When will my hair loss stop?

I'm an 18 year old female and recently, I've noticed my hair falling out. Thinning, really, but it's alarming and I can feel a really significant volume difference. I went to a doctor who did some blood tests for thyroid, iron deficiency, and iron binding. It came back that I'm Iron Deficient Anemic. I started take 90mg of Elemental Iron daily. The texture of my hair is totally different but the thinning hasn't gotten any better at all!!

Help! I don't want to go bald! When will the supplements help my hair thinning?! My thyroid came back normal, are there any other things that could be causing this kind of hair thinning?

Thanks.
Lucy

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
I cannot confirm anything without examination but the possibility of telogen effluvium has to be ruled out. It is nonscarring alopecia characterized by diffuse hair shedding, often with an acute onset. There is a chronic form also which persists for a longer duration and starts with insidious onset. Chronic telogen effluvium is hair shedding lasting longer than 6 months. Treatment consists of medications like Minoxidil, surgical approach(hair transplantation) and improvement in diet.

My sincere advice is to consult a trichologist and get this possibility ruled out. In the meantime take care of your diet and eat a healthy nutritious diet. Since you are having iron deficiency anemia, so keep on taking the iron supplements as it is also one of the causes of hair loss.

It is very difficult to precisely confirm a diagnosis without examination and investigations and the answer is based on the medical information provided. For exact diagnosis, you are requested to consult your doctor. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.

[lucyolson]

Thank you so much. I am seeing a dermatologist at Stanford next week. Hopefully the doc can give me some insight. I'll keep telogen effluvium in mind when we talk about the thinning. I will indeed keep you posted and thanks for giving me some insight!