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Can Getting Off Birth Control Cause Hair Loss

What You Need To Know About Hair Loss

Can Birth Control Cause Hair Loss? | Guide to Growing Out Your Hair | Hair Growth Tips

If your condition is not due to a hormonal imbalance, your doctor may recommend treatment that includes topical corticosteroids. Topical corticosteroids may lead to red or puffy face and can reduce your immune systems ability to fight infection. In some cases, fungal infections, such as tinea capitis, can lead to hair loss. Fortunately, you can take antifungal medications to treat it and get a full head of hair again.

Hair loss is a normal part of aging, and there is no need to worry. In fact, it is perfectly normal for most people to lose a bit of hair every day, and it will grow back eventually. Some men and women experience hair loss as they age, while others simply have a genetic predisposition to the problem. If youre experiencing a lack of hair, you may have a weakened immune system, which can lead to hair loss.

For more severe cases of hair loss, a dermatologist may recommend a hair transplant. This procedure involves a surgeon removing plugs of hair from your scalp. It may take several hours and multiple sessions to complete the process. Its an invasive treatment, and may not be the best option for everyone. Your doctor will need to examine your scalp to determine the cause of your condition. In addition to a healthy diet, your doctor may recommend taking supplements of various vitamins and minerals.

Hair Loss After Stopping Birth Control

The most common type of hair loss after birth control is called telogen effluvium. “This is a kind of hair loss that takes place after a person undergoes a stress to the body or mind, such as loss of a loved one, loss of a job, a high fever, a surgery, or an abrupt hormonal changeâlike after childbirth or stopping an oral contraceptive,” says Dr. King. This causes hair to remain in the dormant phase longer than usual, which can lead to more hairs falling out at one time than normal.

For most people without other complicating factors like family history of baldness or weakened immune system, telogen effluvium isn’t anything to be concerned about. Eventually, your hair will move out of this phase, and you’ll start to notice a decrease in the amount of strands you’re losing to the shower drain each morning.

RELATED: 11 Tips for Awesome Hair With Little Effort

Blood Sugar Balance Is A Must

If testosterone is your issue then working to balance your blood sugar is a must. When your blood sugar is wild then your ovaries and adrenals get the signal to make androgens.

Eat regular meals and include protein and fat with each meal. This will help you optimize your blood sugar, which will balance all your hormones.

Read Also: Can Gluten Cause Hair Loss

Negative Effects Of The Contraceptive Pill On The Hair

Certain contraceptive pills can worsen or cause hair loss. This, again, is down to the sensitivity of your hair follicles and your genetic predisposition.

Pills like Levonorgestrel, Norethisterone and Gestidone contain androgens. So if you have follicular sensitivity to male hormones, these pills arent always the best choice.

If you have noticed a change in the density of your hair, increased scalp hair shedding, or facial hair growth since starting an oral contraceptive, please consult with your gynaecologist and a hair loss specialist such as Simone Thomas.

You May Have Some Hair Loss

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If you dealt with hormonal-related hair loss before you went on birth control, going off of birth control might bring it back. This switch could trigger telogen effluvium, a temporary condition that causes your hair to shed. Thankfully, telogen effluvium doesn’t last forever, subsiding usually within six months, and stress is also a factor. However, this isn’t super common. Most women won’t see a significant net effect on their hair after stopping birth control pills,” Josh Klein, MD, chief medical officer at Extend Fertility in New York City previously told Health.

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How To Stop Taking Birth Control Pills After Long

Currently, there is no prescribed method on how to stop taking birth control pills after long-term use. You can choose to quit all of a sudden or finish the pack youre currently on.

If you finish the pack, even though it may take a while, your period will occur around the same time it did before. So if youd prefer to return to a more regular period schedule, its best to finish the pack.

After you stop taking birth control, your body needs time to adjust to the new balance of hormones, similarly to when you started taking the pill in the first place. Possible side effects include slight bleeding or spotting, abdominal cramps, and irregular periods for the first few months. Gradually, these symptoms should disappear on their own.

