Hirsutism, Hormones, and Hair — What the Appointment Missed

On diagnoses that get mistaken for causes, the gap between the appointment and real life, and what nobody tells the girlies.

I want to talk about hirsutism. And I want to do it with the care it deserves.

First — I have the deepest respect for the medical professionals who diagnose and treat it. The diagnosis is real. The condition is real. The emotional weight of living with it is real and significant and I do not take any of that lightly.

What I want to talk about is what happens after the appointment. In the car. At home. In the bathroom mirror. In the years between diagnoses and actually feeling different.

Because something happens to the average person when they receive a diagnosis. The name of the condition starts to feel like the cause. Hirsutism. As if hirsutism is the thing that happened to you, rather than the name we give to a set of symptoms that are pointing at something underneath.