that for some people spiro causes scalp hair loss.  If you google spironolactone side effects its right there under possible spironolactone side effects.  At 8 months I was starting to get seriously depressed.  I went to a new doctor and she took me off of spiro completely and started me on proscar. After just a few days after I quit taking spiro the shedding went from being really bad to just normal shedding.


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ARIA FAYE

Quote from: Yamamaya on June 15, 2017, 08:51:41 AM
Sorry for replying this old post, but it looks I'm having exactly the same problem ARIA FAYE had last year, My hair keeps drooping down while I'm posting this even without touching it, and my doctor didn't really know what was going wrong. So ARIA FAYE are you still loosing your hair? If not, How long did it took to stop it? Will you tell me the names of those medicines your doctors give you? Thank you!

Hey there,

Yes I am still having quite a bit of hair fall. Through I have changed how much Spiro I take and how much progesterone I take. Both were reduced, and I take them 12 hours a part. I take the progesterone once a day, and spiro twice a day with my estrogen.

Since my hair fall has reduced with a change in my hormones I have noticed hair growing back, and my bolding areas filling back in!

I did some research on progesterone quite a while ago. What I have found is that progesterone a controversial hormone to supplement. I believe in its use, and I would not like to remove it from my HRT regime until next year, when I have been on it for two years. After two years I will have receive its breast growth benefits, and its risks will be too great to justify its use any further. I have found that progesterone is used by some to stop hair loss, but in some cases it causes hair loos. The varying results progesterone has on individuals is why it is considered controversial. It has some other risks attached to it besides causing hair loss, weight gain being one of them, plus many others, but I am not able to remember what they are at this time.

I do not have the name of the medicines my dermatologist gave me. I used them for a while, and they did not help. One of them was a dandruff shampoo which really helped with my dandruff, but it caused to my hair to be super brittle.

I wish you the best of luck.
  •  

ARIA FAYE

Quote from: Jane Emily on June 15, 2017, 10:58:29 AM
I was having the same problem and I first noticed it about 6 months after I started HRT.  Then I did some research and found out that for some people spiro causes scalp hair loss.  If you google spironolactone side effects its right there under possible spironolactone side effects.  At 8 months I was starting to get seriously depressed.  I went to a new doctor and she took me off of spiro completely and started me on proscar. After just a few days after I quit taking spiro the shedding went from being really bad to just normal shedding.

I am glad to hear you are no longer having troubles with bad hair fall. I have not heard of proscar until now. I wish I knew about before I started HRT.

Here in the next 6 weeks I won't have to worry about taking T blockers anymore!

What can  you tell the community about proscar?
  •  

Janes Groove

Quote from: ARIA FAYE on June 16, 2017, 09:14:09 AM
What can  you tell the community about proscar?

It's just the brand name for a high dosage of finasteride.  It's not the best anti-androgen but it's better than nothing.   And hair on my head is a very important secondary sex characteristic to me.   In my case, the 8 months I was on spiro did a lot of damage to my ability to produce testosterone to the point where it appears to be permanent damage.  Since quitting spiro 4 months ago, I have not noticed any significant increased masculinization.  I did recently increase my estrogen dosage by 25% and in about a  month will increase it another 25% and I will stop the increases at that level.  But I was on a pretty low dosage to begin with.  So now the estrogen alone seems to be all I need to suppress it adequately.   I suspect my age has a lot to do with my success with testosterone suppression.

  •  

Dayta

I had a hair transplant about 6 months ago, and the surgeon suggested the I talk to my doctor about finasteride, so I started that about 2 months after the surgery.  Seems like the Spiro/estradiol had already stemmed my hair loss pretty significantly, so it's hard to say if the finasteride really had an impact.  Glad to hear things are leveling out a little for you. 

Erin




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Janes Groove

  •  

Yamamaya

#13
Quote from: Jane Emily on June 15, 2017, 10:58:29 AM
I was having the same problem and I first noticed it about 6 months after I started HRT.  Then I did some research and found out that for some people spiro causes scalp hair loss.  If you google spironolactone side effects its right there under possible spironolactone side effects.  At 8 months I was starting to get seriously depressed.  I went to a new doctor and she took me off of spiro completely and started me on proscar. After just a few days after I quit taking spiro the shedding went from being really bad to just normal shedding.
Thank you for your reply, I checked the side effects of spiro on Durg.com, hair loss is in the minor side effects part, it said those minor side effects are "Some spironolactone side effects may not need any medical attention. As your body gets used to the medicine these side effects may disappear. Your health care professional may be able to help you prevent or reduce these side effects, ..." So, I hope this hair loss thing will go off some days later, but incase it doesn't, do you think I have to stop using spiro? Or it will be ok if I use proscar with spiro?<Request not allowed>

Moderator's edit: We do not allow the posting of dosages on the site. You may not have realized this, I have included links with rules to the site below. Since we do not allow posting of dosages, I have removed the request for dosages.
  •  

Yamamaya

Quote from: ARIA FAYE on June 16, 2017, 08:57:58 AM
Hey there,

Yes I am still having quite a bit of hair fall. Through I have changed how much Spiro I take and how much progesterone I take. Both were reduced, and I take them 12 hours a part. I take the progesterone once a day, and spiro twice a day with my estrogen.

