Women With Clinically Significant Hirsutism Always Have Detectable Endocrinological Abnormalities
December 1997
in “
Journal of The European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology
”
Studysummary In this study, 85.9% of 120 hirsute Saudi women exhibited elevated androgen levels, suggesting the need for a comprehensive hormonal evaluation to identify underlying causes of hirsutism. Our plain-language summary of this paper — not a Tressless recommendation.
The 1997 study investigated 120 Saudi women with clinically significant hirsutism and found that all 78 evaluable patients had detectable hormonal abnormalities. The most common findings were elevated androgen levels (85.9%), polycystic ovaries (59%), hyperprolactinemia (34.6%), and congenital adrenal hyperplasia (14.1%). The study concluded that the term 'idiopathic hirsutism' may be misapplied, as most women with hirsutism have underlying hormonal disturbances, particularly polycystic ovary syndrome. The authors recommended a two-step laboratory work-up to identify the cause of hirsutism in affected women.
