Alopecia Universalis is one of the rare varieties of Alopecia Areata (AA). Alopecia Universalis like Alopecia Areata is an autoimmune skin condition in which patient’s immune system destroys the hair follicles and cause baldness. Alopecia Universalis unlike AA involves the whole hair growing skin and causes general and universal loss of hair throughout whole body.
This is the question that we received at our Orange County Los Angeles hair transplant clinic from one of the readers of our hair restoration blog: I am a 38 old woman. I have 2 children. I was diagnosed with alopecia areata problem since I was 10 years old. But I used to get hair back in a year. Like this, hair was falling and getting back was happened 3-4 times. But hair was very lengthy and very beautiful when I got married. After that during second pregnancy I started losing hair.
After delivery of my last child, I lost all my hair and became bald including eyebrows, eyelashes and body hair. I was very lean. I took Allopathy medications. I got my hair back and also gained weight. I stopped the medicines gradually as per doctor’s advice. I lost my hair again after stopping medicines. After that I tried homeopathy such as Bathra’s and Ayurvedic (traditional Indian drugs). No use by any of these. After that I have tried intra regional injections of steroid. I can see a few hairs, but if I stop medicines, I continue to lose them.
1 year back I got affected with Chikungunya (a viral disease, which is endemic of India). I met a rheumatologist in Bangalore. He recommended some steroids and Azoran (immunosuppresents) for both severe leg pains and alopecia universalis. I have seen good progress and got my hair back. But those new hairs are very soft and not strong. He reduced the dose of Wysolone (1/2 of 5 mg) and maintaining the azoran -50mg 3 tabs per day. After reducing wysolone, I am getting so many bald patches once again.
I met my doctor recently and he again increased the dose of wysolone to 10 mg. I think this is never-ending process. I have almost lost the hope and fed up with all these tests, treatments and side effects and unnecessary spending of money. I was very lean and my weight was 50 kgs at the time of second delivery.
I am 85 kgs now and I am fighting with this disease for 10 years. Presently, I am using the medicines suggested by rheumatologist. I am having brittle nails and will get headache some times. Every 2 months once I will take blood and urine tests before consulting doctor. The reports are showing more ESR. No other problems for now. I have taken thyroid test and found hypothyroidism. I am taking thyroxin tablets for that. In terms of family medical problems, my mother has diabetes and thyroid disease.
Please suggest any permanent solution for my problem. Please help me out of this problem.
Thanks
We receive many questions through our Orange County Hair Transplant clinic on a regular basis. Following is the answer to the devastating problems on this woman: Alopecia Areata or its more aggressive alopecia universalis, in which patients experience whole body hair loss, is an autoimmune disorder. Autoimmune reaction is an abnormal response from the immune system that attacks certain organs or cell lines and causes malfunction on that system. In alopecia areata (AA), patients may have involvement of some other body organs such as thyroid disease or other appendages of skin such as nails and hair.
Alopecia areata could have been activated by pregnancy and led you to get alopecia universalis. A precipitating factor can be found in 15.1% of patients with alopecia areata and include major life events, febrile illnesses, drugs, pregnancy or trauma but no clear conclusions can be drawn. Despite these findings, most patients with alopecia areata do not report a triggering factor preceding episodes of hair loss.
The thyroid disease could be part of the same autoimmune disorder that affected your hair and skin. Eight percent of people with alopecia areata have thyroid disease; this is higher than the incidence of thyroid disease in the general population which is 2%. Despite the correlation between alopecia areata and thyroid disease, treating the thyroid disease does not generally remedy the alopecia areata.
The prognosis of alopecia areata is unpredictable. Some people lose hair in only small patches. Others may have more extensive involvement like you. Alopecia Capitis or Alopecia Totalis is loss of all of your scalp hair and alopecia universalis is the loss of the entire body hair. The last two conditions are rare and more challenging to treat. The majority of patients with smaller involvements with alopecia areata, the hair will re-grow completely in a few months to one year without any treatment.
More serious involvements need to be closely followed by a dermatologist or a rheumatologist. Hair Transplant is not the answer for treatment of Alopecia Areata or its more serious versions. Treatment might not be permanent and complete. If immune suppressive treatments are used, close monitoring of the treatment and correcting the course of treatment based on the initial response is the key measure to the outcome of treatment.
Tags: Alopecia areata, alopecia universalis, hair loss, hair transplant, Los Angeles hair transplant, Orange County hair restoration, Orange County hair transplant
