I need your opinions, PLEASE :(

[Silly Me :)]

Hi,
Like many of you, I have been struggling with the side effects of PCOS for a while. I seem to have the worst of all the symptoms.

The one that bothers me the most is the hairiness and the hair loss. I can deal with the extra hair by shaving, etc but nothing I do seems to help the hair loss. I hate leaving my house because of it.

I eat a healthy diet, started exercising regularly (am now down to 143 - which has helped with the acne? and so on and got two periods in a row) and am taking lots of vitamins, herbs and metformin and hyponidd.

I also take phytophanare vitamins, which I think are helpful and the topical lotion. I am at my wits end and seriously considering a transplant? I really don't want to though

Please, please tell me what has helped you see less hair loss and more growth and I will give it a try. I am desperate!

I am in my early 20's and this is really affecting me and I am sure it does a lot of you.

Hope to hear from you.

Brianna.

Taking:
Fish Oil
Phytophanare
Biotin
Evening primrose
Multivitamin for women
Inositol
L carnitine
NAC
Metformin 750
Hyponidd 2X day

[kimm]

Well two more things to look into would be

-rogaine - Topical growth stimulant

and an antiandrogen like spiro or flutamide

one more thing to add would be a substance that stops the conversion of t into dht. So over the counter would be saw palmetto and prescription would be finasteride (propecia)

Hope these help!

You have more options. there's still hope.

[Goddess Hectate Help]

Hi,
Like many of you, I have been struggling with the side effects of PCOS for a while. I seem to have the worst of all the symptoms.

The one that bothers me the most is the hairiness and the hair loss. I can deal with the extra hair by shaving, etc but nothing I do seems to help the hair loss. I hate leaving my house because of it.

I eat a healthy diet, started exercising regularly (am now down to 143 - which has helped with the acne? and so on and got two periods in a row) and am taking lots of vitamins, herbs and metformin and hyponidd.

I also take phytophanare vitamins, which I think are helpful and the topical lotion. I am at my wits end and seriously considering a transplant? I really don't want to though

Please, please tell me what has helped you see less hair loss and more growth and I will give it a try. I am desperate!

I am in my early 20's and this is really affecting me and I am sure it does a lot of you.

Hope to hear from you.

Brianna.

Taking:
Fish Oil
Phytophanare
Biotin
Evening primrose
Multivitamin for women
Inositol
L carnitine
NAC
Metformin 750
Hyponidd 2X day

I'm in my early 20's as well and know how you feel.. Have you had your hormones tested? is the cause high androgens? if not get your thyriod tested and see a dermatologist..

If the hair loss is being caused by high androgens - you can try saw palmetto, spearmint tea, maca, white peony, licorice and pumpkin seeds to lower them.. Also you can apply emu oil to your scalp to block dht..

Another thing did you hair loss start after you took Met or before? Met depletes the body of vitamin b which can cause hair loss

Are you getting enough protien in your diet? veggies? The multi-vitamins your taking.. how high are the dosages?

[Silly Me :)]

Hey guys,
Thanks a lot for the replies...

I have tried everything...did rogaine didnt help much at all...
took spiro on and off for a while but i stopped it to try the natural route...but maybe i should not have?

Can you guys please tell me if it is worth it to add Spiro to my routine or would saw palmetto be good enough? I used to take saw as well...

I really want some of my hair back

My diet is mostly healthy...the occasional cravings but I eat mostly fish, chicken and lots of vegetables and sometimes fruits.

[KatCarney]

did you see the stickies at the top of this forum?

Lot's of helpful info...all nice and organized, with cyster feedback on various hair treatments

[ScaredSally]

hey there .. I have been destroyed by teh hair loss also I suffered it since I hit seventeen and am now 35 I took every pill, propecia, spiro, flutamide (still on this) done all vitamins, done Regaine 5% (mens strength) did not help with the frotnal hair loss

Now I have resorted to hair replacement .. not a thing you mihgt not want to hear but yes at the moment extensions but soon a full on wig ! to say my confidence has been destroyed is a total undertatement of the year but on aa positive if it wasnt for the hair replacement i personally would not leave the house ... (incidentially I am normal weight) and she does do miracles chekc her out at www.wattzinternational.com


Have you been to a dermatologist ? or an endocrinologist (although I think they are all rubbish after my years of banging my head on a brick wall) if you catch it early then maybe you will be luckier than me ...

[Corvidae]

I found that finasteride helped with my hair loss.

My hair will never be as thick as it was before PCOS no matter what I do, but taking finasteride has allowed me to go from having to worry about hiding the balding area under a comb over to not worrying about it at all even with a very short haircut. I still have thin fine hair, but at least it's thick enough now that shiny pink scalp is not the first thing I notice in the mirror. I feel as though I've been set free.

