Abstract
Hirsutism is a condition where a female develops a male pattern growth of thick, pigmented androgendependant terminal hair. This is to be differentiated from overgrowth of non-sexual (vellus) hair, which is the fine, lightly pigmented hair covering most areas of the body during the prepubertal years and is known as hypertrichosis. Although hirsutism is generally thought to affect 5-10% of women of reproductive age, it is important to bear in mind that the incidence is highly affected by location and ethnicity being higher in those of African or Mediterranean descent. The first semiquantitative assessment method was developed for the of body hair growth published in 1961 by D. Ferriman and J.D. Gallwey in the Journal of ClinicalEndocrinology. Five gradings based on densities and areas involved (0 to 4) , were determined for each of 11 sites : upperlip, chin, chest, upper back, lower back, upper abdomen, lower abdomen, upper arms, forearms, thighsand legs. In 1981 Hatch et al provided the modified FG scoring model with 9 zones by eliminating forearms and thighsand legs.
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Fanian, F. (2017). Hirsutism. In: Humbert, P., Fanian, F., Maibach, H., Agache, P. (eds) Agache's Measuring the Skin. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32383-1_111
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32383-1_111
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