I've had alopecia areata pretty much the whole of my adult life, certainly from puberty onwards. There's never been any obvious pattern to the hair loss over the years but the fact it started in earnest from puberty suggests something hormonal has always triggered it.
My periods have always been very regular, literally every 28 days.
A few issues started cropping up from my late 20s though.
At around age 28 I lost all of my pubic hair within a month and the hair from my left armpit. It's never really grown back and my libido plummeted. Some women might be delighted by no pubic hair but it's funny what you miss! I have saved a fortune in hair removal though. Small mercies!
In my 30s I started having very heavy periods and passing clots that were very painful. I had also put on a large amount of weight and looked swollen. Ovarian polyps were found on my right ovary and these were surgically scraped off when I was 34. Following the surgery I lost all of the weight, got some libido back and 'felt' more female. I also had a Mirena coil fitted which stopped the heavy bleeding. For me, that was life changing but my alopecia continued, sometimes noticeably and my libido was zero. I was given testosterone gel to try which improved matters but it was discovered that my body seemed to be storing the testosterone and my T level was 32, which is higher than a mans! Scary stuff. I had to come off the testosterone as a doctor mentioned I may have a tumour storing it, or one of my ovaries was squirrelling it away to convert into oestrogen?!
At 42, a tumour was found covering my whole left adrenal gland. It was benign and it was removed.
I really hoped this might see my alopecia improve but it hasn't, and I still struggle with libido.
I now have bald panels on either side of my face, where my sideburns used to be, and several coin sizes patches all over my head. My head is just itchy all the time.
I've recently started HRT (oestrogen patches) to work with my existing Mirena and I'd like to know if anyone who's got alopecia has noticed a change in their hair loss, for worse or better. My libido feels a little better already and perimenopausal anxiety has also reduced but I'm nervous about what my hair will do!
Thank you.