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Women self-perception of excess hair growth, as a predictor of clinical hirsutism: a population-based study

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Abstract

Purpose

Hirsutism is the most common indicator of hyperandrogenism. Both, the sensitivity of the patients to the serum androgen levels and the responsiveness of women to the perceived excess hair growth vary among different populations. This report elaborates the relationship between the woman’s discerned abnormal hair growths with the clinical diagnosis of hirsutism.

Methods

The survey was conducted among 1160 women aged 18–45 and randomly selected from Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study for further detailed assessment of Hirsutism; using the m-FG scoring method. Data gathering was performed by interviews and physical examinations. The receiver operating characteristic curve was drawn and the new cutoff value, sensitivity, specificity and concordance percentage were calculated.

Results

The results demonstrated that among 12 androgen-dependent body areas, the chin skin had the highest area under curve of 0.81 (CI; 0.78–0.84). According to the patient’s evaluation, a threshold point of 4 had the optimum concordance percentage of 0.77 with the modified Ferriman–Gallwey scoring system.

Conclusions

Patient’s self-identification of excess terminal hair based on the chin area has great sensitivity and reliability in predicting the clinical hirsutism.

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Acknowledgments

We are indebted to each of the study participants for the substantial time and effort contributed to this study. Acknowledgments are also due to the research staff at the Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study (TLGS) Unit and personnel of the Research Endocrine Laboratory.

Conflict of interest

No conflict of interest is declared by the authors.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Ethical Review Board of the Research Institute for Endocrine Sciences and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Correspondence to F. Ramezani Tehrani.

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Kazemi, H., Ramezani Tehrani, F., Minooee, S. et al. Women self-perception of excess hair growth, as a predictor of clinical hirsutism: a population-based study. J Endocrinol Invest 38, 923–928 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40618-015-0264-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40618-015-0264-0

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