ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the case study of a 55-year-old woman who presents with an 18-month history of hair thinning over her frontal scalp. She denies any symptoms from her scalp and has not lost hair elsewhere. She takes hormone replacement therapy and is otherwise well. Her brother and father had both suffered with male pattern baldness in their 40s. Her mother has always had a ‘good head of hair’. Androgenetic alopecia is a common, progressive hair loss occurring predominantly in men. Genetic predisposition and the effect of androgens on follicles leads to male pattern baldness. In women underlying systemic endocrine disease should be excluded. Androgenetic alopecia in men is usually demonstrated by a receding anterior hairline, particularly in the parietal-temporal region resulting in the classical M-shape of hair loss. In women the pattern of hair loss is different. They commonly exhibit loss over the frontal scalp and the parietal and temporal regions are spared.
