Management of hirsutism

doi:10.1136/bmj.b847

Published 27 March 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b847
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b847

Clinical Review

Management of hirsutism

Olympia Koulouri, research fellow in endocrinology, Gerard S Conway, consultant endocrinologist

¹ Department of Endocrinology, University College London Hospitals, London NW1 2PQ

Correspondence to: G S Conway g.conway@ucl.ac.uk

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Hirsutism is a common and distressing condition

Theunderlying cause is usually polycystic ovary syndrome

Serumtestosterone measurements are not needed in most cases

Topicaland systemic treatments or combinations of the two can adequatelycontrol hirsutism in most cases

Allow four to six months forany treatment to be effective

Hirsutism is the presence of excess hair growth in women, andthe term usually refers to excessive growth of terminal hairin an androgen dependent distribution. Although it is oftenthought to be a cosmetic problem, unwanted hair growth adverselyaffects psychological wellbeing.¹ It can have a similar effecton quality of life scores to that of asthma, epilepsy, and diabetes,²and effective treatments reverse these adverse scores.³

We reviewed all references to"hirsutism" in Medline and the Cochrane Collaboration and selectedrandomised controlled trials for inclusion in the evidence base.We also referred to the Endocrine Society’s clinical . . . [Full text of this article]

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