For those with hair loss: did it get WORSE with HRT?

[largeprintagathachristie]

My hair hasn't been great since my 20's - I was diagnosed with polycystic ovaries, then. I never had excess hair, but my scalp hair has gradually and noticeably thinned over the years despite trying all of the suggestions out there. Was kind of grateful I had as much hair left as I do. I'm now 51. (Also suffered with acne and am still often spotty.)

Started HRT last year. Started at a low dose, but oestrogen levels continued to fall. Increased gradually to a 150 microgram patch, and, say, four weeks ago, to a 175 microgram patch.

Over the last few weeks, the hair thinning has really, really ramped up, evidenced by the amount of hair in my hair brush and the shocking amount in the shower drain catcher thing (sorry, tmi). I don't think I'm just being paranoid. My hair has just completely lost any remaining weight and heft.

I'm due blood tests in November, ahead of a repeat appointment with a private HRT doc in December. I doubt I can bring that forward, as her availability has been impossible, but I could try. For info, my ferritin was 78ug/L in May this year, oestradiol was 103pmol/L, and testosterone was 0.5nmol/L.

Google largely flags oestrogen as being good at arresting hair loss, with some exceptions, and I'm wondering if I'm the exception. It could of course be completely unrelated and this is the androgenic alopecia that was always going to be in my timeline because of my PCOS. There's no 'good hair' in my family; my sister and mother don't have PCOS but have thin hair. My brother was bald by his late 20's. I've also had some significant stress and chronic pain due to an injury, for info, but that's about a year old.

Regaine has worked well for me. My hair was terribly thin due to similar issues to you OP. I've never been diagnosed with pcos but I've had acne all my life and thinning hair since stopping Dianette in my early thirties. I'm now 47, on hrt (progesterone part isn't androgenic), take a good multivitamin and iron every day. But the biggest difference was definitely the Regaine. It's a commitment - you have to use it every day. It caused some shedding at first, but after a few months I had lots of new hair coming in. It's not thick and never will be, but it's so so much better.

I have googled this topic for so long, despairingly wondering whether the HRT I had started in Feb of this year was to blame for my thinning hair. I had started taking HRT - 1 pump oestrogel and 100 progesterone - the beginning of Feb 2023. Within two weeks I noticed my hair felt different, so much lighter and it was starting to bald at the temples (granted I had what I would call a very sporadic hairline with small baby hairs at the temple) but as I say this was reduced to a shiny temple on both sides. I persevered and two weeks in I was advised to up the oestrogen dose to 2 pumps. Again I was adamant I would persevere, despite my hair feeling a lot thinner. My hair is quite fine but I always had loads of it so it looked thick and wavy. As the HRT regime progressed I also noticed my hair was flat and wouldn't curl easily. It grew in length but I had lost the body if that makes sense. I gave myself 6 months and in Aug I decided enough was enough as I noticed I could see my scalp at the top of my hairline. I came off it and 2 months on my hair is starting to feel like it did prior to HRT. The hair has started to grow back at the temples and it feels much thicker, having more weight to it overall. I did have bloods done to rule out anything else such as thyroiditis but they came back OK. I am convinced the HRT was to blame - don't get me wrong I think HRT works for the majority but there are some individuals where it does impact on their hair and I just want to put it out there for those of you, like me, who think they're going mad and wondering if there's something else amiss.

I am having the same experience @Marihair My doctor keeps telling me the hair loss is part of perimenopause. But I went from a healthy head of hair to covering up bald spots in 6 months. I am also thinking of coming off HRT. My other perimenopausal symptoms were also distressing e.g. sweating and burning up even in the dead of winter; and anxiety. How are you treating your other symptoms now that you are off HRT?

I started taking these last year
https://amzn.eu/d/6lc4vpy
biotin tablets as recommended by my hairdresser noticed huge difference as my hair was shedding and thinning it's made a huge difference and to nail growth.
I'm still shedding some hair but looks so much thicker now and loads new growth at temples.
Have recommended to several friends who all having good results too so definitely worth a try
I've been on HRT for 3.5 years too

I was on hrt and noticed my hair drastically thinning. I could see my scalp and the recession was alarming.
I started using minoxidil (the key ingredient in Regaine and had binned the HRT because I wasn't sure if it was helping anything and needed to get back to me to reassess actual symptoms.
Then I visited a trichologist.
She gave me a list of ingredients I needed to check the HRT for because some brands (I was on Evorel) contained ingredients that made hair loss worse.) There were at least 2 of these in Evorel. And she told me that baby hair growth could be seen with her microscope! This, she said, was more likely due to the cessation of hrt than the minoxidil because of the time frame. I had stopped hrt 3 months previous whereas had only been using minoxidil a matter of weeks.
Anyway, what I wanted to say is that although minoxidil is said to be very effective, you have to use it forever (I found it gave me headaches which I had never suffered from) yes, forever. If you stop using it your hair will revert to how it was plus whatever more you would have lost. And it can make hair grow on other parts of your body too. ie. Face.
Who'd be a woman eh?

GPs seem oblivious to this.
I saw a trichologist and she gave me a list of ingredients contained in some hrt that cause hair loss! Evorel, which I was on, contained at least 1. I stopped taking it and my hair recovered.

My hair is still a lot thinnner than it was pre-menopause but no worse than in September 2023 when I first posted on this thread. It may be the HRT making it worse but you know what, my life was so miserable before starting HRT that I am prepared to take the thinning hair as the alternative is going back to feeling anxious and crying all the time. I am on estradot, no progesterone as I have had a hysterectomy.

This is very interesting to me, @Elhu as I too experienced hair loss on HRT and have been disbelieved by many. Would you be able to say what the ingredients are that can contribute to hair loss, please?