aga and te

Question
QUESTION: here is what my scalp biopsy reads , transverse sections of scalp showing .reduced number of terminal anagen hairs with increase telogen hairs.miniaturized  hairs are increased in number.there is a mild perifollicular inflammation present.this started 9 months ago after a bad hair dye job at a salon,my hair started coming out in clumps ,so i started having severe stress, and also have low iron.if there is te present can i get some of that hair back,also no one in my family has balding issues,my hair has thinned every where more on the vertex but that's also missing hair from my biopsy,i had such thick hair nine months ago,at least fifty percent is gone.



ANSWER: Estella,

 The problem with discerning the cause of thinning in a woman who has had stress as well as some history of inherited baldness is that they can both be present and lead to thinning hair which doesn't grow back if there is a low serum ferritin. You may need to be on iron supplement such as Ferrous Sulfate 325mg / day plus Vit C 500/day.

In an answer to another question a few minutes ago I wrote:

If you are losing much more than 100 hairs per day every day then you may well have a chronic TE and the problem is to find out the cause of the shed. Sometimes women lose hair at a fairly normal rate but can not grow the hair back because they do not have enough iron in the form of ferritin. Your serum ferritin should be over 70. Many doctors and laboratories assume normal range goes down to 10 or 20 but at low levels it is difficult to grow back lost hairs and your hair will thin out. If your periods are not regular you could be experiencing increase loss due to AGA. I would have your serum ferritin checked as well as your levels of DHEAS and testosterone. The problem with AGA is that you can be sensitive to even normal levels of testosterone and lose hair because of them. You may want to ask if you can take spironolactone to block the male hormones.



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QUESTION: does my biopsy show te?and i am taking an iron supplement,and a hair supplement also.when you have aga is it a rapid loss? my hair is at least fifty percent thinner in nine months.when you have aga do you still grow new hair?if i get my iron levels normal and reduce stress can i get some of my hair back even if i have aga? no body in my family has aga,they all have a full head of hair.thank you


Answer
The description of the biopsy is that of AGA. You may want to check to see if you are carrying the bald genes that make up AGA by getting a genetic test  -- www.hairdx.com -- done by swabbing the inside of the cheek.  There can be other reasons for thinning hair including a drug reaction and there are many drugs which can cause this. You could read the chapter in my book on the causes of hair loss by going to www.hairdoc.com and clicking on the "read online" button to read Chapter 4 of my book "Hair Loss Answers"