1258
Usually progressive and typically begins with recession of the frontal hairline and loss of hair in the vertex and progresses to the complete loss of hair over the frontal and vertex of the scalp areas.
Affects 90% of the general population.
Age of onset averages mid 20’s.
Severity and prevalence increases with age.
Dependent on circulating androgens and therefore is not seen in prepubescent children.
Most common in middle-aged to elderly white men.
By age 30 years about 30% of men are affected, and at least 50% are affected by age 50 years, and 80% affected by 70 years of age.
Caucasian men more likely to develop baldness than Asian, American Indians or African Americans, and the extensiveness is also increased in whites than in other ethnicities.
Inherited or pattern baldness is much more common among men than women.
Male pattern baldness the most common type of baldness in men, especially older men.
Male pattern baldness is associated with gradual hair loss.
In hereditary baldness male hair loss usually starts with a receding hairline while in women it manifests as diffuse thinning of the hair on the crown.
Male pattern baldness and women is usually not as severe as it is in men.
Female baldness is more diffuse, and women develop wider partings and thinning of the hair all the scalp with age.
Female baldness starts in the teens or early 20’s and effects women by the age of 50.
Female thinning of hair is more pronounced after menopause.
Two types of male alopecia exists: bitemporal alopecia, which is universal, gradual and does not respond to treatment, and male pattern baldness which accounts for the majority of all hair loss and can be treated with oral finasteride and or topical minoxidil.