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How to Treat Female Pattern Baldness Without Minoxidil or Spironolactone

Women suffering from female pattern hair loss have had few treatment options, until recently. Men suffering from male pattern hair loss can take the medication finasteride, which is not an option for women who are experiencing female pattern hair loss. Female pattern hair loss is characterized by diffuse thinning across the entire scalp. Hair transplantation is not an ideal alternative because the surgery itself can potentially harm a considerable number of existing hairs, resulting in little benefit, and potentially more hair loss.

Although minoxidil and spironolactone are medications used to treat female pattern hair loss, there is another option that can be quite beneficial. I’ll talk about how we treat female pattern baldness without the use of minoxidil or spironolactone.

Hair Regeneration treatment for female hair thinning before and after results
Hair Restoration for female hair loss before and after 6 months results

Throughout my career, I’ve performed hair transplant surgery, and have prescribed finasteride to my male pattern hair loss patients since 1997. Hair transplant surgery can be disappointing because, despite precise surgery, a certain percentage of hair grafts just do not grow, so as a result, patient satisfaction suffers. I began employing a wound healing material called extracellular matrix by the company ACell in an effort to attain patient happiness in hair transplant surgery equivalent to the level of satisfaction my patients experience with my cosmetic treatments, such as facelifts, and eyelid surgery.

I have utilized the same material to improve healing for incisions used in facelift surgery, with excellent results. A year after using this material for hair transplant surgery, I realized that the thinning hair that wasn’t transplanted had come in thicker. Since roughly 2011, I’ve spent several years researching dosage and customized treatments for the non-surgical treatment of male and female pattern hair loss

female pattern hair loss 3 months before and after Hair Regeneration
female pattern hair loss 3 months after Hair Regeneration

The treatment system I developed is called TrichoStem Hair Regeneration. Inspired by my patients’ 99% success rate in terms of improved hair coverage, I constructed a free-standing institution in Northern Virginia dedicated solely to non-surgical hair loss treatment.

Why Minoxidil and Spironolactone May not be Effective Treatments for Hair Loss

Minoxidil, which has been used to treat hair loss since the 1980s, is widely acknowledged. In my experience, both men and women that I see for hair loss find minoxidil to be ineffective, while also causing scalp discomfort. They often share that their hair becomes matted, making it appear much thinner.

Spironolactone is a testosterone blocker that is occasionally used to treat female pattern hair loss. In my experience, spironolactone has provided no noticeable improvement to my female pattern hair loss patients.

female pattern baldness on temple before and after hair regeneration treatment
female pattern baldness treatment before and after 3 months results

Women have significantly lower testosterone levels than men, therefore it’s unlikely whether limiting testosterone would have any substantial impact, unless the testosterone level was extremely high. Women’s hair loss increases with age, with 50% of women over the age of 50 having hair loss, which is consistent with the decrease in estrogen associated with menopause.

The fact that estrogen promotes hair growth is well documented. This has happened in our clinic with patients who were using estrogen supplements. We also have a considerable percentage of women under the age of 50 who suffer female pattern hair loss, often known as androgenetic alopecia. We’ve also assisted several women suffering from polycystic ovarian syndrome, or PCOS. As I previously stated, I developed a hair loss treatment technology called TrichoStem Hair Regeneration.

Female pattern baldness in 30s treatment before and after 3 months results
Female pattern hair loss treatment before and after 3 months

TrichoStem Hair Regeneration: Treatment for Female Pattern Baldness

The TrichoStem Hair Regeneration treatment involves the application of a wound healing material called extracellular matrix made by the company ACell, combined with PRP or platelet rich plasma derived from your own blood. Typically, with only one treatment session, TrichoStem Hair Regeneration has helped women with female pattern hair loss improve their scalp coverage. Since 2011, we’ve helped people from around the world with female pattern hair loss and have seen significant improvement in over 99% of the patients we have treated.

