Adrenal Androgenic Female-Pattern Alopecia: Sex Hormones and the Balding Woman
June 1983
in “
Cleveland Clinic Journal of Medicine
”
TLDR Higher DHEAS levels may cause hair loss in women by disrupting hair growth.
The study evaluated 19 white women aged 18-37 with a pattern of diffuse alopecia, retaining the frontotemporal hairline but losing central scalp hair. Their serum adrenal androgen dehydroepiandrosterone-sulfate (DHEAS) levels were higher than the normal female range, while total serum testosterone levels were normal. One woman with elevated serum prolactin had a pituitary adenoma. The study suggested that DHEAS is converted to more potent androgens, which inhibit a key enzyme necessary for nucleic acid synthesis in hair follicles, potentially disrupting hair growth due to increased adrenal production and peripheral metabolism of DHEAS.