There are problems with any medication for thinning hair though. You shouldn't take finasteride if you are trying to conceive, pregnant, or breast feeding. Spironolactone affects your sodium and potassium levels and can make you suffer from dehydration more easily. None of them are magic.

You should consider what your test results show about why you are losing hair before you choose what to take. Spironolactone didn't help me, but because my SHBG is high, finasteride does.

And no matter what you choose to take, you will have to take it for up to six months before you see a result and if you stop taking it your hair will go back to what it was before in around three months.

I'm not a great fan of doctors and pills, but I've decided that taking a little pill every day to have thicker hair is well worth the result.

[DonDon34]

Hi,

I'm using Nizoral and taking saw palmento and although its early days, I think they are definitely worth trying. Have seen little or no shedding since and think I may even have some new growth, especially around the hair line.

Hope this helps, best of luck

Dx

[Silly Me :)]

Hi guys...thanks so much for all the replies...
I think I am going to try some of the things I have tried already...like add saw palmetto, use nizoral and maybe even start the aldactone again and try this for a while. Hopefully it will work...

I'm going to try my best to stay positive..hehe..

hope you guys are well!

[fuzzum11]

Hey.. I was reading a previous post from a few years back regarding hair loss and there was a lot of mention on iron deficiency being the cause .. maybe you can look into that? I started thinning back in September and started taking iron pills (65mg) daily, with multi-vitamins and fish oils.. within a month, A LOT less shedding... I stopped taking the iron pills and now the shedding is back to where it started... I'm going to the physician next week to see if I am iron deficient for sure instead of self diagnosing... hope that helps.

[kaynewcyster]

Hey I am with you. I have lost just about all of my hair before I could even be accurately diagnosed. Now I understand its the PCOS. Rogaine didn't help a bit I used men's and women's. Now I'm constantly going to get injections from the derm which I have been doing for years now. But now that I know about androgens and dht I'm gonna ask about being prescribed something else. I've been asking about saw palmetto all day. Thanks for the tip about emu oil. I'm going to pick up some today. I'll keep you posted on how all this works THANKS!!!

[Peggotty]

I found that finasteride helped with my hair loss.

My hair will never be as thick as it was before PCOS no matter what I do, but taking finasteride has allowed me to go from having to worry about hiding the balding area under a comb over to not worrying about it at all even with a very short haircut. I still have thin fine hair, but at least it's thick enough now that shiny pink scalp is not the first thing I notice in the mirror. I feel as though I've been set free.

There are problems with any medication for thinning hair though. You shouldn't take finasteride if you are trying to conceive, pregnant, or breast feeding. Spironolactone affects your sodium and potassium levels and can make you suffer from dehydration more easily. None of them are magic.

You should consider what your test results show about why you are losing hair before you choose what to take. Spironolactone didn't help me, but because my SHBG is high, finasteride does.

And no matter what you choose to take, you will have to take it for up to six months before you see a result and if you stop taking it your hair will go back to what it was before in around three months.

I'm not a great fan of doctors and pills, but I've decided that taking a little pill every day to have thicker hair is well worth the result.

I'm curious about the highlighted part. If anyone can explain why the SHBG makes a difference in what drug works or doesnt. Spiro didnt help you b/c of your high SHBG? Why would this matter? spiro works on low SHBG? Please explain.

[Peggotty]

I'm curious about the highlighted part. If anyone can explain why the SHBG makes a difference in what drug works or doesnt. Spiro didnt help you b/c of your high SHBG? Why would this matter? spiro works on low SHBG? Please explain.

Still anxiously waiting for a response regarding this. The post that I had quoted from Corvidae stated that she didnt take spiro b/c she has high SHBG. Does spiro help to elevated SHBG? I have no idea. I've even tried doing a search on spiro and SHBG together and no luck. Please help b/c if it does help raise SHBG then I think I need to start taking it. Anything that will help soak up some of the testosterone, right?

[kimm]

Pegotty -

I asked about the same thing on the metformin board.

I always thought high shbg was a good thing too!

Some tests from last year showed that I had decent levels, although this was around the time my hair loss was getting worse.

I was wondering if there was something I was missing with this one!

[Peggotty]

Pegotty -

I asked about the same thing on the metformin board.

I always thought high shbg was a good thing too!

Some tests from last year showed that I had decent levels, although this was around the time my hair loss was getting worse.

I was wondering if there was something I was missing with this one!

I hope someone can answer this. SHBG I thought was the key to sucking up all that extra testosterone, so the higher, the better, right? I also want to know the best way of getting this to be higher BESIDES BCPs.