My question is; how long did it take for you to accept your baldness? It must have been an awful shock. My gf struggled with it for a long long time.
I also have some experience with this disease myself. My girlfriend, aged 21, was diagnosed with Alopecia Totalis two years ago and was then diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma a couple of months later. The curious thing there was that both Alopecia and Hodgkins are related to the autoimmune system, so I don't think it was a coincidence that she suffered them so close together.
She's recently gone into remission and has undergone a stem cell transplant to "replace" her immune system with one grown from donor cells in order to try and prevent her cancer from returning. Now one effect of this immune system replacement is that it's also cured her alopecia. Granted, it's a drastic step to destroy one's immune system JUST to cure alopecia (obviously the cancer was the focus here), but it does work.
Returning to my earlier point. My gf's doctor is currently doing research into the relationship between alopecia and lymphoma as alopecia could indicate an increased risk of developing lymphoma. So, not to scare you or anything, as there's currently barely any evidence to suggest a link, but I recommend you remember to undertake cancer screenings just as often as the average person should. Just to be sure.
Hyfrith21 karma
My question is; how long did it take for you to accept your baldness? It must have been an awful shock. My gf struggled with it for a long long time.
I also have some experience with this disease myself. My girlfriend, aged 21, was diagnosed with Alopecia Totalis two years ago and was then diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma a couple of months later. The curious thing there was that both Alopecia and Hodgkins are related to the autoimmune system, so I don't think it was a coincidence that she suffered them so close together.
She's recently gone into remission and has undergone a stem cell transplant to "replace" her immune system with one grown from donor cells in order to try and prevent her cancer from returning. Now one effect of this immune system replacement is that it's also cured her alopecia. Granted, it's a drastic step to destroy one's immune system JUST to cure alopecia (obviously the cancer was the focus here), but it does work.
Returning to my earlier point. My gf's doctor is currently doing research into the relationship between alopecia and lymphoma as alopecia could indicate an increased risk of developing lymphoma. So, not to scare you or anything, as there's currently barely any evidence to suggest a link, but I recommend you remember to undertake cancer screenings just as often as the average person should. Just to be sure.
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