Hirsutism HELP
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Hirsutism HELP
| Sun, 01-18-2004 - 4:56pm |
I believe I have hirsutism. I am an 18 year old Indian female and have had the symptoms of hirsutism ever since the age of 10- excessive facial hair and this is very depressing. Ive gone thru alot of treatments such as electrolysis, waxing, and laser. Laser really messed up or seemed to worsen my facial hair. Electrolysis worked on my upper lip and took about 5 years to finsih. I tried it on my chin and it did not work. Laser was appealing but worsened the condition. As a result, I have ogne to an endocronologist and i have an abnormal level of male hormones and he suggests I take OCPs but im kind of scared and dont know what it could potentially do and if i have to take them for the rest of my life. If anyone has gone thru the process please help me. Please give ur input on ur experiences. Thank you.

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Welcome!
I'm sure all the women here can sympathize with what you're going through.
However I have heard of a drug called spironolactone. It is basically a water pill that they discovered binds with testosterone, in effect lowering it. From what I have heard from people on another message board, it works wonders with next to no side effects. You can't get pregnant while you are on it though. The main side effect is a possibly more frequent period, so some women choose to go on the pill for that reason, but others have no problem.
I'm with you on being afraid of the pill. Not only that, it just isn't an option for me once I get married for religious reasons. However, I have been on it while I'm single. 2 different brands. One of them, Desogen, I had no side effects with. The other, Yasmin (which my gyn thought would lower testosterone more) gave me constant nausea. The side effects and warnings are scary, but my gyn is an NFP-only doctor, so I felt like if he felt it was worth it for me to take it when he hardly ever prescribes it, it would be ok.
My dermatologist told me that testosterone starts to go down when you are in your 30s. Not sure if that is true or not.
Out of curiosity, would your endocrinologist prescribe the pill to you? Mine wouldn't--he says it isn't his specialty. Which I think is kind of funny since they are hormone doctors :)
Good luck!
Iposh, about yasmin, my gyn wants to try that with me. Of course i do not know whihc is better so that is why i am worried anyhow. Do u think yasmin actually gets rid of the hai and what happens once you stop the pill..supposedly the hair comes back?? Like this is a neverending problem, so it seems. All i know is, we all want to be hairfree especially our faces only because that is the most obvious part that everyone sees.
But yasmin basically has the equivalent of 25 mg of spironolactone. That isn't much at all. You could try it, it might help. But depending on how high your testosterone is it would probably be a lot more effective to just go on spiro. I think some people go up to 200 mgs a day for hirsutism. Might be wrong about the numbers.
Please keep me updated on what you decide and whether it helps! I won't be going on anything until march. Here is my e-mail--suchalittlefish@hotmail.com
I have had a heck of a time finding a good gyn and a good endocrinologist to treat me for my hormonal elevations. I've really had to educate myself!
Have they tested you for CAH or PCOS? Getting some sort of diagnosis is important in how they treat you. They should try to find out whether the excess testosterone is coming from your ovaries or adrenals. If it is coming from your adrenals, putting you on the pill will only help a tiny bit.
If you haven't had a full work up, it would be worth following up and finding the cause of the elevated testosterone.
Are you on drugs to lower your prolactin? My new endocrinologist is planning on putting me on some as soon as I have a firm diagnosis. I've read it causes lots of side effects. Has that been your experience?
Didn't know that about the pill and prolactin either... That is good to know!
Edited 2/9/2004 9:29:13 PM ET by biores
The strange thing is I don't have any of the typical symptoms. No lactation, and my periods are regular but last 12 or 13 days.
Thanks for the link to the message boards. I will definitely check it out!
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