TrichoStem Hair Regeneration is tailored to your specific gender, age of onset of hair loss, and degree of hair loss. I created this approach after conducting extensive analysis and observations on a wide spectrum of patients over a number of years. TrichoStem Hair Regeneration can last 3-5 years for most people following a single treatment session. Some patients with significant hair loss may require a second treatment 15-24 months after the first to thicken the finer hair growth stimulated by the first.

female hair thinning before and after 2 years results of TrichoStem Hair Regeneration
female pattern hair loss before and after booster of TrichoStem Hair Regeneration by Dr Amiya Prasad
before and after hair loss treatment for female hair thinning
Unlike traditional pay-per-session PRP treatments on the market, TrichoStem Hair Regeneration is a customized treatment plan that includes a second treatment session if necessary, as well as follow-ups one month following treatment, and every 3 to 6 months for the next two years. Follow-ups for our numerous patients who come from outside our immediate geographic area are done by email, Skype, or FaceTime. Currently, many medical merchants sell PRP injections or PRP+ACell injections to treat hair loss. Surprisingly, all of these other treatments being offered came many years after I had successfully established TrichoStem Hair Regeneration. Unfortunately, the generic treatments being given necessitate appointments every month to three months, with no specific strategy tailored to an individual’s hair loss profile. In essence, whether you are a 25-year-old male with advanced hair loss, or a 60-year-old female with modest hair loss, the treatment regimens remain the same with these generic treatments. Speaking from my experience dealing with extracellular matrix by ACell, I believe the PRP+ACell being given is not significantly different from PRP alone because the treatment intervals remain the same whether ACell is added or not.
Hair regeneration for women's hair loss before and after 11 months
Hair Regeneration for female pattern hair loss before and after 11 months

I know this because one of our initial patients, who prompted me to design TrichoStem Hair Regeneration, improved after a year of using ACell+PRP following a hair transplant. So we’ve already discovered a means to gain at least a year’s worth of benefit from a single therapy. I can safely assume that these practitioners did not devote the necessary time to learning how to employ extracellular matrix by ACell. Since other treatments use too little extracellular matrix in the formulation, it is effectively simply plain PRP.

It might be argued that adding the phrase “ACell” is done to justify charging extra without evidence of specific benefit over PRP alone. I can testify from direct experience that this acellular matrix is extremely tough to work with. Although utilizing too little extracellular matrix in the formulation has no substantial advantage, using too much extracellular matrix in the formulation can induce severe inflammation, which can cause considerable hair shedding.

Hair loss treatment for women before and after success results
Hair Regeneration for female hair loss treatment before and after 10 months success results
We have a large number of patients who received PRP treatment elsewhere. They came to us because they didn’t see much or any improvements from only PRP injections, and they discovered that having many injections into the scalp every month to three months was painful, expensive, unpleasant, and ineffective. Although I have seen some benefit from PRP for hair growth, I found that PRP scalp injections alone produce outcomes comparable to minoxidil, where hair growth occurs, but not much, and it cannot be sustained if ongoing treatments are discontinued. In contrast, outcomes with TrichoStem Hair Regeneration treatment are frequently sustained for 3-5 years with no more than two treatment sessions,18 months apart on average. We do not believe that minoxidil should be used following treatment for our female pattern hair loss patients.
before and 3 months after hair regeneration shows regrowing of thinning hair female patient
The hair regeneration treatment resulted in noticeable hair growth for this female patient with thinning hair, as seen in the before and after photos taken three months apart.

Best hair loss treatment for female in 20s, 30s - 60s

In conclusion, minoxidil plus spironolactone may be beneficial to those experiencing female pattern hair loss. However, after more than ten years of professional experience treating hundreds of women each year with TrichoStem Hair Regeneration, we now offer a highly successful and long-lasting solution to female pattern baldness that does not require minoxidil, or spironolactone to sustain results.

Female Pattern Baldness Treatment New York and Virginia

Dr. Amiya Prasad is a Board-certified cosmetic surgeon as well as a Fellowship-trained oculofacial plastic and reconstructive surgeon. He’s been in practice for over 25 years in New York City, Long Island, and Virginia. To find the best treatment for your hair loss problem, a proper physical evaluation is necessary. Contact us by filling out the contact form below or call any of our offices: Manhattan, New York City at (212) 265-8877; or Garden City, Long Island at (516) 742-4636; or Vienna, Virginia at (703) 356-1336.

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