Hair loss is a COMMON symptom of being on inadequate medications like Synthroid and Levoxyl, and it can slowly creep up on you! But there is hope!
I didn’t notice any problems with my hair when I first became hypothyroid in my late 20’s, nor did I notice it for the first 10 years on T4-only medications, even though I had plenty of other sorry symptoms. But that was soon to change. In the mid 1990’s, I slowly started losing hair. Now considering that I had enough hair to cover the heads of three other gals, it was not noticeable to a soul. But it was noticeable to ME! I had frequently worn my huge mass of hair in a ponytail. And what had before taken only two turns of the hair tie, was now taking three and four turns, as the thickness of the tail was steadily shrinking. And it wasn’t fun having to remove all that hair from the shower drain.
I started going to Dermatologists by 1998, and again in early 2001…to no avail. They simply stated I had age-related alopecia. Great.
And all this time, I was “adequately treated” with Synthroid and later Levoxyl, and had a “target TSH”. So my thyroid condition had nothing to do with it.
I was dead wrong. I switched to Armour in July of 2002, slowly making my way up and up. And by 2003, when I was approaching 3 grains, a miracle occurred. My hair loss was slowing down!! By early 2004, I would surmise that the hair loss I did see, was now normal. No more was I losing a mass of hair each and every time I washed it. Today, on my optimal dose of 4 grains, my hair is not as thick as it once was, but it’s very full and healthy! And it stays put, with only normal loss!
Your hair starts out under your skin as a bulb and a root. And it grows and grows. But, when other parts of your body are stressed, whether due to illness or hormonal changes, energy is diverted from your hair growth to other parts of you body in need. This is especially true for patients on T4-only medications. Since other problems will invariably pop up due to the inadequate treatment, that hair growth energy will be redirected. Additionally, the lack of a good metabolism on T4-only medications, also reflected by a less-then-normal mid-afternoon temperature, will slow the growth down.
Bottom line…the solution is doing whatever it takes to get on a far superior treatment with desiccated thyroid. And when you do, you will have to be PATIENT! I personally found that the reversal of my hair loss was one of the slowest results of being on an adequate treatment like Armour. But reversal you WILL get!!
By the way, even after I started on Armour, I discovered another problem that Armour was not going to help–low Ferritin. And my low Ferritin became critical due to a long menses one month, causing even MORE hair loss. Low Ferritin is VERY common with hypothyroid patients. I slowly corrected it, which assisted what Armour was doing in reversing my hair loss.
p.s. Did you know that another symptom of having undiagnosed hypothyroid, or being on an inadequate treatment like Synthroid, is thinning outer eyebrows? Yup.
