My hair will not stop falling out, Anemia :(

[Czarina]

My hair started to shed badly in March and has not stopped falling out. I already battle with anemia, but after having 3 months of extra long, heavy periods, it started to get even worse despite my diet and iron intake. In May my hemoglobin dropped to 5.8 and I was admitted to the hospital for transfusion and tests. Thank goodness everything is OK, just a hormone imbalance, too much estrogen. I've got my bleeding under control now my hemoglobin is up, but I'm still shedding, every day. I brush my hair and there is a sink full of hair.

I'm starting to see a bald spot in the front on the top where my bangs are. But what is strange about this is, there are a bunch of baby hairs growing in.

I went to the doctor and they ran some more blood work for thyroid to be sure, but it all came back normal. The doctor says it's going to take time for my hair to stop shedding.

So is this normal? To keep shedding this badly even though it's been a month since the transfusion? Also what do the baby hairs coming in mean? That it could stop soon?

Thank you. I know this is not a medical board and I'm not seeking medical advice, I'm just kind of wondering if anyone has been through this.

[Vivalagina]

I can't say for sure, but from what I've learned based on my pregnancy anemia, it takes 6 weeks for your blood to "show" the iron intake since that's how long it takes to regenerate your blood cells. I had a period of increased shedding, but after about 8 weeks of really getting my iron levels up, it tapered off back to normal.

Wish I could help more! :blossom:

[Firefox7275]

Some of the hairs will have gone into the dormant phase weeks ago so are shedding now, apparently that lasts up to four months before the new hair comes in and pushes the old one out. Just Google hair growth cycle/ phases.

[red-again]

Any iron tabs you take can take up to 6 months to rebuild your iron stores. You need to try floradix, it works much faster to rebuild your iron. And, it's gentle on your system and won't constipate you
Good luck

[McFearless]

:grouphug: What you described sounds very normal for your illness. I'm glad you're doing better. The baby hairs mean you are getting regrowth and the bald spot will fill in soon. Your hair will come back completely and until then all you can do is distract yourself, eat loads of iron rich foods and wait. :blossom:

[fairview]

Is your hair falling out or breaking off. Examine the ends to see if it is breaking. Just as you can not get your iron levels back up to normal overnight you became anemic over a period of time while your hair was growing and it was being adversely effected. If it is breaking a good keratin treatment might help to strengthen your hair by temporarily infusing more protein in it. But it is temporary though and if done too frequently will actually increase breaking by making your hair brittle from too much protein. About once every 8 weeks.

[Czarina]

Thank you all! It's good that the baby hair is re-growth. This makes me feel slightly better but I just wish it would slow down. :/ Fair, all of the hair has white ends on it, like tiny white bulbs. I took floridix with my last pregnancy, but I don't know if I can with the medication I'm on. I'll check and see. Anemia is a very depressing thing to deal with. I think it actually makes me depressed too! And seeing hair every where on the floor, my chair, laying on my back.... such an odd and scary feeling.

[Czarina]

By the way, would cutting it help the shedding at all? I would hate to cut it, because it took me a year to get all my short layers grown out. It's now in a jaw length bob and aside from the shedding, the hair is in good shape. Thanks!

[McFearless]

No, cutting the hair won't stop or slow down the shedding.

[Sharysa]

Glad to see you're already having new growth, but for extra vitamins, you can also try stinging nettles. It's a miracle herb for hair growth and ill/malnourished people because it's so vitamin-rich. Either you can drink it in a tea (the most common form of nettle consumption) or you can boil it and eat it in soups.

Just be careful with how much you use at first, since it's also a diuretic.

[spirals]

I don't have any advice, but I sympathize with how frustrating that is. Glad to hear there are baby hairs.

[aster66]

I feel your pain! The same is happening to me at the moment :(. I've been bleeding since early January this year, sometimes it stops a few days or a week. After lots of tests, the gynaecologist suggested birth control to see if that would stop the bleeding. I choose the nuvaring and started using it in May. However a week after, I washed my hair and handfulls of hair came out (230 hairs to be exact, yes i counted....). After that happened for the two weeks after that I decided to stop using the Nuvaring. I called my GP and she told me that the hairloss is likely a result of the nuvaring (hormones) and that it could take months maybe even longer than a year for my hormones to even out and for the hairloss to stop :/. I made an appointment with my gynaecologist next week to talk about the hairloss and if they can check whether i have indeed a hormonal imbalance or if the extra bleeding caused anemia which also could be contributing to the hairloss. I'll let you know if I find out anything that could help either one of us :grouphug:

[raingirl]

I wish you luck! I've had severe anemia for 15+ years with no real fix yet. My iron has been as low as yours, but no doctor has ever recommended going to the hospital or anything for me (mine hovers between 7 and 11 usually). The only cause we found (we think) was my heavy periods, as I bleed in one period more than what avg women bleeds in a year. I started on Feramax which helped some (got my hemoglobin over 40 after 6 months usage), but my ferritin levels are still very low. My hair started to grow back a bit when that happened. Then I got pregnant. I don't know how my iron is doing now but I have blood tests later this week so I will see. I haven't been taking the Feramax though as it's extreme iron, so I've been just having the iron in my prenatals. I think my hair is shedding again so I'm thinking my iron is down again, even though I have had no periods for 2 months now.

I think if you can get your iron up, your hair will start growing back, but it will take a very long time before the higher iron levels signal your hair to grow back.

Question though - how was the iron transfusion? Was it the muscular injection? Or a blood transfusion? My doc recommended the injection before I got pregnant to help my ferritin levels, but she said to only do it if I was desperate because it can leave permanent scarring and puckering of the skin. Did you have any scarring?