hair thinning

[arvine]

i have read some different stories on this forum regarding hair thinning, some people say while on prednisone for long time, find their hair is thinning, and some say as they drop in dosage, notice hair starts to thin, am interested in what causes hair loss ,or does it depend on individual,

[polkadotcom]

It definitely is an individual problem, some patients get one lot of side-effects, some get another and a third lot will get a mixed set between. And so on, and on.

Thinning hair has never been one of my problems, but the teeth deterioration is a whole other problem for me!

[PMRpro Ambassador]

All sorts of things cause hair loss - from being ill through various medications to advancing age. Even the wrong hairstyle can be blamed - tying hair back tightly or chemicals involved in hairdressing.

Google "causes of hair loss" and you will find enough reading to keep you going for months.

[arvine in reply to PMRpro]

i would also like to address your reply to my unconfirmed pmr diagnosis, in fact i have seen many postings, where people have had confirmed pmr diagnosis

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to arvine]

They SAY confirmed - that doesn't mean they have any more confirmation than what I said. Many say that the doctor did a blood test that "confirmed" it was PMR - there isn't one. They have symptoms - and the ESR and CRP were raised. That is another brick in the wall - it isn't confirmation.

There is no test that says 100% certainly that you have PMR. The temporal artery biopsy says 100% certainly you have GCA - but it being negative doesn't mean you don't have GCA.

[arvine in reply to PMRpro]

so if you are put on prednisone, and your pain is releived, consensus is, pmr it seems, only diagnosed by symptons, and fact that pred has improved symptons, pain and stiffness ?

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to arvine]

I don't really understand what you are trying to say - but if you are saying what I think you are saying, no, the fact that your pain is relieved doesn't automatically mean it is PMR. Other things are relieved by pred that are not PMR and sometimes that means that the diagnosis was incorrect because some of those other things may LOOK the same in terms of symptoms and may also respond the same way to pred. They may not appear on the imaging done at the time for various reasons, far too complex for me to go into here, but like all of medicine, the doctors can only do their best. You had a set of symptoms that appeared to be PMR. You responded fairly well to pred, unfortunately perhaps an unusually high dose for PMR.

Your doctor has tried to get you to reduce so she can see you without the pred but you haven't yet got to a low dose because you wanted to go away and now you want to go away again. So she can't see you without pred. Which means she can't make any other suggestions or do other tests that the pred affects. You can't criticise her for that. But neither she nor anyone else can give you a diagnosis that you definitely DO have PMR. At some point she way be able to tell you you DON'T have PMR because she can find another diagnosis that CAN be confirmed using imaging for example.