Hair Sciences: Comments on the Use of Spironolactone in Female Pattern Hair Loss

This study found that oral spironolactone improved or maintained hair condition in females with scarring alopecia and female pattern hair loss, with 83% of patients tolerating the treatment well, despite some side effects like hyperkalemia and leg cramps.

This study found that oral spironolactone is generally well tolerated and may be effective for treating female-pattern hair loss, with improvements in hair regrowth stability as measured by Sinclair scores.

In this study, topical spironolactone was found to be more effective than topical finasteride for treating androgenetic alopecia in both males and females, with fewer side effects compared to oral finasteride.

This article notes the lack of physician-reported outcome studies supporting the efficacy of off-label spironolactone in treating female pattern hair loss, despite its common prescription alongside FDA-approved topical minoxidil.

This study reported that once-daily treatment with oral minoxidil and spironolactone for 12 months reduced hair loss severity and hair shedding in women with pattern hair loss, with generally mild side effects, though results came from an uncontrolled, observational pilot study.

This case report found that a woman's hair loss, which progressed while using spironolactone and topical minoxidil, reversed after switching to flutamide therapy.

This paper discusses spironolactone as a potential off-label treatment for female pattern hair loss, noting its ability to halt hair loss progression and induce partial regrowth in a significant number of women but reports no new clinical results.

In this study, a 9-year-old girl with female pattern hair loss showed clinical improvement and hair regrowth after six months of daily oral spironolactone.

This narrative review discusses spironolactone as a treatment for female pattern hair loss and reports no new results, aiming to provoke discussion on treatments and research in androgenetic alopecia.

This case report describes how a 53-year-old woman with female pattern hair loss experienced further hair regrowth when topical minoxidil was added to her spironolactone treatment after initial results plateaued.