Not the men’s protocolat a smaller dose.
Hair loss in women has a longer list of causes that are worth finding before anyone reaches for a prescription, and several of them are both common and entirely correctable. Which is why this starts with a workup rather than a product.
For women
Not the men’s protocolat a smaller dose.
Female pattern hair loss looks different — a widening part and diffuse thinning across the top rather than a receding hairline — and far more of it has a cause underneath that can be found and fixed. Which is why the first job is not a prescription, it is a blood test.
Six things worth ruling out before anyone treats the hair itself.
Iron
Low ferritin is the single most common reversible cause, and it can sit well below optimal while a routine blood count looks entirely normal. It needs testing specifically.
Thyroid
Both under- and over-active thyroid cause diffuse shedding. Easily tested, genuinely treatable, and frequently the whole answer.
A shock, three months ago
Illness, surgery, childbirth, crash dieting, a bereavement. Sudden heavy shedding that starts two to three months after an event is usually this, and it usually recovers on its own.
Androgen excess
Irregular periods, acne, or unwanted hair growth alongside the thinning point somewhere different, and that needs investigating rather than treating cosmetically.
Rapid weight loss
Including on a GLP-1. Losing weight quickly commonly triggers a temporary shed that is frightening and almost always self-limiting. Worth knowing before you panic.
Traction and styling
Years of tight styles cause loss with a distinctive distribution, and it is the one form here where the treatment is mostly a change in habit and is genuinely time-critical.
What we would treat with
Minoxidil first, topical or low-dose oral, which has good evidence in women and is the mainstay. Spironolactone where an androgen contribution is likely, which is off-label for hair and well established in practice. Iron replacement where ferritin is low, which is not a hair treatment but frequently does more than one.
If you are around or past menopause and the thinning arrived alongside everything else, that belongs in the women’s hormone assessment rather than being treated in isolation here.
And what we will not
Finasteride and dutasteride are not appropriate for women who are or could become pregnant, and they are not a routine answer for female pattern loss. If anyone has offered you one without that conversation, that tells you something about the service rather than about the drug.
We also will not treat a shedding pattern that reads as a temporary reaction to an event three months ago. The right answer there is an explanation, a ferritin result, and time.
This is a different question
Being told it is genetic and there is nothing to be done is usually wrong,and it is almost never the end of the enquiry.
About three minutes. Nothing is prescribed at this step and nothing is charged.