Hey everyone! I've been on this site before but I've never really told my story. I'm 21 now, final year of college, and was diagnosed with both hypopituitarism and hypothyroidism 3 1/2 years ago. It was a big breakthrough because I was always short, still am sort of at 5'8, but I finally found an endocrinologist who would give me HGH, and I grew an inch since then after not growing any between age 16 and 18. Anyway, I was also put on Levothyroxine the fall of 2004, and over the next 2 years I noticed my hair was getting thinner quickly. By the summer of 2006, I could no longer style my hair like Matt Damon's in the Bourne movies. My bangs had no support to stay up like that. My hairline has receded at the temples, which looks like male pattern baldness, but it just stops there and the rest of my crown is thinning diffusely. This causes my vertex to look like I'm balding there but when I wet my hair and look at my vertex in the mirror, there is no patch. My hair has also become dry and tangled.
So, I've had blood tests once a year since my hypothyroidism diagnosis, and my thyroid levels appear normal, but I'm getting more and more convinced that my hair loss is a side effect of Levothyroxine. My endo quickly shot my theory down that I needed a T4/T3 combination. She says because my levels were normal, my hair loss has nothing to do with thyroid. So here are reasons why I think it's not male pattern baldness:
-all the males in my family history, 1 and 2 generations older than me, kept their hair at least into their 30s and 40s. My dad had thick full hair into his 40s, no diffuse thinning, just regular recession and thinning at the vertex beginning in his 50s.
-Started Levothyroxine in September 2004, could see my scalp near my hairline in June 2006, can now see my scalp everywhere on my crown (November 2007) under bright lights and definitely when hair is wet
-dry, tangled, coarse hair
Hypothyroidism is not very common in males, it seems, so it'll be hard to find an endocrinologist, IMO, that will believe this is due to thyroid-especially when male pattern baldness can start around my age. I plan to see my dermatologist soon to see what he thinks is the cause. You can do all this research on the internet only to make yourself sick, and then a simple visit to the doctor solves the problem. After that visit, I want to see a different endocrinologist, one that will be willing to either increase my dosage or change the medication to Armour or Thyrolar, something along those lines.
So does anyone here also have hypothyroidism, and did any go through similar troubles? I'm wondering about the hair loss patterns of thyroid disorders versus male pattern baldness. How did you convince the doctors that it was due to your thyroid disorder? Do you think I have a case? I'll upload some pictures soon too. Thanks everyone.
So, I've had blood tests once a year since my hypothyroidism diagnosis, and my thyroid levels appear normal, but I'm getting more and more convinced that my hair loss is a side effect of Levothyroxine. My endo quickly shot my theory down that I needed a T4/T3 combination. She says because my levels were normal, my hair loss has nothing to do with thyroid. So here are reasons why I think it's not male pattern baldness:
-all the males in my family history, 1 and 2 generations older than me, kept their hair at least into their 30s and 40s. My dad had thick full hair into his 40s, no diffuse thinning, just regular recession and thinning at the vertex beginning in his 50s.
-Started Levothyroxine in September 2004, could see my scalp near my hairline in June 2006, can now see my scalp everywhere on my crown (November 2007) under bright lights and definitely when hair is wet
-dry, tangled, coarse hair
Hypothyroidism is not very common in males, it seems, so it'll be hard to find an endocrinologist, IMO, that will believe this is due to thyroid-especially when male pattern baldness can start around my age. I plan to see my dermatologist soon to see what he thinks is the cause. You can do all this research on the internet only to make yourself sick, and then a simple visit to the doctor solves the problem. After that visit, I want to see a different endocrinologist, one that will be willing to either increase my dosage or change the medication to Armour or Thyrolar, something along those lines.
So does anyone here also have hypothyroidism, and did any go through similar troubles? I'm wondering about the hair loss patterns of thyroid disorders versus male pattern baldness. How did you convince the doctors that it was due to your thyroid disorder? Do you think I have a case? I'll upload some pictures soon too. Thanks everyone.
