Aa
hirsutism?
I wanted to ask all of you about your experience with hirsutism. I'm fair skinned and have a mild case - a smattering of dark hairs on my chin and upper lip, but tons--and I mean TONS of hair everywhere on my body, but it's not coarse and dark, it's more the soft, vellus kind. And it's not that real short, hardly noticeable peach fuzz everyone has. It's long, like several millimeters, and very noticeable. It covers my whole body, my entire face (from chin to forehead and ear to ear), arms, shoulders, chest, stomach, lower back. It's ligt in color, but a lot of it has a "tinge" of color to it that can be seen in certain lights, and it's been getting darker and longer, but not really coarser.
Is this still considered hirsutism?
Also, in the last year and a half I've started to get thicker tufts of hair, just like my scalp hair, growing down the sides of my neck in the back. To give an idea, if you have long hair and you pull it back into a high ponytail your posterior hairline will be visible, and normally it's relatively even, or it'll dip down a bit on either side. My posterior hairline always kind of looked pretty even, but now it grows in a straight line down the left side and right side, about 5 inches on each side. And it's an inch long or more and it really looks pretty terrible and weird. I could never wear my hair up without some serious hair removal back there, trimming and shaving and then still having that stubbly area.
My doctor is completely unsympathetic, probably because she didn't know me before and isn't realizing that this growth started out of the blue and was never there before. It seems very abnormal that this would just start growing in the last year or so, and I'm wondering if it's hirsutism or something else and what I should ask to be tested for.
Is this still considered hirsutism?
Also, in the last year and a half I've started to get thicker tufts of hair, just like my scalp hair, growing down the sides of my neck in the back. To give an idea, if you have long hair and you pull it back into a high ponytail your posterior hairline will be visible, and normally it's relatively even, or it'll dip down a bit on either side. My posterior hairline always kind of looked pretty even, but now it grows in a straight line down the left side and right side, about 5 inches on each side. And it's an inch long or more and it really looks pretty terrible and weird. I could never wear my hair up without some serious hair removal back there, trimming and shaving and then still having that stubbly area.
My doctor is completely unsympathetic, probably because she didn't know me before and isn't realizing that this growth started out of the blue and was never there before. It seems very abnormal that this would just start growing in the last year or so, and I'm wondering if it's hirsutism or something else and what I should ask to be tested for.
Well, I was just recently diagnosed by my gyn with a pretty severe vitamin D deficiency - which I can't understand since I get lots of sun, eat lots of fortified foods and have taken a vitamin D supplement every day for years (so I just shouldn't have been as low as I was).
No change in diet. I have had a small weight gain that I can't lose, only like 5 lbs, and I think it's because I am retaining lots of fluid - like LOTS of fluid, where my ankles look squishy, and it's pretty annoying.
The hair on my head is thinning and it's been going on for about the last year and a half as well. Also last year I had an episode of telogen effluvium hair loss that I can pinpoint I think to having septoplasty surgery and foolishly getting off the pill at the exact same time. But that was a few months of rapid hair shedding, and my hair was thinning prior to that, and still is. I don't see it fall out, I lose a bit while shampooing, but don't find it all over my pillow, etc. And yet every week I can see more and more of my scalp on the sides of my head. My doctors don't seem to care. Apparently until I end up with bald spots they think it's just a vanity issue.
I've always had bad skin, but it was really under control until recently and now in the past six months or so I've been super oily and breaking out worse than I have in years.
I am TIRED. So tired I can't function, and my muscles get so weak, sometimes out of the blue. They're never "strong" anymore, but sometimes they'll just start to feel like I just got hit by a truck. I used to work out daily and play all kinds of sports. Now I just try to do a short walk every day and recovering just from that is impossible.
Oh, and I'm constipated all the time, no matter how much water I drink - which is tough since I have to urinate so often, and drinking more water only makes it worse.
I also have a small nodule on my thyroid, lower right, too small to biopsy but will be checked every year. Thyroid runs in my family big time.
But none of these things seem to ring any alarms with my doctors. They say my TSH is great, my CBC comes back in normal range, my ultrasound did not show any ovarian cysts, my testosterone was not high, I am not overweight and my blood sugar was normal, so I must be fine. But I'm adamant that the symptoms I'm having are not normal. I just need a doctor to feel that way too.
I am on the pill but have been pretty much for 15 years, with a short break last year where I got off it for four months to see if anything got better (it didn't - oily skin got worse though.)
I'm 35 by the way, and am also tired of hearing that increased hair growth and hair thinning, etc, can be chalked up to "aging."
No change in diet. I have had a small weight gain that I can't lose, only like 5 lbs, and I think it's because I am retaining lots of fluid - like LOTS of fluid, where my ankles look squishy, and it's pretty annoying.
The hair on my head is thinning and it's been going on for about the last year and a half as well. Also last year I had an episode of telogen effluvium hair loss that I can pinpoint I think to having septoplasty surgery and foolishly getting off the pill at the exact same time. But that was a few months of rapid hair shedding, and my hair was thinning prior to that, and still is. I don't see it fall out, I lose a bit while shampooing, but don't find it all over my pillow, etc. And yet every week I can see more and more of my scalp on the sides of my head. My doctors don't seem to care. Apparently until I end up with bald spots they think it's just a vanity issue.
I've always had bad skin, but it was really under control until recently and now in the past six months or so I've been super oily and breaking out worse than I have in years.
I am TIRED. So tired I can't function, and my muscles get so weak, sometimes out of the blue. They're never "strong" anymore, but sometimes they'll just start to feel like I just got hit by a truck. I used to work out daily and play all kinds of sports. Now I just try to do a short walk every day and recovering just from that is impossible.
Oh, and I'm constipated all the time, no matter how much water I drink - which is tough since I have to urinate so often, and drinking more water only makes it worse.
I also have a small nodule on my thyroid, lower right, too small to biopsy but will be checked every year. Thyroid runs in my family big time.
But none of these things seem to ring any alarms with my doctors. They say my TSH is great, my CBC comes back in normal range, my ultrasound did not show any ovarian cysts, my testosterone was not high, I am not overweight and my blood sugar was normal, so I must be fine. But I'm adamant that the symptoms I'm having are not normal. I just need a doctor to feel that way too.
I am on the pill but have been pretty much for 15 years, with a short break last year where I got off it for four months to see if anything got better (it didn't - oily skin got worse though.)
I'm 35 by the way, and am also tired of hearing that increased hair growth and hair thinning, etc, can be chalked up to "aging."
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