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Hirsutism - Management
Basis for recommendation
Assessment of severity
Definition of excessive hair growth
- There is no clear cut-off for defining excessive hair growth. Although many clinical trials use a Ferriman–Gallwey score of eight or more to indicate hirsutism, many women with a lower score consider themselves hirsute.
- In a prospective observational study in 633 women, a Ferriman–Gallwey score of two or less was observed in approximately 75% of women; 16% of these women considered themselves to be hirsute [DeUgarte et al, 2006].
- Of the 25% of women with a Ferriman–Gallwey score of three or more, 70% considered themselves to be hirsute.
- Similarly, 70% of women with a Ferriman–Gallwey score of eight or more considered themselves to be hirsute.
- Overall there were no differences between black and white women.
- The Ferriman–Gallwey scoring system is a validated tool. However, it has a number of limitations, and although it is valuable as a clinical research tool, it is generally not considered to be practical for use in primary care [Lavery et al, 2005; Martin et al, 2008; Koulouri and Conway, 2009; Kumar et al, 2009].
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