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Hirsutism
When there is excessive growth of hair on face or other parts of body, this condition is called hirsutism. It can affect both men and women. Hair on the face of men in the form of beard is the sign of masculinity but if such type of growth occurs in women, it is not desirable and is unwanted. This is due to serious hormonal disorder. Generally hirsutism is referred for abnormal facial hair growth in women. Women belonging to some ethnic groups may have more hair on body than others, but it is taken as normal; not hirsutism in that ethnicity.
Normally women may have baby vellus hair all over the body or fine hair on upper lip, chin, stomach or breast. But in case of hirsutism, women tend to have thick, coarse hair on face, abdomen or chest. With increased hormonal activity, small, vellus hair follicles, start producing hair of lager size and thickness. These may be thicker than the hair, which usually grow on limbs. Due to response to androgen hormones, these hair follicles turn into terminal hair follicles. Hairs growing in response to androgen hormone appear in certain areas like beard and moustache. Hirsutism can be described as the male pattern of hair growth on a female body.
Causes of Hirsutism:
The main cause of hirsutism is increased production of male hormones, androgens. Hirsutism is common problem which creates social stress in the affected person women feel unattractive with unwanted hair on the face. Due to stimulation by hormones, there is presence of secondary male features in the affected woman. Skin gets sensitive to these hormones. Heredity is also one of the causes of hirsutism. Hairs are more sensitive to even small amount of hormones. First appearance of hirsutism is observed in teenage, which becomes more evident and severe with increasing age.
There are other factors too which lead to hirsutism. There are many drugs like corticosteroids, diazoxide, cyclosporine, streptomycin etc. which can cause hirsutism. Some chemicals, any injury, cancer like disease, any allergy or infection may cause hirsutism.
Symptoms of hirsutism:
Besides abnormal growth of hair at undesired parts of body, patients also have other symptoms also due to hormonal imbalance. They have disturbed menstruation cycle, decrease in ovulation, acne, voice change towards male voice, overweight and appearance of baldness pattern. Face area is more affected by androgen.
Treating Hirsutism
Hisrsutism is a problem affecting 10 to 15 percent women all over the world. It can be managed by medicinal treatment. It will require long term treatment. But main drawback of these is that hirsutism recurs after the treatment is stopped. There is anti-androgen treatment which controls the male hormones and it may take 3 to 6 months course to control it completely.
These treatments can reduce new growth of hair but it cannot remove the hair already grown due to hirsutism. These treatments may use chemicals like oestrogen, spirolalactone as they anti-androgen contents. Women generally use topical creams to remove facial hairs. If you have become overweight, amount of hormones increase in your body. By reducing weight, you can reduce the amount of hormones causing increased hair growth.
Removing Hair physically:
You can use physical methods such as bleaching, shaving, depilatory creams, waxing, electrolysis and laser therapy to remove unwanted hair due to hirsutism.
By applying bleaching creams, hairs become less noticeable. Depilatory creams are applied for 15-20 minutes over the affected area. These creams dissolve the hair but using these creams in excess, can cause dermatitis.
Shaving can also help you to get rid of small stubbles. But this makes skin harder. Waxing is another technique to remove hair from unwanted areas. Wax is heated and applied over the hairy skin with the help of spatula. Then a waxing strip is adhered over it properly and removed with sudden movement in the opposite direction of hair. Waxing has to be repeated every six weeks and in long term, it removes hair roots also.
Electrolysis or thermolysis may also be used to permanently remove the hair. A needle probe is inserted into the hair follicle and a small electrical current or heat is passed into it, which destroys the hair. But it is quite expensive and treats a small area at a time.
Laser therapy and intense pulsed light therapy are also used to remove unwanted hair. These techniques remove hair for long term.
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