Women Lose It, Too: The Cause... Video Transcript

Participants

David R. Marks MD, Michael L. Reed MD, Neil Sadick MD

Summary

Though hair loss can be embarrassing and unpleasant for anyone, our society considers hair loss in women a sort of cosmetic disaster. But it's not just social factors that set male and female baldness apart. The actual causes and symptoms of hair loss in women can be different as well. Join our guests as they explain the distinction between the two. Topics will include:

• Common misperceptions about female hair loss
• Primary causes of hair loss in women
• How women can tell if they’re losing their hair

Webcast Transcript

DAVID R. MARKS, MD:  Hi, and welcome to our webcast.  I'm Dr. David Marks.  A lot of people who lose their hair feel embarrassed, especially women.  For them, it can be a cosmetic disaster.  But it's not just social factors that set male and female baldness apart.  Causes and symptoms of hair loss can also be different in men and women.

Here to talk about these differences are two experts.  First is Dr. Neil Sadick.  He's a dermatologist and cosmetic surgeon at the Weill Cornell Medical College.  Welcome.

NEIL SADICK, MD:  Hi, David.

DAVID R. MARKS, MD:  Next to him, Dr. Michael Reed.  He's a dermatologist and hair transplant surgeon at NYU here in New York City.  Thanks for being here.

MICHAEL REED, MD:  Thank you, David.

DAVID R. MARKS, MD:  It really can be a cosmetic disaster for women, but it's something that we don't hear a lot about.  Why is that?

MICHAEL REED, MD:  I hear a lot about it all day long, because all women who have noticeable hair loss suffer from their hair loss.  A man can choose to suffer or not to suffer, but all women suffer from hair loss.  The problem is that initially they're not sure what to do, so they run off to their stylist, they talk about it with their female friends and relatives, and as you go down the list of places they go, finally, fourth or fifth down the list they get to a dermatologist.  But we see a lot of them, and we're seeing more and more of them, because now they're more aware that something can be done about it.  In the past I think they were just afraid to ask because they thought there was no answer for their problem.

DAVID R. MARKS, MD:  Talk to me a little more about the psychological impact on women.  It's different than in men.

NEIL SADICK, MD:  It's definitely devastating.  It's been shown in studies that women who have hair loss have problems with interpersonal relationships, they have loss of self-esteem, and it really can have a tremendous psychosocial type of impact.  They tend to be more introverted, and again, there are so many excellent treatments that are now available, and it's really not necessary for them to have to deal with this sort of emotional trauma.

DAVID R. MARKS, MD:  How widespread is this problem in women?

NEIL SADICK, MD:  It's interesting that the incidence of hair loss women is almost parallel to that in men.  However, in women, usually the degree of hair loss is not as extensive as it is in the male population.

DAVID R. MARKS, MD:  So are they hiding it better than men?

NEIL SADICK, MD:  Luckily, their genes express the trait not to the same severe degree as men.  They will notice the same amount, the same incidence of thinning or the same amount of thinning in terms of numbers of women compared to men, but the degree of hair loss is usually not as severe as it is in the male population.

DAVID R. MARKS, MD:  What are the differences in the cause of hair loss in women, as opposed to men?

MICHAEL REED, MD:  The orthodox view, meaning the correct thinking view at the present time, is that women lose their hair, most of them, for the same reason that men do -- from genetics.  It's called female pattern -- as opposed to male pattern -- androgenetic alopecia, which means hair loss caused by a sensitivity to male type hormones, which men and women both have.