Expert: Drea Jean H. - 3/26/2006

Question
Over 6 months ago i started taking the pill and after a short period of time my hair started breaking dramatically. I have lost about 1/2 my head of hair.  My insurance company put me on a generic form of my birth control prescription (loestrin.)  Now my doctor changed my pill a month ago to Estrostep.  It's been a month and my hair is still breaking!  Do you know how long it'll take for the old pill to be entirely out of my system and when this hair loss should stop?  Please help!

Answer
Hi Alison. I looked into hair breakage, and the use of Loestrin and found a few older message boards where women mentioned the same kind of thing. So changing your pill may help with that. BCPills work on a 24 hour basis so to speak. A single pill stays in your system for 24+ hours, thats why they need to be taken at the same time each day, to make sure you get a continuous dose of hormone. So, in essence, the day or so after you take the last active pill, it is out of your system.

If your hair breakage was due to the use of the Loestrin, and youve switched pills, the hair breakage may not stop right away. Damage due to things other than chemicals applied to the hair, occurs before hair has even come through the scalp. So until the damage that occured has either all broken off, or grown out, it may continue to break. Conditioning treatments, leave in treatments and such MAY help.

If the breakage continues, it may be you should discuss it with your doctor once more, and try a few things. Be patient with the breakage thats occuring from the old use, and just be aware if new breakage is occuring.

Good Luck and Take Care.

Andrea