Since my hair fall has reduced with a change in my hormones I have noticed hair growing back, and my bolding areas filling back in!

I did some research on progesterone quite a while ago. What I have found is that progesterone a controversial hormone to supplement. I believe in its use, and I would not like to remove it from my HRT regime until next year, when I have been on it for two years. After two years I will have receive its breast growth benefits, and its risks will be too great to justify its use any further. I have found that progesterone is used by some to stop hair loss, but in some cases it causes hair loos. The varying results progesterone has on individuals is why it is considered controversial. It has some other risks attached to it besides causing hair loss, weight gain being one of them, plus many others, but I am not able to remember what they are at this time.

I do not have the name of the medicines my dermatologist gave me. I used them for a while, and they did not help. One of them was a dandruff shampoo which really helped with my dandruff, but it caused to my hair to be super brittle.

I wish you the best of luck.

Thank you for your reply, the medicines my doctors gave me are not helping it neither, I think I may be need to reduce my spiro dosage to see if hair loss will stop too. Since I didn't use progesterone, I think I don't need to worry about it for now. You said you still have hair losing problem, may I ask how many hair you drop roughly in a day when you first notice this hair losing thing, and how many drop in a day now? Some people say it's normal to drop roughly 100 hairs for a day, I think I drop over 500 or higher per day, when I take shower it drops like in horror movies, I'm super worried about it.
  •  

Yamamaya

#15
Quote from: Dayta on June 16, 2017, 10:11:47 AM
I had a hair transplant about 6 months ago, and the surgeon suggested the I talk to my doctor about finasteride, so I started that about 2 months after the surgery.  Seems like the Spiro/estradiol had already stemmed my hair loss pretty significantly, so it's hard to say if the finasteride really had an impact.  Glad to hear things are leveling out a little for you. 

Erin
Hi, it's good to hear that, I'm taking finasteride too. <posting dosages of yourself or others is not allowed>

Moderator Edit: please see previous mod edit two posts above. Personal dosages are not allowed
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Janes Groove

#16
Proscar is the <dosages amounts not allowed> dose of finasteride. Propecia is the <dosages not allowed> dose.  They are both exactly the same drug. Finasteride.  The difference in names merely indicates the difference in dosage.   Many transgender women take spiro while taking finasteride at the same time.  I was doing it myself for a time.  Ask your doctor.

Since an HRT transition is a years long thing then stopping spiro for a little bit to gauge the effects of hair loss is, I think, a totally rational idea.  My hair is a very important secondary sex characteristic to me.  Right up there with my boobs in importance.   A short vacation from spiro is not going to have any significant effect on your final feminization outcome.  My first doc didn't get that.  She got fired. 

Moderator Edit
  •  

Jacqueline

Quote from: Yamamaya on June 15, 2017, 08:51:41 AM
Sorry for replying this old post, but it looks I'm having exactly the same problem ARIA FAYE had last year, My hair keeps drooping down while I'm posting this even without touching it, and my doctor didn't really know what was going wrong. So ARIA FAYE are you still loosing your hair? If not, How long did it took to stop it? Will you tell me the names of those medicines your doctors give you? Thank you!


Yamamaya,

Welcome to the site,

Sorry you did not get and official welcome yet. Well, here it is.

I am also sorry that I will have to edit some of your and other member's posts. We do not allow the sharing of dosages on the public forums. You can try privately but most of our members are not trained endocrinologists and you should only take advice from a trained medical professional. Each person's reactions are very individual. Thus, it can be dangerous to give or take advice based on an opinion without your medical history.

I am including the links that have all the rules about the site. If you have not had a chance to look through them, please take a moment:

Things that you should read





Once again, welcome to Susan's. Look around, ask questions and join in.

With warmth,

Joanna

:police:
I am going to lock this topic briefly, do some clean up, then open it back up.
1st Therapy: February 2015
First Endo visit & HRT StartJanuary 29, 2016
Jacqueline from Joanna July 18, 2017
Full Time June 1, 2018





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