I am taking oral spironolactone as a diuretic for high blood pressure. It is one of the few that is sulfa free and is the only one that has worked for me. That being said, I am having increasing amounts of hair loss - I have very thick hair, but I am getting concerned as I have probably lost 1/3 of my volume in 2 months. And I usually get my hair cut monthly, and it's been 6 weeks and does not need it yet. Went to my dermatologist this morning thinking it might be caused from the new Benlysta infusions I'm getting for Lupus, but they didn't believe so. They steered me in the direction of the spironolactone.
I asked him if all my hair would fall out. He said "usually" things stabilize after awhile but that while on the drug you may not have your normal amount of hair since it affects your hormones - which I did not know.
On 9/23/2016 at 3:44 PM, Trinitytx said:Hi,
I've read a few posts where people experienced hair loss due to spironolactone. This is happening to me now, and I guess I am just looking for recovery stories or support if this happened to you too.
Hi there, I wish I could say I had a positive story for you, but like you I am experiencing the same thing. I have been on Spiro for 10 months now. I started at 25 mg, went to 50 mg, then 75 mg, then 100 mg (because I'm greedy and vain) I had been on 100 mg for 5 months but couldn't take the 20 day periods so I lowered my dose to 50 mg in October. In October, I started to really notice unusual amounts of hair coming out. It has not lightened up at all. I was trying to wait it out to see if it would normalize, but I don't know how much more of this I can take. 6 years ago I took 50 mg of Spiro and experienced hair loss as well. But I thought it was from Prednisone which I had to take at the same time. I still don't know which one caused it, but it took 9 months before it stopped thinning. 😡 I will say that is is really annoying how some dermatologists won't even acknowledge or aren't even aware of the chance of hair loss with this drug. They don't seem to take certain concerns seriously. Even if it is more "rare", I would expect doctors to be aware of it!
Hi there! I didn't get any notification for some reason, I'm sorry. I stopped taking spiro and aczone in May and my shedding is finally getting somewhere near normal. I went to the derm today and she was kind and looked under the scope at my scalp and said she sees lots of hair starting to come in. It has been very hard this past half year. I think i've lost 50 % of my hair, but it is very diffuse and not obvious to most people. Toppik has allowed me to conceal certain areas. On the drugs forum, Dr. Donovan says that it can cause iron anemia (and so can aczone). The first time I went to the derm, I had miniaturization (i read iron anemia can mimic AGA). She didn't see any this time (I supplemented on iron 3x a day for 4 months under doc's supervision). I don't know if time or getting my ferritin to 90 did it, but it is slowing. I don't think it's quite normal, but I am hopeful that I will get there.
I had a HORRIBLE cystic breakout a month and half after stopping the spiro and i got oily, but that seemed to right itself after another couple of months. I am now on onexton and have stopped drinking skim milk (I had no idea it could exacerbate acne), and my skin looks pretty normal. I have also been taking Viviscal for a month.
BTW, I reported it on FDA.
http://www.fda.gov/Safety/MedWatch/HowToReport/ucm053074.htm
Guys - do any of you know what hormone causes Spiro hairloss?? I am taking spearmint and am confident that it will help my skin/hormones, as my acne is so based on my over-production of oil, but I don't wanna experience hair loss (Accutane has fucked up my hair beyond belief already). Is there a chance that spearmint's androgen-lowering properties could cause hairloss???
On 11/15/2016 at 8:25 PM, alexk0 said:Hi there, I wish I could say I had a positive story for you, but like you I am experiencing the same thing. I have been on Spiro for 10 months now. I started at 25 mg, went to 50 mg, then 75 mg, then 100 mg (because I'm greedy and vain) I had been on 100 mg for 5 months but couldn't take the 20 day periods so I lowered my dose to 50 mg in October. In October, I started to really notice unusual amounts of hair coming out. It has not lightened up at all. I was trying to wait it out to see if it would normalize, but I don't know how much more of this I can take. 6 years ago I took 50 mg of Spiro and experienced hair loss as well. But I thought it was from Prednisone which I had to take at the same time. I still don't know which one caused it, but it took 9 months before it stopped thinning. 😡 I will say that is is really annoying how some dermatologists won't even acknowledge or aren't even aware of the chance of hair loss with this drug. They don't seem to take certain concerns seriously. Even if it is more "rare", I would expect doctors to be aware of it!
I'm willing to bet it was the spiro. It's comforting to know your shedding lessened the previous time. I can't wait for that day as I still have abnormal fluctuations.
Hi trinitytx
I am really distressed and wanted to know if your hair improved after quitting spiro . My hair is weak. Fragile and bitter now . It's falling and thinned out in front scalp . I did get regrowth with spiro but it was shedding continuesly . Did your hair grow back and in how much time
Hi everyone,
I have registered for an account just to add my experience to this question. I would like to continue to be able to provide updates, so I hope the website lets me do that!