The most important thing to remember once you stop taking birth control is that pregnancy can occur at any time if you remain sexually active. Consider switching to a barrier method of contraception like condoms to prevent unwanted pregnancy.

How Stopping Starting And Changing Your Pill Can Affect Your Hair

If youre switching up your dosage, stopping the pill altogether or even changing the brand, it may result in more hair shedding than youre used to. There are many hormones that control hair growth and hair loss, but when oestrogen levels fall, the relative effect of testosterone increases. This converts to DHT or dihydrotestosterone, which inactivates hair follicles. When this balance is changed, it can cause a change in the DHT levels, causing more hair fall than usual. Doctors say that once this balance is restored, the shedding should stop.

Hair growth happens in three phases: anagen is the active growth phase, catagen is the transitional stage where the hair growth stops, and telogen is the resting phase when theres no growth for about 100 days. Pills with higher androgens alter the level of gonadotropins in the body, which changes your hair growth phase from anagen to catagen and telogenthis is why hair loss continues but growth stops. Its for a temporary period though. Every part of the body hair has a growth cycle, and eventually the body adapts to the change in hormones, explains Dr Chavan.

Recommended Reading: How Common Is Postpartum Hair Loss

Your Vitamin D Levels Could Drop

A recent study in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism found that many women experience a drop in vitamin D levels when they stop taking birth control pills. This is especially problematic for women who are trying to conceive, since vitamin D helps support the fetal skeleton in pregnancy.

Let your doctor know youre quitting birth control pills, and ask about ways you can get your daily vitamin D, whether by spending more time outside , eating vitamin D-rich foods like fatty fish, or possibly taking a supplement.

Your Period Might Be Heavier And Less Regular

Hair Loss After Stopping Birth Control | Stop Hair Loss and Regrow Hair Quickly

One of the biggest benefits of the pill is that it regulates your menstrual cycle. Birth control pills typically lighten periods and decrease pain associated with periods, says Dr. Bhardwaj. When you first stop taking oral contraceptives, its not unusual for your period to be a little unpredictable in terms of how heavy or light it is, how long it lasts, or how crampy you get.

Some women who have been on the pill for many years assume their cycles are very regular, says Dr. Klein. But when they stop the pill, they learn their cycles are not as regular as they thought. After two or three months, your period should return to normal, he adds.

Another surprise guest that could reappear when you quit the pill? PMS. This is a big reason why many women go on birth control in the first place, says Dr. Dweck. If you originally started taking the pill to ease PMS, dont be surprised if symptoms like moodiness and irritability become more noticeable now that youre off it.

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Your Skin Might Break Out

Combination birth control pills , which combine estrogen and progestin, clear up acne in many women because they can lower the bodys levels of androgen, a hormone that produces oils on the skin. You may discover new crops of pimples after you stop taking the pillespecially around your period, when hormone levels fluctuate.

Going off birth control pills may return acne symptoms to what they were before starting birth control pills, says Dr. Bhardwaj. If you do decide to go off the pill, there are other ways to manage your hormonal acne, like switching cleansers, reducing stress, or taking probiotic supplements.

Is My Hair Loss Connected To My Birth Control

If youre losing your hair and want to know if its related to your birth control, Blaisure suggests seeking the counsel of a specialist such as a gynecologist to administer a hormone panel test, thyroid test, or a general blood test. She points out that results of your tests may indicate a need for further testing. Once you know your results, your doctor can discuss your options for a low-dose contraceptive.

Would you ditch your birth control to save your tresses? Why or why not?

Share with us in the comments section below. For more on how hormones affect hair loss, check here.

This article has been updated.

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Shbg And Our Hormones

When progesterone levels become lowered by hormonal contraceptives, it can allow our estrogen levels to climb. Additionally, many forms of hormonal contraceptives contain estrogens further raising our levels of these hormones. High levels of estrogens increase our SHBG levels which will then bind to androgens essentially inactivating them by making them unavailable to our tissues. So, high SHBG results in low free testosterone.

At the time that they stop using hormonal contraceptives, many women may find that they have low levels of progesterone, low levels of androgens , and high levels of estrogens.

