Getting Personal - Hormones and Hair

Alright, it’s time to get personal here.  Do you remember my post this past winter regarding my hair loss and incorporating Biotin into my routine?  Well, I’m here to do a follow-up on the hot mess that is my hair.  Men, if you’re reading – you may want to sit this one out. 

A little background info for you if you missed my previous posts; I have hypothyroidism.  I was diagnosed shortly before I became pregnant with Tessa.  Talk about a crazy time in my life when you take into account the hormone issues with this disease and then jumble on top of it all the ups and downs you experience during pregnancy.  You could say that those first few months being pregnant were a complete joy.  I hope you could sense the sarcasm there.  I was a very-very-very sick pregnant lady for almost seven months of that pregnancy.  Not fun.  I had imagined being pregnant for years and couldn’t wait for all the body changes, the glowing skin, beautiful nails, and mostly the thick hair as mine is so fine and thin to begin with.  As it turns out, the worst part of it all wasn’t the physical sickness I endured but the body image associated with loosing so much of my hair.  I look back at a photo I have from that Christmas (which I want to destroy so there is no way I would ever consider posting it) and it’s horrific to see how my hair was completely gone in the front, particularly on my left side.
 

After delivering Tessa and getting my hormones grounded, along with medication and regular checks for my thyroid, my hair grew back in and finally started looking as it should.  Fortunately, I didn’t experience any of these issues while I was pregnant with Brady.  My physicians made sure to stay on top of monitoring my thyroid levels and adjusting dosages as necessary. 

Then last January happened…I got off of all synthetic hormones, a personal choice, to let me body control and regulate itself as it was made to do.  Boy oh boy was that a rough month of emotion; just ask my husband.  I experienced more mood swings and definitely noticed more physical changes associated with my cycle.  And here we went again with the biggest side effect being hair loss.  I never in a million years thought that I would suffer this issue by discontinuing hormone.  I had made an appointment with my physician because I was completely convinced that I was sick with something else.  God bless me, I wasn’t and unfortunately only time could fix this problem.  She also recommended a specific dose of Biotin that I implemented right away. 

 

Here we are six months later and I am happy to report that my body is on its own predictable schedule, I feel amazing and don’t have cyclic mood swings, and most importantly my hair is growing back in!  I still look silly when I have my hair in a ponytail, which is every night, but at least I know I am on the mend.

Gosh, it’s tough being a woman!