# Hairy people - genes or hormones? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 27, 2006, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hairy-people-genes-or-hormones/370436 "2006-08-27T18:47:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2006, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hairy-people-genes-or-hormones/370436/21 "2006-08-28T22:50:14Z")
Most of the “environmental causes” claims referenced on the web for PCOS appear to be mainly arm waving by total health/organic living/alternative medicine advocates. [There is this guy who has a different take on things](http://www.mercola.com/1999/archive/pcos.htm) (this is circa 1999) ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2006, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hairy-people-genes-or-hormones/370436/22 "2006-08-28T23:58:09Z")
And even he is still, fundamentally, attributing the cause of PCOS to high levels of insulin: > [@arm waving alterantive medicine advocate](#): > > By far the biggest lifestyle contributor to PCOS is poor diet. Young women with PCOS tend to eat far too much sugar and highly refined carbohydrates. These foods cause an unhealthy rise in insulin levels . . . insulin stimulates androgen receptors on the outside of the ovary, causing the typical PCOS symptoms . . . Eventually, this type of diet will cause obesity, which will cause insulin resistance . . . which will aggravate the PCOS even more. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2006, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hairy-people-genes-or-hormones/370436/23 "2006-08-29T01:13:11Z")
[QUOTE=gytalf2000] A related question – are some nationalities/ethnic groups hairier than others? [/quote] Yes After all the discussion about PCOS I was going to throw in that it’s not the only cause of hirsuitism in women. There are several endocrine disorders that can result in excessive hair, both male-pattern and otherwise, and some ethnicities/families have more hair than others. In some cases, the excess hair is present from early adulthood, in others it appears after menopause when female hormone levels fall. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2006, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hairy-people-genes-or-hormones/370436/24 "2006-08-30T06:56:22Z")
**KarlGauss** and others, thank you for your response to my questions about PCOS. My apologies for being late in responding. I hope that you are still around to read. Anecdotally, hirsutism was present before the onset on menses – probably by the age of seven or eight. I was never thin, but I wasn’t really overweight as a child. I did have the rounded tummy typical of PCOS patients. When “Stein-Leventhal Syndrome” was diagnosed in 1967, I weighed approximately 130 pounds at 5’3". (By 1998, I weighed 300 pounds.) The false pregnancy was a true false pregnancy. I was told that I was pregnant by by OB/GYN (to my surprise since I was on the pill) and given a due date. My periods had never been regular. The pregnancy was diagnosed by exam and urine sample and confirmed by two other doctors. (I had a lot of faith in the pill.) It has been within the last ten years that I learned that this can be a side effect of PCOS (formerly SLS). And only recently did I learn of the involvement of insulin. Since weight didn’t cause my PCOS, I’m still left wondering what did. I was certainly exposed to enough pesticides in the 1950’s – if there is evidence of that. But I have to wonder about inheritance – not of PCOS, but of hair. My father was a hairy man and even the women (who didn’t have PCOS) did have a little bit of hair above the lips. It probably wasn’t noticeable to others, but to _me_ we might as well have had fake mustaches. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hairy-people-genes-or-hormones/370436.md?page=1)