I had testicular cancer in 2004, went through chemo, lost all of my hair, but it grew back. Then, 3 months later, my cancer markers went back up, so they put me on experimental high dose chemotherapy for four months.
After that, my hair is miniaturized to the all over my body, and the total top of my head is sparse, like I'm totally bald, although there's still some hair growing as if it were female-pattern-baldness. In 4 months, I went from having a full, thick head of hair with NO signs of thinning/balding and little family history, to looking like a 60 year old.
The frustrating part is, my oncologist doesn't care - 'it's too bad but there's nothing I can really do about it, and I don't know much about the subject." It's been about a year, and nothing has changed, maybe it's gotten worse, I can barely look in the mirror. I mean, I haven't been afforded 10-15 years to get used to this.
So I went to see a dermatologist. I checked on the American Association of Dermatologists to find one with expertise in 'hair disorders,' and cross-referenced the list with the New Yorker's list of best doctors in NYC. I went to see him, with the hope that it was something different, like Areata, of Telogen Effluvium. He looked at my scalp, and literally said, 'sometimes chemotherapy can change the texture of hair afterwards' (as if I haven't heard that before), and 'male pattern baldness may be part of the problem, but it's at a right angel to what you have,' (whatever that means).
I pleaded with him to do a scalp biopsy, and/or blood tests, and he insisted that they wouldn't really show anything and unfornuately, there's just not much you can do in this situation. I pleaded with him, to let me try something like anthralin cream or anything else I read about on hairloss.com, since all hairloss is related to an overt immune system including Areata, to see if anything might work, and he told me that stuff hasn't been used since the 70's. (Apparently, hairloss.com is printing stuff that is extremely out of date.)
This guy is supposed to be one of the best, and he was telling me stuff that meant nothing, and virtually refused to do anything except take my 200-300 dollars. Was this guy as full of it as I think he is, or is he right in that there's nothing to do so why bother trying?
I know my case can't be as straightforward as 'chemo triggered genetic hair loss.' There are many points that say otherwise:
- chemotherapy is supposed to have no effect on alpha-reductase/dht.
- all of the hair on my body is miniaturized, even my stubble is soft.
- all of my hair grew back after 'normal' chemo, ALL of it, and quickly.
- my oncologist recently told me that my testosterone is very low, and every source says that male pattern baldness is caused by testosterone being converted to dht, binding with follicles and hurting them. Low testosterone would at least have made this hairloss occur slowly, but it was as if I was totally bald (thinning scalp on top, miniaturization all over) as soon as my hair started grow back after chemo.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
After that, my hair is miniaturized to the all over my body, and the total top of my head is sparse, like I'm totally bald, although there's still some hair growing as if it were female-pattern-baldness. In 4 months, I went from having a full, thick head of hair with NO signs of thinning/balding and little family history, to looking like a 60 year old.
The frustrating part is, my oncologist doesn't care - 'it's too bad but there's nothing I can really do about it, and I don't know much about the subject." It's been about a year, and nothing has changed, maybe it's gotten worse, I can barely look in the mirror. I mean, I haven't been afforded 10-15 years to get used to this.
So I went to see a dermatologist. I checked on the American Association of Dermatologists to find one with expertise in 'hair disorders,' and cross-referenced the list with the New Yorker's list of best doctors in NYC. I went to see him, with the hope that it was something different, like Areata, of Telogen Effluvium. He looked at my scalp, and literally said, 'sometimes chemotherapy can change the texture of hair afterwards' (as if I haven't heard that before), and 'male pattern baldness may be part of the problem, but it's at a right angel to what you have,' (whatever that means).
I pleaded with him to do a scalp biopsy, and/or blood tests, and he insisted that they wouldn't really show anything and unfornuately, there's just not much you can do in this situation. I pleaded with him, to let me try something like anthralin cream or anything else I read about on hairloss.com, since all hairloss is related to an overt immune system including Areata, to see if anything might work, and he told me that stuff hasn't been used since the 70's. (Apparently, hairloss.com is printing stuff that is extremely out of date.)
This guy is supposed to be one of the best, and he was telling me stuff that meant nothing, and virtually refused to do anything except take my 200-300 dollars. Was this guy as full of it as I think he is, or is he right in that there's nothing to do so why bother trying?
I know my case can't be as straightforward as 'chemo triggered genetic hair loss.' There are many points that say otherwise:
- chemotherapy is supposed to have no effect on alpha-reductase/dht.
- all of the hair on my body is miniaturized, even my stubble is soft.
- all of my hair grew back after 'normal' chemo, ALL of it, and quickly.
- my oncologist recently told me that my testosterone is very low, and every source says that male pattern baldness is caused by testosterone being converted to dht, binding with follicles and hurting them. Low testosterone would at least have made this hairloss occur slowly, but it was as if I was totally bald (thinning scalp on top, miniaturization all over) as soon as my hair started grow back after chemo.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.
