Remedies - Corner of Hope & Mane: All About Women's Hair Loss

Calling Spiro Users, Past and Present!

March 15, 2014 by Lauren 40 Comments

I know there are plenty of you out there who are using Spiro (Spironolactone) currently or who have used it in the past. I get lots of emails asking about my Spiro experience, and aside from my brief story about how Spiro affected my hairloss and PCOS, I don’t have a ton of experience with it. I do know plenty of people who have used this drug, and the experiences really seem to vary. Sooooo…if you have experience with Spiro, I was hoping you might share your story in the comments. Some things to think about:

1) Why were you prescribed Spiro?
2) Were you already experiencing hairloss? What about other PCOS-type symptoms?
3) Did Spiro cause your hair to shed at a rapid rate in the beginning? If so, when did it taper off?
4) Did you see any regrowth?
5) If you were on it for other reasons, i.e. excess body hair, acne, etc., how did it help (presuming it did)?
6) What dose were you on?

Those are just a few questions off the top of my (hairless) head. If you have anything else to add outside of that list, please feel free!

Seems there are a ton of ladies out there with questions about Spiro, so I’d be so grateful for any experiences you can share. I’m sure they will be, too!

Did Going Off Spiro Cause My Hair to Shed?

June 8, 2013 by Lauren Leave a Comment

I had two questions emailed to me this week on the same topic: did stopping Spiro cause me to lose the hair that was coming back, or have some sort of shed? That’s an interesting question!

The thing with my loss is that I’ve never been one to wake up to a pillowful of hair, nor do I really see it in the shower. While on the Spironolactone, I was washing my hair every second day (first day my hair was worn down, the 2nd and 3rd day I wore it up); now I have to wash every other day. I’d occasionally notice a little hair if I was brushing my hair out from my ponytail in the mornings before putting it back up, or when I was combing it through prior to a shower. But, it would only be 10 strands or so, max. This was always weird to me, since all those hairs that many PCOS women pick off their clothes all day should be trapped by my hair tie, right? Not for me. I haven’t been able to find alot of information out there about this or really anyone like me, but what I figured out was that I really don’t shed hair. Period. I just don’t grow it back (or if I do, it’s miniaturized).

Will Your Hair Shed Going off Spiro?

So, it’s really hard for me to say if YOUR hair will shed if you go off Spiro. For me, I didn’t have any shedding, but I don’t shed much anyways. I know the normal amount of shedding is about 100 strands/day. If I was losing that much, I can almost guarantee I’d be close-to-bald at the crown very soon. After I gave birth to my first child, I shed a LOT of hair. I never really counted the strands (quite frankly, I didn’t care to cry about it anymore), but I often wonder if that is what many women losing hair experience on a daily basis.

I have heard of women trying a few different ways to keep the hair when they have this fear. The admin of womenshairlossproject.com posted about going off Spiro and birth control pills and how she tries to counteract shedding with PRP therapy. She seems to think it has helped a bit.

If you are deciding to go off Spiro, good luck — and let me know how it goes!

Pregnitude Success Story, Even with PCOS!

May 17, 2013 by Lauren 139 Comments

In February of this year, I started on Pregnitude; I know I wanted to be a Pregnitude success story, but before buying it I did some quick research. It seemed to be a supplement that could really help with PCOS. I started it a few days into my cycle in hopes that, if anything, it would help my cycles to regulate to help prepare my body during the trying to conceive process (and, of course, I wouldn’t mind being one of the countless Pregnitude success stories!). I dutifully took it morning and night mixed into my spearmint tea — it’s completely tasteless, so unlike other supplements it wasn’t a chore to take. If I could be a Pregnitude success story without a disgusting taste in my mouth, all the better.

I am a late ovulator to being with (thank you, PCOS) on even my best cycles; I can’t remember a time where I ovulated before day 20. My previous cycle, that’s exactly what I did, so I was hoping to keep it around day 20 with the help of Pregnitude. If you read my last update on Pregnitude, you know by now that I ended up ovulating on day 21.

(Want to know how to track my ovulation? Check out my ovulation tracking post!)

You all know I believe that the absolute best OPKs out there are the super-cheap Wondfo ones, so I ordered not too long ago the Wondfo combination of 50 ovulation AND 20 pregnancy tests. Guess the price? An insane $22. I love Amazon. And I loved being able to use the tests willy-nilly.

The Testing Begins. Fingers Crossed for a Pregnitude Success Story

I decided to try testing about 7dpo (days past ovulation). I tested at night (dumb, I know) and got a negative…this was WAY too early to discover if I was a Pregnitude success story, and I kicked myself for doing it. The next morning at 8dpo, I tested again, thinking it would also be too early:

Pregnancy Test, 8dpo, Wondfo Test Strip

My heart dropped as I could’ve sworn I saw a very faint line. I had two extra First Response Early Response (FRER) tests so I took one of those, too:

Pregnancy Test, 8dpo, FRER

This one was harder to tell. I would’ve thought it would’ve been clearer since FRER is supposedly the leader in early tests. What I should’ve done that day was invert the photo, which would’ve looked like this:

Pregnancy Test, 8dpo, FRER, Inverted

See it? Holy crap. Just in case you’re not convinced, here’s another positive FRER at 10dpo:

Pregnancy Test, FRER, 10dpo

So, does this count as one of the many Pregnitude success stories? I don’t know. I was fully expecting conceiving to take several months, at least…especially considering how wacky PCOS has made my cycles, but maybe, just maybe with the help of Pregnitude I was able to get pregnant much more quickly than if I had gone it alone. No matter if I am a Pregnitude success story or someone that has just gotten lucky, I’ll take it!

If you’re contemplating starting Pregnitude, I’ll ask you this? What do you have to lose (ok, aside form $35-$40)? If you’re wondering where to buy Pregnitude, I’ve found the best deals for Pregnitude on Amazon and for Pregnitude on Drugstore.com.

Being a “Pregnitude success story” does have one downfall — the hair. I’ll go into more detail soon about my experience with hair loss during my last pregnancy and about my anxiety with this pregnancy (and after). I can promise you one thing: it’s going to be a roller-coaster!

One final pic. I’m now 14 weeks, but here’s me around 11 weeks:

Belly Bump, 11 weeks, 2nd child