Yes. Women with PCOS generally have higher Free Testosterone right?
(General T can be normal but Free T is higher, its closer to a mans but not nearly as high).
Think about it - Not all men go bald, some men are hairier than others. Ie asian men have hardly any body hair but still some go bald, but as Men they all the same "general amount" of Testosterone. ITs genetic whether they lose it or are hirsute depending on their genes.
Whether you get lots of "hirsutism" or "lose your scalp hair" depends on your genes - as Joyblack said. You either inherit a sensitivity to testosterone or not.
WHAT PEOPLE DON'T LIKE TO OR REFUSE TO BELIEVE IS THAT HAIRLOSS IN WOMEN DUE TO HIGHER FREE TESTOSTERONE (DUE TO LOWER SHBG LEVELS) AS IN PCOS = IS EXACTLY THE SAME PROCESS THAT GOES ON IN MEN WHO THIN. TESOSTERONE SENSITIVITY.DHT the whole thing... I've done a lot of reading, sad but true. So if you can get to it early ladies I urge you to get your free T down with treatment and wait loss.
A good thing to do is look at the men in your family - as its not always correct as we don't always take after all members of family but MOSTLY its correct as we can guess which ones we take after)-
If your father, brothers, uncles, grandfathers start thinning in early 20's and 30s there is a good change that if your free testsoternoe gets high enough you will start to lose hair... how high to make this change, depends on how sensitie your follicles are (see joyblacks post).
If they are really hairy ie lots of chin hair, leg and arm hair. - there is a good chance that with your high Free t = you wil be hirsute with PCOS. Consequently you might have a sister with the same genes except the PCOS and she wont get hirsute or lose scalp hair as her free t is normal.
I went out with a guy once. He had VERY little body hair, just tiny barely visible blonde hairs like before puberty. He had a thick head of hair, so did his dad, don't know about his mums dad... his sister had PCOS and she had barely any hair issues but slight blond ones on chin but not even a hassel as it was only a few....
My twin brother on the other hand - has had thinning hair since eary 20's, he got first really bad acne at the late adult age of 24 or something and had to go on Roaccutane - never had it as a teen ager.. and has a lot of thick , dark chin, leg arm hair
hmm I have PCOS - do you think I have thinning hair and lots of leg arm and chin hair - Yep you guessed it. My Free Testosterine is 14 -normal is between 1 and 8.
Put it this way - the hirsutism and hairloss was in my genes but if my T hadn't have gotten so hight due to PCOS - I wouldnt have a problem to this day.
These things only kick in with higher levels of the big TESTOSTERONE.
Which is unfortunately synonomys with PCOS.
I regret not being diagnosed earlier ( I am 33) and was pressing to be diagnosed 4 years ago but they said I didn't have it. All this time I could have been on Metformin and tryed a lot harder to stay under 65kgs and eat Low GI as they things could have prevented a lot of my hair thinning and hirsutism.
I'm stuck with whats lost now and stuck with the extra hair but doing the above I'm told can reduce it developing furtherr and hair grows slower on chin. Scalp hair will shed less but not stop altogether....
My dad is 65 with a full head of hair. Now at that age he has had a lot of T surging through his body all his life - which means his scalp hair is not at all sensitive to Testosterone = Lucky BSTD.
Actually my mothers hair looks like jane fonda's so i am doubly jealous - she has nt' been diagnosed with PCOS. But her father is the one who passed the gene down..
Ok I'm rambling.. time for bed... I hope I don't dream about hair.
I once dreamt that it all fell out
and that my teeth fell out another time...
hmm wondr what that signifies??? | 
