Rapid Hair Loss. HELP!

[OhMyG]

Hi Everyone.

I'm new here. I have been searching the internet for 3 months for ways to help myself and I've seen my GP and a dermatologist about my sudden hair loss, neither of the doctors have done a THING to help.

By chance, I found this forum, so here's my story. I hope you'll read through it and provide whatever help you can:

I'm female, 38, and have always had A LOT of hair. In October of 2009, I randomly began having menstrual problems I've never had before...it became very erratic and very irregular - something I wasn't used to. After seeing numerous GP's, OB/GYNs...I came away with nothing. Tests were done left/right, but no one knew what was wrong with me.

January of 2010: My OB/GYN decided to put me on birth control pills (BCP) to control my cycle. I have never been a fan of BCP, as I don't react well to them. But I was desperate, so I decided to try it (Ortho Tri-Cyclen).

March 2010: The pill helped my menstrual cycle a bit, but I noticed I was suddenly losing masses of hair in the shower. I have long hair, to the middle of my back, and it's thick/wavy. But suddenly, I started to lose hair and since this experience was so new to me, I freaked out and told my OB/GYN that I knew it was related to the BCP and that I was going to discontinue the meds once that particular pill cycle ran out. She didn't agree with me, but I didn't care. I wasn't about to lose hair over this.

The cycle of the pill was over in 2 weeks and I got off the BCP. Within 2 weeks, my severe hair loss stopped and things went back to normal, as far as my hair was concerned.

April 2010: But my menstrual issue was still a problem. So I saw an endocrinologist who thought that perhaps I was having a slight case of hypothyroidism which may have been causing menstrual irregularities. For anyone who's an expert/interested, my normal TSH levels were 3.69 at this point in time. So in April 2010, I was put on 0.25 mg of Levothyroxine (generic of Synthroid) and my menstrual cycle responded. Yay, I thought...this is going to work.

May 2010: The doctor ran lab work for my TSH and noticed that my levels hadn't really changed that much (TSH 2.99), so she determined that perhaps she needed to up my dose, so we went to 0.50 mg of Leovthyroxine. All was still well...

June 2010: She ran lab work again and noticed a slight decrease in my levels (TSH 2.66) and said, obviously I needed thyroid help because my TSH was changing so little. She upped my dose again, this time to 0.75 mg Levothyroxine. I was a bit concerned about the dosage increasing, but since my menstrual cycles were at least 50% normal now, I thought...okay, I'll go with this for now.

July 2010: With the most recent medication increase to 0.75 mg, I started to notice sudden and severe hair shedding. It first was most noticeable in the shower. By late July, when I'd take a shower and wash my hair, I'd have to clear out the drain of hair THREE TIMES in one go. OMG, that's too much hair loss. I went back to the doctor and expressed my concerns to her, and she said, "You have so much hair, I'm sure it'll be okay...and it'll even out. Just hang in there.

August 2010: I barely hung in there through this month and literally watched masses of my hair going down the drain...day after day. My once thick, dense, wavy hair started to get thin, brittle, and flat! I was freaking out and stressed beyond belief. I started to wear my hair in low-ponytails to hide the thinning hair on the top/sides of my head. At this point, I was ALSO put on Metformin (500/1x-day) because an OB/GYN "specialist" thought I have PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) without running ANY tests to determine this.

September 2010: By now, I was extremely stressed over my hair loss. I didn't even recognize myself in the mirror anymore, as I had such thin hair...but more than that, it still kept coming off by the handful! Since my doctor wasn't listening to me and since my situation was only getting worse, I decided to wean myself off the Levothyroxine, bit by bit, until I was no longer taking it at all. I felt that was the culprit here. I have read hair loss is a side effect of this medication....but now I'm not sure if that is all??

October 2010: I have now also stopped taking Metformin, because I can't know if that isn't causing hair loss (I've read online that it does do so for some, so forget that!). I have now also been completely off Levothyroxine since late September (nearly 1 month), and my hair loss has decreased. Or has it? My hair texture also changed SO MUCH on this medication that my once THICK strands are now fine and so, so thin and fragile! So I'm not sure if my hair loss has subsided, or I just don't have as much hair to lose. I saw my doctor in early October, and she was shocked at my hair loss. It's THAT noticeable. Yesterday (Oct. 20, 2010) I went to see a dermatologist who supposedly works with a lot of hair loss patients. To make a long story short, she said yea, you've lost a lot of hair, didn't have solutions for me (but "let's wait 3 months and count the hair that you lose), and didn't offer to run ANY lab work to test for possible underlying causes, even though I asked. I asked if I should use Rogaine and she said I could get that OTC, but it was up to me. She mentioned supplements (biotin, etc), which I've been taking religiously for the past month since my hair went to hell, anyway. And she basically said, "don't worry" and showed me the door.

So here I am, once again crying myself to sleep at night...and even while in my office alone, and I'm not sure what to do.

I've tried to the "hair pull" test on my own over the past 3 weeks...and sometimes, it's 5-6 hair per hair pull...and sometimes just 1 hair (maybe a total of 6 on my entire head). In the shower, the drain is not getting clogged as it used to be, but some days there's more hair loss...and some days, less. I wash my hair every day - always have, but I use very gentle shampoo, and condition every other day. I notice that when I condition my hair, more hair falls out.

I also read through research online that the shampoo Nizarol has been helpful for others in stopping hair loss as it kills DHT on the scalp, so I've been using that 3x/week...even though it's a dandruff shampoo and I don't have dandruff. But if it will stop the hair loss, FINE.

But now I don't know how to make my hair grow back, or if it WILL grow back. The sides of my head are embarrassingly sparse. It even looks like I have receding hairline in the front and sides of my head. My head feels cold now all the time (because it's always been covered in MASSES of hair, so this thin mess is all new to it, I guess).

I don't know what to do. I don't know who else to go see about this, and I'm so at the end of my rope, my mood has plummeted to an all-time low and I'm now suffering from depression/anxiety. I'm even taking 1 mg of Ativan daily, to calm myself down, since I'm sooo anxious about this hair loss issue that I'm constantly breaking out in a sweat whenever I pass a mirror.

If there's anyone here with some information, advice, a good doctor, some hope (like my hair WILL recover now that I'm off meds??)...please speak up.

I'm desperate.

I have attached two pictures (sorry, they're both with my camera phone).

The 1st is BEFORE the Levothyroxine...about May 2010.

The 2nd photo is AFTER...taken Oct. 14, 2010 (1 week ago)

HELP!