Hormone Replacement Therapy
How To Stop Menopause Hair Loss
If you see more hair in your brush, in the shower, or on the floor, you may be experiencing menopause hair loss.
The good news for you is this: Because the cause of menopause hair loss is hormonal, timely treatment can help save your hair.
Women can experience hair loss at any age, but menopause hair loss most often becomes noticeable between 50 and 60.
By age 70, an Australian study found, over 50 percent of women have some degree of menopause hair loss.
Being even a little overweight is associated with a greater risk of losing hair.
One study found that women with a BMI over 25 were more likely to lose their hair.
Also, diabetes and prediabetes are linked to hair loss. The cutoff seems normal fasting blood sugar levels above 110 mg/dl.
Women who went through puberty before the age of 16, or who had been pregnant fewer than three times, who had sun exposure more than 16 hours a week, or who had used oral contraceptives for more than a year all have been found to have a greater likelihood menopause hair loss.
On the other hand, avoiding sun, breastfeeding, and a menstrual cycle of fewer than 35 days are related to a lower risk of menopause hair loss.
The findings of over 20 studies point to estrogen deficiency as the hormonal link to hair loss after menopause.
When estrogen deficiency is the cause of menopause hair loss, the average life cycle of hairs and their replacement gets out of sync.
On a normal scalp:
80 to 90 percent of hair is the “anagen” or growth phase. The hair is continuously being pushed out of the active hair follicle into which it is anchored. This stage can last from two to eight years.
1 to 2 percent of hair is in the “catagen” or regression phase. This is ten days when the follicle shrinks and separates from the hair inside it.
About 15 percent of your hair is in the “telogen” or resting phase. It remains inside the inactive follicle. This stage can last as long as five months. On a healthy scalp, new hair follicles are forming as fast as mature hair follicles are going into the telogen phase.
In menopause, the anagen phase gets shorter. Hairs don’t grow to their usual size. Blood vessels in the scalp become less active and deliver less nourishment to hair follicles. And there aren’t as many new hairs coming in when hairs go into the telogen phase, waiting to fall out.
And if the skin has been stimulated to produce pigments (that is, if you let your scalp get a tan), cells around the hair follicles go through a process called apoptosis, sometimes termed “cellular suicide.” Once they have made brown pigments to tan your skin, they act as if their work is done.
There are many things you can do to preserve your hair during menopause:
- Avoid harsh chemical dyes, curling agents, and straightening agents.
- Take a daily multivitamin that contains vitamin B7, also known as biotin.
- Check with your doctor to take a simple blood test to ensure you don’t have some other treatable condition that causes hair loss, like thyroid hormone deficiency.
- Try bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.
Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) provides you with naturally occurring plant chemicals that occupy the same cell receptors as estrogen.
These substances aren’t estrogen, but they can perform some of the same tasks in hair cells as estrogen.
They are active enough to help restore your hair’s anagen cycle to its regular length and to stimulate circulation in your scalp. Still, they aren’t so potent that they can cause any of the side effects of medical estrogen replacement therapy.
Renew Health and Wellness can answer all your bioidentical hormone replacement therapy questions.
Contact us today about the ways we can help you deal with the effects of menopause.
If you see more hair in your brush, in the shower, or on the floor, you may be experiencing menopause hair loss.
The good news for you is this: Because the cause of menopause hair loss is hormonal, timely treatment can help save your hair.
Women can experience hair loss at any age, but menopause hair loss most often becomes noticeable between 50 and 60.
By age 70, an Australian study found, over 50 percent of women have some degree of menopause hair loss.
Being even a little overweight is associated with a greater risk of losing hair.
One study found that women with a BMI over 25 were more likely to lose their hair.
Also, diabetes and prediabetes are linked to hair loss. The cutoff seems normal fasting blood sugar levels above 110 mg/dl.
Women who went through puberty before the age of 16, or who had been pregnant fewer than three times, who had sun exposure more than 16 hours a week, or who had used oral contraceptives for more than a year all have been found to have a greater likelihood menopause hair loss.
On the other hand, avoiding sun, breastfeeding, and a menstrual cycle of fewer than 35 days are related to a lower risk of menopause hair loss.
The findings of over 20 studies point to estrogen deficiency as the hormonal link to hair loss after menopause.
When estrogen deficiency is the cause of menopause hair loss, the average life cycle of hairs and their replacement gets out of sync.
On a normal scalp:
80 to 90 percent of hair is the “anagen” or growth phase. The hair is continuously being pushed out of the active hair follicle into which it is anchored. This stage can last from two to eight years.
1 to 2 percent of hair is in the “catagen” or regression phase. This is ten days when the follicle shrinks and separates from the hair inside it.
About 15 percent of your hair is in the “telogen” or resting phase. It remains inside the inactive follicle. This stage can last as long as five months. On a healthy scalp, new hair follicles are forming as fast as mature hair follicles are going into the telogen phase.
In menopause, the anagen phase gets shorter. Hairs don’t grow to their usual size. Blood vessels in the scalp become less active and deliver less nourishment to hair follicles. And there aren’t as many new hairs coming in when hairs go into the telogen phase, waiting to fall out.
And if the skin has been stimulated to produce pigments (that is, if you let your scalp get a tan), cells around the hair follicles go through a process called apoptosis, sometimes termed “cellular suicide.” Once they have made brown pigments to tan your skin, they act as if their work is done.
There are many things you can do to preserve your hair during menopause:
- Avoid harsh chemical dyes, curling agents, and straightening agents.
- Take a daily multivitamin that contains vitamin B7, also known as biotin.
- Check with your doctor to take a simple blood test to ensure you don’t have some other treatable condition that causes hair loss, like thyroid hormone deficiency.
- Try bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.
Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) provides you with naturally occurring plant chemicals that occupy the same cell receptors as estrogen.
These substances aren’t estrogen, but they can perform some of the same tasks in hair cells as estrogen.
They are active enough to help restore your hair’s anagen cycle to its regular length and to stimulate circulation in your scalp. Still, they aren’t so potent that they can cause any of the side effects of medical estrogen replacement therapy.
Renew Health and Wellness can answer all your bioidentical hormone replacement therapy questions.
Contact us today about the ways we can help you deal with the effects of menopause.
