What is the reason for girls' long body hair

If we pay attention, we will find that the length of each person's body hair is different. Some people have longer body hair, but some people have shorter body hair. As a girl, you definitely don’t want your body hair to be too long, as it will look very ugly. If your body hair is too long, you will definitely be concerned about the reason. So, what is the reason why girls have long body hair? Let’s take a look below.

1. Genetic causes

Generally speaking, thick body hair is mainly related to genetic factors and excessive secretion of androgen in the body. If you have more hair on your limbs, more armpit hair, or thicker eyebrows, it is mostly affected by genetic factors, so you don't need to be too anxious about this situation.

2. Causes of disease

Some women have excessive hair growth, which is often a sign of disease.

① Eosinophilic or alkaliphilic pituitary adenoma

Women with eosinophilic or alkaliphilic pituitary adenomas often have hirsutism in the pubic area. The former has sausage-like fingers, thickened gums, enlarged tongue, and gonadal dysfunction. The latter has a full-moon face, a drum-like belly, rough skin, and is accompanied by amenorrhea and hypertension.

②Adrenal cortical hyperplasia tumor

Women with adrenal cortical hyperplasia and tumors have excessive secretion of male hormones, which can cause excessive body hair and clitoral hypertrophy.

③ Polycystic ovary syndrome

Polycystic ovary syndrome can also cause hirsutism and is the most common cause of hirsutism. Its characteristics are that there is not much body hair at the beginning, and then the body hair increases significantly after the onset of amenorrhea or oligomenorrhea, obesity, infertility and other conditions. A typical feature of this disease is increased hair growth, especially on the calves, arms, midline of the abdomen, vulva and around the anus, with a masculine tendency in hair distribution.

However, when these symptoms appear, many people do not realize that they should go to the gynecology or endocrinology department for examination, but go to the dermatology department or beauty salon, which delays the treatment. Doctors say that this disease not only affects personal image, but also brings some unexpected long-term hazards - because polycystic ovary syndrome causes long-term amenorrhea and anovulation, the endometrium is continuously stimulated by estrogen, without progesterone to counteract and periodic endometrial shedding, so the risk of endometrial cancer increases. At the same time, polycystic ovary syndrome often has insulin resistance, so the incidence of hypertension, diabetes, and coronary heart disease increases.

④Other diseases

Diseases that cause abnormal secretion of male hormones in the body, such as ovarian tumors, pineal tumors, and theca hyperplasia, as well as various causes of adrenal hyperfunction, such as Cushing's disease, adrenal tumors, congenital adrenal hyperplasia, hypothalamic and pituitary tumors, pituitary eosinophilic adenomas, alkaliphilic cell hyperplasia and adenomas, can also cause hirsutism. Other reasons such as juvenile hypothyroidism, hyperinsulinemia, and taking hormone drugs can all lead to increased body hair.

In addition, people with hereditary hirsutism, drug-induced hirsutism, and neurogenic hirsutism should be examined and diagnosed in a timely manner.

3. Hormone secretion

If a woman grows a lot of long, thick and black hair in areas where hair should not grow, or if the hair is distributed in a male pattern, such as around the lips, jaw, midline of the chest, inner thighs, around the areola, etc., with varying degrees of hair distribution, and her eyebrows become increasingly thick and dark, and her pubic hair grows towards the abdomen and even the navel, this phenomenon should be paid attention to, as it is mostly related to abnormal hormone secretion.

4. Drug stimulation

Excessive hair growth in women is mostly caused by factors such as genetics, diseases, and excessive hormone secretion. What is less known is that certain drugs can also cause excessive hair growth. These drugs fall into two main categories.

① Non-hormonal drugs

The reason why drugs that do not contain hormones can cause hirsutism is that after entering the human body, they may affect the liver's function of decomposing and inactivating male hormones. If they act for a long time, excessive male hormones will be formed in the body, which will lead to hirsutism.

This type of medicine covers a wide range, mainly antibiotics:

A small number of women who frequently use penicillin and streptomycin may have excessive hair on their limbs and trunk.

Benzophene in the antipyretic and analgesic drugs, thioridazine in the tranquilizer drugs, and acetazolamide in the diuretic drugs can cause black hair.

Vasodilators such as diazoxide can cause hirsutism in young girls, but have little effect on adult women.

Anti-epileptic drugs such as phenytoin can cause hirsutism on the limbs. Some Chinese medicines such as psoralea corylifolia have hormone-like effects and can also cause hirsutism.

② Hormone drugs

Human hair growth is affected by endocrine hormones, especially androgens. Some women with the disease may directly develop hirsutism if they use drugs containing androgens.

For example, methyltestosterone, testosterone propionate, and testosterone phenylacetate among male hormones are often used to treat functional uterine bleeding, aplastic anemia, menopausal syndrome, breast cancer, ovarian cancer and other diseases. The effect of causing hirsutism after taking the medicine is very obvious, especially in adolescent girls and menopausal women, which is more common than other women.