Hair loss DURING pregnancy

[LavanderHills]

Hi Everyone,

28 weeks pregnant with our first daughter and my hair loss which started after the first 8 weeks just hasn’t let up! It’s not my thyroid as I’m monitored regularly and it is managed (I have hypothyroidism so have routine bloods to make sure my levels are ok) but it’s been continual shedding all over so even though there’s no bald spots the actual hair amount I have is getting less and less in volume - it was never all that thick to begin with which doesn’t help!

I know they say every pregnancy is different but I’m worried because when I was pregnant with our son two years ago my hair went thicker during pregnancy and then really shed postpartum until it went back to its normal thinner self, so my fear is if I will continue to lose hair in pregnancy AND then lose more postpartum I’ll end up with next to no hair left!

Has anyone experienced this before? If you lost hair during pregnancy did you then lose more after birth? And did it ever grow back? 😥

How are your iron levels? If they're at all low, I'd see about getting a prescription for a strong iron supplement

I lost hair during pregnancy but after giving birth it slowed down and stopped pretty quickly, I then had a lovely time of good conditioned hair (think it was partly down to lack of time to wash it as regularly as I would’ve liked!). Nearly 3 years on it’s back to normal. But definitely didn’t loose hardly anything post-birth compared to pregnancy!

I lost quite a lot of hair when pregnant too second time round, first pregnancy i didn't and had the lovely pregnancy glowing hair.

I'm 15 weeks pp now and not losing anywhere near as much this time pp.

They will have routinely been checking your ferritin levels throughout the pregnancy. If they're low, then this could be the cause.

Ignore the NHS markers for 'low'. You need a ferritin levels of 70 or above to maintain healthy hair growth. If you are looking at a level of anything under 30, you may want to discuss iron supplements with your team.

Good news - if this is the cause, you hair will grow back once your levels are back.

Other than that, look back and try and remember - did you have any acute illnesses, extreme stress or severe shock three months before the hair loss started? All of these can be triggers for telegen effluvium (hair shedding).

Hope this helps.

The last time they were checked they were fine but I’m due to have them checked again next week, I’ll keep an eye on it, you never know

This gives me hope! 😅

So glad that it might not continue in afterwards, I hope it’ll be the same for me!

Oh wow ok, so in Feb my ferritin was 19 but my blood count was fine so I was told it wasn’t an issue 😶 I’ll speak to my midwife about iron supplements and see what she says at my next appointment!

Otherwise with stress, the first trimester was rough and having a toddler didn’t help but nothing if class as extreme!

The NHS marker for low ferritin is ridiculous. It's my personal soapbox issue - I reckon there are millions of women living life with iron anemia, wondering why they're exhausted...

A level of 19 is fairly low. Please bear in mind that you'd probably require hospital treatment with a level of 5, so it's definitely worth looking into iron supplements.

There are options like Spatone etc, but if you want to raise levels quickly, you'd be better with tablets. They can be harsh on the tummy, but my level has gone from the mid teens to well over 100 in roughly a year and a half. And I feel a lot better for it!!

Low iron levels can also weirdly cause heavier periods too. So it might help there.

All the best!

I'm losing literal handfuls of hair every day too in this pregnancy- didn't struggle with my first. I think im going to start taking an iron supplement.