Causes of thinning hair in women

While hair thinning is more common in men, many women also experience it. This can be caused by many different factors. The most common cause of female hair loss and thinning hair is female pattern baldness aka androgenic alopecia. This condition is extremely common in men, but women also get it. It is mainly caused by a hormone called DHT. Generally hair loss will be less in women, with most of them just experiencing thinning hair instead of baldness.

The hair is one of the first areas that shows signs of poor health. This can mean a hormonal imbalance, poor diet or disease. If hair thins severely it usually means that something is wrong. While a moderate amount of hair loss is quite normal losing a lot is not. Still it is important to keep hair loss in perspective. Losing a some hair can cause some women to panic when there is no reason to. Even more severe cases of hair loss can be due to a temporal problem like a hormonal imbalance.

Hair thinning in women is very commonly caused by menopause. During menopause the body may produce more male hormones, sometimes causing mild symptoms of the baldness seen in many men. The good news is that after menopause most hair growth will usually go back to normal (although some of the hair loss may be permanent). Some women will take hormones to minimize hair loss during menopause, but this has not been proven to be effective and can cause negative side effects.