Will Ovarian Cancer Treatments Leave You Bald?

Women who greatly define themselves in their femininity by their hair are very often scared that ovarian cancer treatments will leave them bald. Although at face value it may seem odd that a woman undergoing treatment for a life threatening disease is concerned about her appearance and especially her hair, the fact that this is one of the few distinct female markers and identifying criteria makes it more understandable. Add to this the fact that quite frequently the ovaries - and thus a woman's reproductive organs - are removed, and the sudden need to hang on to something distinctly female makes a lot more sense.

So - will ovarian cancer treatments leave you bald? There really is no definitive way to answer this question. It is true that hair itself is constantly growing and also falling out, only to be replaced by other hairs. When chemotherapy is used to slow down and kill cancer cells, the drugs also tend to severely damage the hair follicles. This causes hair to fall out and not be replaced. Women will occasionally notice that they are losing their head hair as well as their body hair. In other cases, women may lose the hair on their heads but not the hair on their bodies.

You will be able to tell what effects the chemotherapy will have on your hair and its re-growth within one to two weeks of undergoing consistent chemotherapy treatments. Sometimes the hair loss seems to lead to a sudden thinning of the hair only to then turn into complete loss after about two months of treatment. The good news with chemotherapy is the fact that as soon as chemotherapy is stopped, the follicles will regenerate and over time the hair will grow back naturally.

If you believe that ovarian cancer treatments will most likely leave you bald, you have a number of options. Some women have chosen stylish head scarves and incorporate them into a completely new look, continuing to wear them long after their hair has grown back and the therapy is ended. Others have chosen to shave their heads and explore this look for a while. When combined with exotic jewelry and sometimes bright flowing clothes, they have reported that they have turned more heads and received more admiring stares than they did with hair!

Of course, women who simply cannot see taking such decisive steps also have options. Wigs are frequently the instrument of choice to deal with impending hair loss. If you have long tresses, you may consider having a wig made from your own hair while getting a short haircut. This permits you to keep on going with a short and stylish coif even as your natural hair has long since fallen out. Others have chosen to purchase a couple of different hair style wigs and then randomly rotate them to give the allusion of having long hair that is worn in a number of different styles. It is interesting to note that at the end of the treatment some women who have recovered from ovarian cancer actually bemoan the fact that their hair is growing back and that now they actually have to spend 30 minutes or more to get their hair into the elaborate shapes that before they simply put on in a matter of minutes.