‘I went through living hell’: Woman, 25, reveals her hair started falling out in CLUMPS after she stopped taking birth control pills – and triggered ‘hormonal shock’ that caused severe alopecia
- Chancey Sessions, from Alabama, opened up about her alarming hair loss in a series of TikTok videos, saying she went off hormonal birth control in November
- Within two months, she lost 60% of her hair and had bald patches on her scalp
- Sessions explained that she had been on birth control for over a decade and was on the strongest hormonal birth control offered when she stopped taking it
- Her hair started falling out in clumps, and she feared she’d go completely bald
- When Sessions went to see a dermatologist, it was determined that she was losing her hair due to ‘hormonal shock’
- After blood tests and a biopsy, she was told that going off birth control had triggered alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that causes patchy hair loss
- In May, she went viral after sharing photos of what her hair looked like before and after she went off birth control
- Sessions’s hair started growing back shortly after it fell out, and she has been chronicling her regrowth in her recent videos
A woman has revealed that she lost sixty percent of her hair after coming off hormonal birth control, saying the ‘hormonal shock’ triggered the autoimmune disease alopecia areata.
Chancey Sessions, 25, from Alabama, opened up about her alarming hair loss in a series of TikTok videos. In May, she went viral after sharing photos of what her hair looked like before and after she went off birth control.
Clumps of her long blonde hair had fallen out of her hair in just a few weeks, and she was left with large bald patches all over her scalp that she feared would never grow back.
‘Birth control doesn’t mess you up that bad…,’ she captioned the clip, which has been viewed more than 9.4 million times.
Chancey Sessions, 25, from Alabama, revealed in a series of TikTok videos that going off hormonal birth control caused her to lose sixty percent of her hair
Clumps of her long blonde hair had fallen out of her hair in just a few weeks, and she was left with large bald patches all over her scalp
Sessions first revealed her shocking diagnosis in February, nearly four months after she first went off birthday control, saying she had been ‘suffering in silence.’
‘I was on hormonal birth control for over 10 years. I never really got the advice that there was another option,’ she explained. ‘Every time I would go to the doctor they would say, “Oh, birth control will help this. Your birth control is lacking? Let’s up your dose. It will help this.”
‘By the end of my birth control journey, I was on the strongest form of birth control that they offer to the general public.’
Sessions had decided it was time to stop taking birth control after she got married in June 2021. She explained that she had met with her doctor first and asked if there was anything she could to do prepare her system, but she was assured that hormonal contraception doesn’t cause any damage to the body.
‘Bulls**t,’ she said. ‘I literally went through living hell for the past four months.’
Sessions went off birth control in November, and by January, she was losing her hair in clumps, which she described as being a ‘real nightmare.’
‘This is how much hair I pulled out of my hair in one single hair wash,’ she said, holding up clumps of hair for the camera.
She said she immediately went back to her gynecologist but was told it was shedding and nothing could be done. It was actually suggested that she go back on birth control.
‘I truly felt like my life was ending,’ she told BuzzFeed. ‘I knew something was up before it got bad, but no one around me would take me seriously.
‘My in-laws and parents kept stating it was due to stress and I was very annoyed by it because I knew that it most certainly was not. I was in the middle of truly one of the happiest moments of my life, on my honeymoon in Bora Bora and Tahiti, when I first noticed something was up.’
Sessions then went to see a dermatologist, who determined she was losing her hair due to ‘hormonal shock.’
After blood tests and a biopsy, she was told that going off birth control had triggered alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that causes unpredictable and patchy hair loss.
Sessions explained that she had been on birth control for over a decade and was on the strongest hormonal birth control offered when she stopped taking it in November
Within just a few months, her hair had started falling out in alarming amounts, leaving bald patches all over her scalp
Sessions’s gynecologist was unable to help her and even suggested she go back on birth control
‘I have lost sixty percent of my hair in two months due to hormonal birth control, which initially triggered alopecia areata,’ she said in her video from February.
‘I’m grateful for the amount of hair I still have. It could be much worse. I’ve seen a lot worse,’ she added. ‘I have seven to ten bald patches on my scalp. Yeah, I’ve been wearing a hat for two months because of how bad my hair is, and I’m grateful.’
Sessions said she even bought a wig because she was convinced she was going to lose all of her hair, but she noted in another video from last month that her hair ‘grew back just as quick as it fell out.’
In the clip, she ran a comb through the top of her scalp to show the shorter pieces of hair that have grown back so far.
‘I started shedding hair in January and almost went bald, but by April, it was completely covered again, so February was my true growing month,’ she told BuzzFeed. ‘It was peach fuzz in February, but now I have two- to three-inch hairs all around.’
Thousands of people have commented on Sessions’s viral video, and many were inspired to share their own experiences with hormonal birth control.
Sessions feared she was going to go completely bald and even bought a wig
However, Sessions said her hair ‘grew back just as quick as it fell out’
Sessions has been chronicling her hair growth in her recent videos
Sessions now has two- to three-inch hairs that have grown in and covered the bald spots on her head
‘Oh my gosh!! This happened to me on a much smaller scale,’ one TikTok user wrote. ‘I’m so sorry to hear this.’
‘I’m a hairstylist and I had multiple clients that [started] to experience major breaking and hair loss after getting on birth control,’ someone else added.
‘Going off BC gave me the worst cystic acne of my life,’ another shared. ‘It was HORRIBLE and nothing helped it. (Until I got pregnant and my hormones recalibrated).’
Irregular or heavy periods, acne, hair loss, and headaches are all symptoms of post-birth control syndrome (PBCS), which can occur when a person stops taking hormonal contraceptives.
Dr. Aviva Romm coined the term in her 2008 book ‘Botanical Medicine for Women’s Health,’ suggesting it can cause some people to experience irregular periods and other symptoms in the months after they stop using hormonal birth control.
However, despite the anecdotal evidence that the syndrome exists, there aren’t any scientific studies to confirm it’s a real condition, and it’s not widely recognized within the medical community.
WHAT IS ALOPECIA AREATA?
Alopecia areata — a patchy version of alopecia — is an autoimmune condition in which the immune system causes hair to fall out.
It can affect hair on any part of the body and can happen to anyone at any age. It can be triggered by stress.
The hair usually begins to fall out in patches and leave bald, smooth areas.
It is not possible for doctors to predict how much hair someone will lose, nor can they tell if the hair will ever grow back.
Alopecia areata cannot be cured, but if only patches of hair are lost, there is an approximately 60 to 80 per cent chance of it growing back within a year.
However, there is no guarantee it will grow back and doctors cannot predict whether it will, nor how much hair will be lost.
If hair does grow back, it can take months or years. Regrowth usually starts as sparse white hairs in the bald patches which can eventually thicken and regain their color.
Regrowth is less likely if all someone’s hair falls out.
Source: British Skin Foundation
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