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Old Fri Jul 3, 2009, 03:00 PM
Neil Cuadra Neil Cuadra is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Los Angeles, California
Posts: 2,553
Aneela,

Sandra is right; your experience is indeed unusual. Typical ATG side effects include fever and chills, sometimes hives and serum sickness (rash, fever, joint and muscle pain), but not hair loss.

The cells in our hair roots grow rapidly, and chemotherapy drugs target rapidly growing cells, which is what causes hair loss for chemo patients, but ATG and cyclosporine are immunosuppressive drugs, not chemo.

Even though hair loss isn't life threatening, it's one of the biggest concerns for patients who face it was a side effect, and our hair is important for our overall well-being (not to mention keeping us warm).

I definitely think you should talk to your doctor about it, if you haven't already. Perhaps the reason isn't the ATG and cyclosporine but some other aspect of your AA, treatment, and health, such as other medications, nutrition, stress, hormones, or any of the other possible causes of hair loss in people who don't have aplastic anemia. Whatever the cause, let's hope it's temporary.
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