Diffuse female hair loss: are androgens necessary?

Orme S, Cullen DR, Messenger AG.
Department of Dermatology, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield, UK.

Diffuse hair loss in women is generally regarded as the female equivalent of male balding and is often referred to as female androgenetic alopecia. In this article we report the case of a young woman with hypopituitarism who presented with the clinical and histological features of female androgenetic alopecia in the absence of detectable levels of circulating androgens or other signs of postpubertal androgenization, showing that this pattern of hair loss is not necessarily androgen dependent.