Why do I have facial hair?

Symptoms:

You’ve noticed a few thick facial hairs around your mouth and chin, your periods are irregular, you’re having hot flushes and night sweats. You have a sudden abundant growth of facial hair, you’ve gained a lot of weight and your periods have stopped, you’ve noticed your voice deepening.

You’ve noticed hair growing on your chin, you have rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and you have been taking steroid tablets to keep the inflammation at bay.

It could be: The menopause

where oestrogen levels suddenly fall, leaving your male hormones unopposed and they cause the growth of facial hair.

PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome)

resulting from an imbalance of hormones affecting insulin and androgens (yes, women have them).

Steroid hormones

which raise your levels of cortisol and can cause women to grow heavy, coarse hair on their chins. Stop it:

See your doctor for a four-month trial of HRT to see if this will relieve your symptoms and facial hair. Electrolysis will remove the hairs for good.

See your doctor for a referral to a specialist and have your hormone profile investigated. Quite often, treatment with an antidiabetic drug (metformin) will help reverse the condition.

You may have to take high doses of steroids to keep your RA under control so explore methods of hair removal like depilatory creams, sugaring and electrolysis.