Evaluation of dihydrotestosterone (dht) levels in women with idiopathic hirsutism: a case control study regarding how it responds to hair-removal laser

Background: Hirsutism is a common disorder in women of reproductive ages, occurs about 5-10%, which could have great impact on women’s quality of life. There are many hirsute women with not any other clinical or laboratory clues of hyper-androgenism, called idiopathic hirsutism, and among them there are many cases of laser-resistance, that necessities further evaluation and combination therapies. Methods and Materials: This case-control study conducted on 130 patients with laser-resistant idiopathic hirsutism. Patients who needed to 6 or more laser sessions, for acceptable therapeutic response, considered as the case group and the responsive patients who needed to 5 or less sessions of laser, as the controls. Serum Prolactin, Testosterone (T) and Dihydrotestosterone (DHT) levels were measured. Results: Mean age, height, weight, hirsutism score, prolactin also testosterone and dihydrotestosterone levels in case and control groups were statistically significant different. Relative androgen levels were higher in the case group. Conclusion: Patients with laser-resistant idiopathic hirsutism substantially had higher levels of androgens, although in normal ranges, which could result in being benefited from anti-androgens in combination with hair-removal lasers, also amount of androgens levels especially DHT at the beginning of laser therapy could be to somewhat predictor of patient's prognosis regarding to final therapeutic response.