Causes of Excessive Body Hair

In life, many people are born with too much body hair. This phenomenon is relatively rare in my country. Many people in Western countries have more body hair, and compared with women, men now have more body hair than women. Generally, the places where body hair grows easily are arms, legs, armpits, etc. If women have too much body hair, they will feel particularly ugly when wearing clothes in summer. So what are the reasons for excessive body hair?

Excessive hair growth in women is mostly caused by genetics, disease, excessive hormone secretion and other factors.

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.

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.

(2) Adrenal 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.

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.