Apixaban / Eliquis Hair Loss

[owinkelm]

I’m a 40 year old male that was recently diagnosed with pulmonary embolism. I’ve had make pattern baldness but I’ve successfully been able to halt it using 1mg of Propecia for the past 12 years; however after starting Apixaban with the first 5-6 weeks I started to lose a significant amount of hair to the point where clumps were coming out when I saw the hairdresser. I informed my doctor about the issue and after taking apixaban for 2 months I was switched over to Edoxaban. I’ve been taking Edoxaban for the past 3 weeks now however the hair loss is still occurring. My question is has anyone else taken Apixaban and experienced hair loss then got off it and know how long it takes for the hair loss to stop? I’ve heard of timelines of anywhere from 3 - 4 weeks.

[BobD Volunteer]

It does seem that all anticoagulants can do this in some people. I've been on warfarin for nineteen years now with no hair loss, but I do have brittle nails which is another possibility.

It is very much genetics I guess and ultimately you have a choice between hair and stroke prevention if you are one such .

[Peony4575 in reply to BobD]

Bob try Vaseline on your brittle nails morning and night works wonders

[BobD Volunteer in reply to Peony4575]

or Olive oil.

[Hylda2 in reply to BobD]

You’ve obviously had your hands in parrafin when younger

[BobD Volunteer in reply to Hylda2]

Cellulose thinners mainly!

[Hylda2 in reply to BobD]

There’s posh!

[mrdarcy1]

Hi

I've been on the Anticoagulants (Apixaban) for about 5 years now, I'm (55)

I'm not entirely sure if it's the drug or the age , that's causing my hair to thin around the areas where people normally show signs of loosing there hair.

It's just that I started noticing after a few months of taking Apixaban.

I've decided that it doesn't really matter, as the pain and potential threat from the DVTs I've had, outweighed the fact that I was loosing some hair.

Speak to your doctor if you want, you could try different types of Anticoagulants and see if that helps or go onto the old style of drug.

At the end of the day, I love having hair at 55 however, I'm not going to loose sleep about it falling out or thinning, if it is due to anticoagulants.

Hope that helps in your thinking

[RoyMacDonald]

Lost most of my hair long before I started taking Apixaban. But if I still had much to lose I'd rather lose hair than another piece of brain. No contest in my book.

All the best.

Roy

[FraserB]

Blood thinners such as Apixaban affect each person who takes them differently the majority without side effects but a few may have slight side effects which over time can accumulate. Apixaban for 1 out of 10 people can cause anemia. Anemia over many months can be related to varying degrees of hair loss, sometimes mild and not noticeable to moderate and noticeable. There are also our own genetic, lifestyle, aging, hormonal and nutritional factors that can add to the situation and blood tests are advised especially ruling out the anemia. In the meantime take extra care first of the pulmonary embolism which is serious and life threatening.

[owinkelm]

As an update my hair loss seems to have modestly improved although not entirely gone, but after talking to both a dermatologist and my doctor both highly doubt the Apixaban would cause such shedding and both haven’t seen a case like this before. My dermatologist actually believes it might have been caused by the trauma on the body from the DVT and PE and that it should resolve itself in the next couple of months. Guess we’ll see how things go by November.