The GP appointment
What to take to the GP appointment: the ten-minute checklist
The difference between a GP appointment that ends in “it’s very common” and one that ends in a blood form is usually preparation. GPs respond to specifics, and hair loss is an area where the woman in the chair almost always knows more about her own case than the ten minutes allow her to say.
Bring
A one-line summary you can say in ten seconds. “My hair has been thinning at the temples and parting since my second baby, who is now three. It is getting worse, not better, and I’d like to rule out the treatable causes.” Practise it.
The timeline on one side of paper. When it started; what happened two to four months before that (birth, illness, weight loss, new medication, stopped the pill, coil fitted); whether it has been steady, worsening or up and down; what you have tried.
Two photographs. The parting from above, now and from a few years ago, on your phone, side by side. Nothing persuades a doctor like a comparison. How to find the old one.
Not sure which one is you?
Take the two-minute hair quiz
Twelve quick questions. We tell you what we think is going on, what to do about it, and we say so if it is something we cannot help with.
Start the quiz →The ponytail number, if you have been measuring. The method.
A list of medication and supplements, including contraception, HRT, anything for mood, and every gummy. Biotin in particular, because it distorts thyroid tests.
Other symptoms, written down. Tiredness, feeling cold, heavy periods, irregular periods, weight change, joint pain, rash, bowel change, mouth ulcers, low mood, facial hair, itching scalp, bald patches, eyebrow loss. Tick what applies. This list is what turns “hair loss” into a differential diagnosis.
The specific request. “Could I have ferritin, full blood count, thyroid function including antibodies, and vitamin D? And if there’s a possibility of anything hormonal, testosterone and SHBG.” Say the words ferritin and antibodies; they are the two most often left off.
Ask
What the GP thinks the cause is, in words. Whether the results will be sent to you with the numbers, not just “normal”. What ferritin level the practice treats at, and whether they would treat a level under 40 in a woman with hair loss. Whether a referral is appropriate if there is a patch, scarring, scalp symptoms or eyebrow loss.
Do not
Apologise for coming. Say it is probably nothing. Accept “normal” without the numbers. Leave without knowing what happens next.
Afterwards
Get the actual numbers and check them against the hair-relevant ranges in the blood tests article. If they are all good and the pattern is temples, parting and crown, the GP has done the useful part — ruled out what a product cannot fix — and what is left is addressed at the follicle. If you were told it was normal and sent away, this is what to do next.
Ready to read your own pattern?
Take the two-minute hair quiz
Twelve questions. We tell you what we think is going on for you, and we say so if it is something a GP should see first.
Start the quiz →
