Profuse Hair Loss Due to Sudden Weight Loss and Hormonal Injections in Women

In 1975, two cases of profuse hair loss in women were reported, which were attributed to sudden weight loss from strict dieting and hormonal injections. The first case involved a 29-year-old woman who experienced hair loss after losing 11.8 kg (26 lb) following a weight reduction program that included daily injections of chorionic gonadotropin. The second case was a 33-year-old woman who lost 15.4 kg (34 lb) after a 500-calorie diet and amino acid injections from a weight reduction clinic. Both patients had a high telogen hair ratio, suggesting that rapid weight loss could trigger hair loss by increasing the telogen phase of hair. The authors speculated that in the first case, chorionic gonadotropin injections might induce a pseudopregnancy state, leading to metabolic changes and subsequent hair loss upon cessation of the injections. They called for other physicians to report similar cases to support these hypotheses.