Is endometriosis causing my hair loss?

Endometriosis

I’ve selected this question below for this week’s question of the week. It allows us to review some concepts in endometrosis and hair loss.

Question

Does endometriosis cause hair loss? I’ve had endometriosis for a few years now and lately I’m noticing that I’m losing hair.

Answer

There not often a super close relationship between the two. Endometriosis is common (10 % of women) and hair loss of various kinds is also common in women. Because both issues are common many women with endometriosis will also mention hair loss. But they are generally separate issues. In some cases, medications used to treat endometriosis can cause hair loss. Oral contraceptives, GnRH analogues, Danazol and aromatase inhibitors all have a slight chance to trigger a form of hair loss called telogen effluvium and some medications like Danazol and aromatase inhibitors used for endometriosis can worsen androgenetic alopecia in some women.

In addition, the pain and stress from endometriosis have been noted to worsen hair shedding in some of our patients. That’s due to the stress rather than the underlying mechanisms governing endometriosis.

Overall although endometriosis is a cause of mentrual irregularities for some women it is not commonly a direct cause of hair loss.