The Three Most Common Reasons for Hair Loss Misdiagnosis

The Most Common Reasons for a Wrong Diagnosis in Hair Loss

It’s not always easy to diagnose the reason for a patient’s hair loss!!

When a hair loss practitioner decides his or her patient has a certain diagnosis but it actually turns out later that the practitioner’s chosen diagnosis was not the correct diagnosis at all we call that a misdiagnosis or a mistaken diagnosis or wrong diagnosis.

The three most common reasons for a hair loss misdiagnosis are, in order:

An underdiagnosis of androgenetic alopecia (especially in women) due to an inability to recognize AGA in all of its stages. This simply means AGA is not selected as the correct diagnosis when it really is the correct diagnosis.

An overdiagnosis of telogen effluvium due to inability to recognize the many hair loss conditions that can cause hair shedding. This simply means TE is chosen as the diagnosis when it really is not the correct diagnosis. Some other diagnosis (especially AGA) better accounted for the hair shedding.

An underdiagnosis of the many forms of inflammatory non-scarring and inflammatory scarring hair loss. This simply means that a diagnosis like seborrheic dermatitis, psoriasis, allergic contact or irritant contact dermatitis or scarring alopecia are not selected as the correct diagnosis when it really is the correct diagnosis.