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[spirohair]

Hi everyone.

I've been on 100mg/day spiro for 6 months. For the last month I've noticed a significant amount of hair loss and thinning (all signs point to telogen affluvium) which at first I attributed to stress. At first, I noticed it 2-3 months ago when most of my body hair grew very thin. Good news, right? But there were downsides: My lashes fell out more easily, when I over tweezed my eyebrows, they wouldn't grow back, my head hair also grew very slowly, and now the density is low. Yesterday I counted 300 lost hairs (I shampooed). The day before was about 50-60. New hair growth on my head is really, really anemic, which makes sense because that's how the hair on the rest of my body is growing.

I got my prescription from a dermatologist who had never heard of treating acne with Spiro. But he wrote me a presc for 100mg/day anyway. I emailed this doc this week to say that I'm experiencing hair loss, but he said Spiro doesn't affect hair loss and to come in for an appointment. But I know this happens to other women on Spiro because of the sheer number of posts by women like me, not to mention articles about hair loss while on Spiro.

My question is: Should I see this doc (who I'm thinking has no clue what he's doing) or find an endocrinologist?
Does anybody else have stories like me, and/or outcomes of what happened?
I've read some post on this board where a lady said her hair never grew back, though I don't think that's the case with mine yet.

[May853]

There are many people who shed excessively on spiro, even those who take it for hair-loss (it's also prescribed to help with this). I've been on some hair-loss forums, and they call it the "dread shed." So it can and does often happen. Lucky us - I am also one who sheds excessively. I have some breast cysts/lumps that I also attribute to spiro, so I am off of it. It's only been about two weeks, but my shed is continuing. It took a few months for it to start, so I'm assuming that it'll take a while for it to slow back down, as it seems anything hormonal and/or relating to hair takes a long time to resolve. I don't count my hairs b/c I just can't mentally do that to myself. If your doctor didn't know about treating acne with spiro, then it makes sense that he might not know about the side effects. I don't know anything about endocrinologists, but even another dermatologist might be more knowledgeable.

My derm told me that if my hair-loss (I was already shedding a little too much for my tastes pre-spiro) wasn't hormonal in nature, then the spiro could aggravate it. And that seemed to make him think it might not be a good fit for me more so than the breast issues.