As great as it would be to be able to discontinue hormonal contraceptives and have our bodys hormones to instantly return to normal, this is typically never the case. Hormonal contraceptives typically take months for our body to clear and sometimes longer for our hormones to achieve balance. Some women may even experience chronic hormone imbalances, including persistently high levels of SHBG.

With healthy progesterone levels still lagging, our levels of the enzyme 5a-reductase can still be elevated after we get off of hormonal contraceptives. If our previously elevated levels of SHBG decrease, this means that less androgens will be bound and inactivated. That decrease of SHBG coupled with the high levels of 5a-reductase can lead to what is known as androgen rebound as more potent androgens are being produced and less of them are being bound and inactivated.

Why Do Hormonal Contraceptives Cause Hair Shedding

Hair loss due to pcos. Significant increase in past few ...

Oestrogen is a hair-friendly hormone. It keeps your hairs in their anagen phase for an average of six to seven years, before they transition into their telogen phase.

Because some birth control methods reduce your bodys levels of oestrogen, they can cause more hairs than usual to move abruptly from the anagen phase into the telogen phase. This results in a period of diffuse hair shedding all over your scalp, around three months after starting the contraceptive. This type of hair loss is known as telogen effluvium.

Certain hormonal contraceptives such as the pills Yasmin and Dianette do not decrease your oestrogen levels and are therefore unlikely to cause hair shedding. Other pills, such as Microgynon and Loestrin, may have the opposite effect.

Different people can react differently to medications, so it may take some time to figure out which hormonal contraceptive is right for you. We recommend chatting to your doctor and/or a Trichologist if you are taking hormonal contraceptives and are concerned about hair loss.

Read Also: How To Fight Hair Loss

Anxiety Attacks After Stopping Birth Control

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Treatment For Hair Loss

Hair loss caused by birth control pills is usually temporary. It should stop within a few months after your body gets used to the pill. Hair loss should also stop after youve been off of the pill for a while.

If the hair loss doesnt stop and you dont see regrowth, ask your doctor about Minoxidil 2%. Its the only medicine thats approved by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration to treat hair loss in women.

Minoxidil works by moving hair follicles into the growth phase more quickly. It may take a few months of use before you can see results.

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What Is Hormonal Hair Loss And What Causes It

Some women can develop an autoimmune condition called androgenetic alopecia, or female pattern baldness. In autoimmune system disorders, the body attacks its own cells and systems. In the case of alopecia, the body attacks hair follicles. Hair loss can happen on a persons head or their body. With this disorder, hair falls out in clumps the size of a quarter or larger. Usually, the hair will eventually grow back. But having this happen can be incredibly distressing and scary. Fortunately, the pill can be prescribed for female pattern baldness.

How Does Birth Control Work

BIRTH CONTROL PILLS AND HAIR LOSS

Hormonal birth control prevents pregnancy by reducing, or stopping, ovulation. Ovulation is the release of the egg from the ovary. As well, hormonal birth control can thicken the mucus around the cervix, which makes it harder for the sperm to reach the egg.

The hormones found in birth control can sometimes affect the lining of the uterus, making it difficult for the egg to attach to the uterine wall.

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Can Taking Hormonal Birth Control Cause Or Prevent Hair Loss

TLDR: No, birth control does NOT cause hair loss. No birth control does NOT prevent hair loss.

Birth control pills are the most popular form of contraceptives in the U.S. Women dont just take birth control pills to prevent pregnancy, though. The birth control pill and other forms of hormonal contraceptives can also help women manage the symptoms of numerous health conditions, including polycystic ovarian syndrome , endometriosis, and even hair loss.

While most people may think that hair loss and baldness only affect men, women actually make up about 40% of all hair-loss treatment candidates. For most women, their hair is a huge source of their self-esteem and confidence. Experiencing hair loss as a woman can be incredibly distressing. About 15% of all hair restoration surgeries are performed on women. Fortunately, there are less invasive treatment options for what doctors call female pattern baldness.

But what types of birth control can prevent hair loss, and can some birth control pills make the condition worse? The following article will explore the symptoms of female pattern baldness, and if birth control can help or hinder the condition.

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