Body hair, eyebrow hair, all over hair loss

Symptoms Physical
#1

Sorry, first post, a long one:

I’ve been following the yahoo group since April, but this is my first post as I was hoping for the best. First off, here’s my story:

In January of 2006(I was 25 yrs old) when I went home my Mom said my hair was thinning on the crown of my head. I never noticed because obviously you can’t see it unless you have a 2nd mirror. I went out and bought a 2nd mirror and sure enough a small area on the crown of my head was quite thin. I am bad at estimating, but the thin spot was about the size of a quarter. It was small enough that when I got my hair cut by a new barber she said called it my “cowlick”. Given that it was quite thin already, the thinning must have been happening for a while.

So I freaked out and went to an internal medicine doctor in Mid February. He said it is MPB. I asked if it could be a thyroid problem and he said no because otherwise my eyes would be bulging out and I’d be very tired and would have other symptoms(yea, this guy was incompetent i now realize). He ran blood tests because I also had a physical done at the same time and he said he would run some liver tests because if I went on finasteride I had to make sure my liver function was ok.

So I have always been wary of taking medicines for non life threatening conditions, but after being assured that any side effects would subside after stopping the medication, I somewhat reluctantly started taking Propecia towards the end of February.

After about a month on Propecia one day after I took off my white polo shirt I saw that the entire inside of the shirt, front and back, was full of hair. I had already noticed that I was shedding my head hair really fast after starting propecia, including from the sides and back of my head. I also noticed my eyebrow hair was falling off. I decided to continue with the Propecia because the various hair loss forums said shedding all over was to be expected.

After 6 weeks, I decided to stop Propecia because I never liked the idea of messing with my hormones and the rappid shedding from all over was scaring me. This was around Mid-april of 2006.

I went to another internal medicine doctor in September of 2006 and he said my previous doctor was pretty incompetent for not chcecking my thyroid function so he ran some thyroid tests. He said all my thyroid tests came out normal.

To this day I am shedding the hair on my head really fast. It has become really thin in about a year and even the sides and back of my head are thinner than normal. I have always had really fast-growing thick hair and had to get haircuts every month because the hair would come over my ears and bother me. Surprise, surprise, my hair never seems to grow to my ears anymore even after not getting a haircut for 4 months.

My eyebrows have become noticeably thin, although my dermatologist says they look fine to him…this is because I used to have really thick ass eyebrows so to others they look normal. My pubic hair also has thinned as well as my body hair. They both pull rather easily. My libido also is down and I don’t have morning wood very often anymore. I also think possibly my penis has a slight curve but at times it looks like it is fine, so I’m not sure. When I do have morning wood it seems to have changed in firmness; it is more rubbery as some have called it on these forums.

I am going to get my doctor to order the complete tests that are recommended on this forum and also get copies of the blood tests I had prior to starting Propecia as well as the one I had in September to check my thyroid. I will post all those results sometime this week once I get them.

I have read on the yahoo forums of people losing eyebrow hair and body/pubic hair but there were only a few posts about that. Can anyone say that they have also had the eyebrow/body hair/etc thinning and can you tell me what to do? At this point I am not even sure what kind of doctor to start with, but my first step is to get the suite of bloodwork recommended in one of the posts here.

If you’ve read the entire post, I sincerely appreciate it. I hope to be a contributor to these boards from here on out.

Thanks,

Josh

#2

Google “reflex hyperandrogenicity” and see if that brings up anything…

As you know some members on the old Yahoo forum experienced similar thinning/fallout after Propecia… not sure why this is.

Welcome to the forum and good luck with the blood tests, they will help assess the situation far better once you have something to work with.

#3

Hey Josh,

I also have strange thinning. Mostly on the sides and back of my head. The top as well but since I was balding already it’s hard to gauge what’s normal. Much worse than pre fin. I never lost hair on the sides and back of my head before and it’s actually starting to get pretty thin, some scalp showing. Looks sickly. Derm says he’s not worried about it. Some body hair has thinned as well - pubic hair and leg hair. I’ll have to check eyebrows closer but I don’t think so. Still have holes in my beard that haven’t come back. Do you get that? Endo says it’s a sign of low T but my T is fine. Good luck with your tests.

#4

Hey RK,

I don’t have holes in my beard. As far as thinning on the sides and back, my thinning on the sides of my head does look sickly when I wake up in the morning. It looks like I’m a cancer patient sometimes. I’ve always had thick hair so when I comb my hair it kind of hides the thinning on the sides of my head.

I’ve tried 3 derms and unfortunately they all aren’t concerned about the thinning on the sides and back. One thing that is interesting is that I have always had dandruff, but before I started Propecia and once I realized my hair was thinning, I noticed I had more dandruff. Since about May of last year, 2006, my derms have had me on and off on topical corticosteroids because they say I have a lot of scalp flaking. I never noticed the flakes that much before starting Propecia so I even wonder if Propecia caused the scalp irritation. I’m really wary of using the topical steroids because a known side effect is possible adrenal fatigue and I wonder if that is contributing to some of my symptoms.

Anyhow, I should have blood work done on Friday so I’ll report back.

Regards,

Josh

1 Like
#5

I’ve always had bad dandruff too as well as seborrheic dermatitis. Not sure if fin caused more inflammation and drying. It definitely caused my face to be very dry, worse seb derm too. Have you noticed an improvement with the corticosteroids? I consulted a derm online who said if it’s not mpb then it’s possibly alopecia areata and corticosteroids may help. Never tried them since I always expected it to be a symptom of adrenal fatigue or something in that realm. Gotta find a good derm.

#6

The corticosteroids have certainly seemed to reduce the scalp flaking but I do find that my scalp is still a bit dry. As far as whether or not it has helped with hair loss, it hasn’t.

What do you mean by the following:

Are you concerned the corticosteroids will cause adrenal fatigue, because that does seem to be a listed side-effect of the drug?

#7

No, just that I felt I was barking up the wrong tree, that the hair loss must be related to my hormonal or adrenal issues. I had used corticosteroids most of my life without any problems. I think even up to the early stages of post-fin symptoms. Could it have contributed, I don’t know. I stopped and began using Elidel instead simply because I didn’t want to put that stuff on my skin anymore. Derm said in the long run it’ll just worsen the condition and keep your body from fighting it itself.

#8

RK,

What is your story? How long were you on the drug, how long have you been off, what are all the symptoms you have?

My major concern is losing all my eyebrows. Unfortunately my doctor thought i might have a thyroid issue but he only checks TSH levels, and mine seem to be fine. There is a website that was talked about on the forums,http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/ that says that isn’t an adequate test. I’m not getting much support from my derm and doctor so I am trying to contact Dr. Crisler to set up an appointment so I can finally get my hormones checked.

#9

joshcurtz, you still around? i have a question for you so I PM’ed you. basically wanted to know if your body hair loss stopped, or even grew back.
thanks man.