46 yo female w/ questions

[Ty's Mom]

I'm a 46 year old female. My hair is thinning on top from the hairline back to the crown along the middle part. There is so little information available for women like me. Are there any suggestions as to which surgeons a female patient would be better off going to? I contacted Shapiro Medical & Matt told he me couldn't tell enough from the photos to give me any idea (light skin & light colored hair). I could tell from the photos they requested that they were geared towards men. He suggested I see someone in person. I went to Dr. Reed in LaJolla (he's within a few hours drive from me). Dr. Reed seemed like a nice enough guy, but I don't hear much info about him (good or bad). Could it be that Shapiro doesn't want to deal with women & they just wanted to get rid of me? Any opinions of Dr. Reed? especially in regards to treating women?

I'm trying to get a hold of Dr. Keene's office. I faxed them the medical history forms & lab work they require from female patients, but they are very slow in responding (i.e., it's been over a week and after several emails/phone calls and still no response).

 

If I was your wife or sister, who would you suggest I go to?

[Ty's Mom]

I'm a 46 year old female. My hair is thinning on top from the hairline back to the crown along the middle part. There is so little information available for women like me. Are there any suggestions as to which surgeons a female patient would be better off going to? I contacted Shapiro Medical & Matt told he me couldn't tell enough from the photos to give me any idea (light skin & light colored hair). I could tell from the photos they requested that they were geared towards men. He suggested I see someone in person. I went to Dr. Reed in LaJolla (he's within a few hours drive from me). Dr. Reed seemed like a nice enough guy, but I don't hear much info about him (good or bad). Could it be that Shapiro doesn't want to deal with women & they just wanted to get rid of me? Any opinions of Dr. Reed? especially in regards to treating women?

I'm trying to get a hold of Dr. Keene's office. I faxed them the medical history forms & lab work they require from female patients, but they are very slow in responding (i.e., it's been over a week and after several emails/phone calls and still no response).

 

If I was your wife or sister, who would you suggest I go to?

[Bill - Seemiller]

Ty's Mom,

 

Welcome to our community.

 

First off, we can certainly sympathize and empathize with you regarding what you are going through. And you being a woman, I can only imagine how much more difficult it is for you to go through.

 

I can't imagine Shapiro medical would be intentionally turning you away. I can understand, however, that if the pictures aren't clear, why they'd recommend you see someone in person. Can you post some of your pictures here? Try using a higher resolution digital camera and taking pictures in natural lighting - like outside. Click on my link to my 3rd HT below for some of my recent pictures taking outside to get an idea what I mean. Be sure to take the pictures at all angles and many different shots. Then try sending the pictures back to Dr. Shapiro.

 

If you decide to take pictures, be sure to take pictures of your donor area (sides and back of your head), so we (or the clinics) can get an idea of how many available donor grafts you have.

 

Dr. Reed is on our coalition, though I haven't seen much work by him. Any of the coalition doctors are a good choice. Link here: http://www.hairlosslearningcenter.org/hair-loss-content...s/our_physicians.asp

 

My personal top list of doctors include, in no particular order:

 

Dr. Hasson

Dr. Wong

Dr. Shapiro

Dr. Rahal

Dr. Feller

 

I'd also add Dr. Cooley (though I haven't seen anything posted by patients from his clinic that I recall for some time)

 

Dr. Limmer has been posting some decent and recent photos of some of his patients recently as well.

 

I've also seen some recent work from Dr. Keene and Dr. Epstein which have turned out nicely as well.

 

But as I said, the coalition doctors are the best of the best...however, I recommend researching these doctors and look for other patients of theirs (especially women) to see how the results turned out.

 

I hope this hleps.

 

Bill

[Tarasilk]

Ty's Mom...I'm a female also (just turned 43), and I recently (late April) had a procedure with Dr. Epstein. He has a lot of experience with female patients, and is probably someone you should consider.

 

As Bill said, welcome to this community...I've found it to be a very supportive place and I am sure that you will too.

 

TaraSilk

[Guest Brad Limmer]

Ty's Mom,

 

By no means are you alone in this situation. Over 30% of all women suffer from Androgenetic Alopecia. But because it is not discussed to the same degree, often not as severe and women are better at covering it up, many feel they are one of few who are experiencing it.

 

About 15% of my transplant patients are women, while 25% of my consults are female. While most men are candidates for transplantation at some level, ~50% of women losing hair have a diffuse varient that prevents them from being a good candidate. If your loss is primarily confined to the top of your scalp, there is a good chance combine medical and surgical treatment is possible. If however you are thinning all over, surgery would probably not be indicated.

 

Instead, a full medical workup (chem 24, cbc, tft, free testosterone, serum ferritin and dheas) along with aggressive medical management might be the best approach. Medical treatments do work for women, often reasonably well and complement transplantation.

 

I, as do many of the HTN MDs, do phone/photo consults. It is often easier to jugde mens photos and provide an accurate assessement than it is when dealing with photos of female. This is because women often have a considerable amount of hair remaing in the thinning zone making judgement more difficult. Also, the donor areas density, if not extremely dense or diffusely thin, can be hard to judge in men and especially women.

 

In person consultation is often best for many women and young men. That said, do not hesitate to talk and discuss your case by phone, with detailed photos, to any of the HTN physicians.

 

I transplant 2-3 women per week and would be happy to discuss your case and options. Even more important, will be happy to put you in touch with women who have had this done. While you might be a little frustrated, don't hesitate to pursue getting you questions answered.

 

Brad Limmer, MD

[Janna]

Being a women myself and understanding women have less options for treating hair loss than men, I feel your frustrations.

 

Matt spoke to me about your situation. He did not mean for you to feel he was passing you off to others. We apologise. It is difficult to make assessments especially on women from pictures alone. Dr. Reed is a good friend of Dr. Shapiro's and we all trust their work and judgement. Matt wanted you to have a in person consultation to get a real assessment of your needs. And since you live near Dr. Reed, he felt confident you would get that.

 

Dr. Limmer has given very sound advices. Please be dilligent about your research, no matter how hard it may be, to find the doctor you are comfortable with and they are in line with your goals. We have done many women with great results, so it's not like we stay away from women to treat only men.

 

If there's anything I can do to help in your research, please do not hesitate to contact me. You can either pm or janna@shapiromedical.com Best of luck!

[mil]

I had 1500 fues done by Epstein 3 months ago and being female, I totally understand your situation. I'm really happy with his work. I've started to see some growth and I'm going to have him do mre in the future. I researched him with the help of this forum. I almost went to someone else but thankfully I didn't.

I'll be glad to answer any questiond you may have

[Guest]

Ty's Mom, Sorry to hear you are running into a wall trying to find someone to help you.

 

Since you live in So.Cal, & I know you have tried to contact keene, you should contact Dr. Alexander in phoenix. He is highly regarded on this forum.

 

I know for a fact that he doe's treat women.

 

Call or email them, Nikki the patient cordinator is great at getting back to you promptly.

 

You are correct about Dr. Reed, Not much good or bad heard about him, but I know he belongs to this coalition of doctors, so it depends on the feeling you got when you had your consultation.