I am a 27 year old healthy, active female and I work full time in health care. I had mild acne as a teenager, but in October 2017 I started experiencing "cystic acne" which lead to a couple of dark scars on my chin. [Unrelated to acne, I take 50mcg levothyroxine and 300mg buproprion daily, for years.] I have been on different antibiotics for acne since 2013 as well as the topical Aczone. I have tolerated the antibiotics well without side effects. I was taking doxycycline 100mg for probably a couple of years before it stopped being as effective, so my derm switched me to amoxicillin 500mg, and I asked if I could start spironolactone since I had read that many women had success with spiro as a treatment for acne. Unfortunately I have not had a good experience on Spiro due to hair loss, so here is my story in a timeline...
February 16, 2018: I started taking Spiro 50mg once daily. The only side effect I experienced was increased urination.
March 2018: I had a break out of 3 nodules during the 5th week of taking Spiro, I didn't let this bother me too much because I had read that other women experienced a break out at this time. I started getting my menstrual cycle every 2 weeks, which was very odd for me since my cycle is usually between 33-45 days. I started noticing hair loss at the end of March, and took the first photo of my hair part.
April 2018: My skin began to clear. Almost no acne, and no sebum, my pores looked like they shrank! I was ecstatic at the look of my skin, but by the end of April I knew something was wrong with my hair. I got my hair cut and colored on April 24th, and a few days later, it was breaking/falling out significantly more. I get my hair colored regularly since I was 19 without problems, so I'm not sure if the increased hair loss was a coincidence, or if the chemicals from hair processing pushed it a bit. I got really nervous so I started taking only 25mg of Spiro daily.
May 11, 2018: I had been taking Spiro for 12 weeks now and my skin looks great. BUT, my hair is still noticeably falling out, and plus I was feeling drowsy, dizzy, and could not perform my work outs as well as I used to.
May 14, 2018: I could now tell that my hair looked like it had thinned. I got even more nervous and called my derm to schedule an appointment. I started taking spiro 25mg just once every three days.
May 24, 2018: I saw my derm and he confirmed that I had telogen effluvium. We talked for awhile and concluded that it was most likely Spiro causing the TE. However, since my skin did look good, my derm encouraged me to continue taking a very low dose of Spiro until September, at which time we would be able to tell if the hair loss would slow at a lower dose and if I should continue taking the medication. I am getting married in June 2019, so he knew my biggest concern was having hair at my wedding!
May 29, 2018: I had labs drawn and saw my PCP, everything was within normal range.
June 2018: I started using minoxidil (rogaine) serum once daily because I read that it helped some people with TE. I saw that an increase in hair loss is a side effect for the first two weeks. But after three weeks using minoxidil, my hair was falling out like crazy. Big clumps in the shower, and just continual falling throughout the day. I stopped taking Spiro about 1.5 weeks ago, and stopped using the minoxidil about a week ago, and my hair is still falling out more than it ever was before. If it continues at this rate, I will be able to see my scalp in a few weeks. The worst part is that it gets very greasy very quick now. My skin still looks ok, fingers crossed that the amoxicillin will help keep it clear. The start of my last period was 45 days ago now, so I'm not sure what's up with that, pregnancy test was negative. I am contemplating starting to take half of a 25mg Spiro pill twice per week, because I'm wondering if stopping the med is why my hair has fallen out so much more. But I feel like I just need to get through this time and let my body figure it out on it's own.
Just like all of you, mentally I am having a very hard time with this. It's all I can think about and I am letting it take control of parts of my life which logically I know is so wrong. My fiance is pretty sick of hearing me complain about it and all of my friends say they can't tell a difference. Trust me, as of this week, you can. I started this medication in hopes for clear skin, and the few weeks of perfect skin were certainly not worth 1-2 years of thinned hair. My biggest fear is that I will not have hair at my wedding next spring.
I understand that everyone's experience is different, but if you are reading this and went through the same, do you mind sharing at what point in your Spiro course you started shedding, when the shedding stopped, and when you could see hair regrowth?
I will post this to the other Spiro hair loss thread on this website
So glad Ive found this forum!
I am losing my hair at the moment.
I started spiro 75mg daily 3 years ago and it literally solved all my acne issues. With that said it also caused me to have no menstrual cycle at all. I mean none! I actually thought this was a great side effect but I always got the eyebrow raise from my docs when I told them this but never told me to stop taking spiro. I had perfect skin. Fast forward to 3 months ago when I had acne start to pop up again so my derm upped my spiro to 150mg daily. About a month in I noticed my hair started to get dry. I have always had a massively thick hair, no dryness ...no problems. I also noticed more hair coming out when I brushed or washed my hair. I didnt think that much about it at the time. This continued for a few more weeks until I had an out of the blue fainting spell. I ended up in the ER with heart palpitations and extreme dizziness. Docs tested so many things and confirmed it had to be the spironolactone causing the issue. So, I stopped cold turkey that day. Its been 3 weeks and I feel much better but my hair is coming out like crazy! My front hair line is receding and I can see my scalp. I have never been able to see my scalp! This is extremely scary. So much so today I actually researched wigs . Please tell me this shedding stops ????!!!!
I am so worried that I will lose all my hair right now. When did your shedding stop and did her hair come back in?