Hi! I'm writing to caution you and to advise you against going to see Dr. Wendschuh. What I'm about to tell you is an unfortunate story of misdiagnosis that almost costed me the little remaining hair I have and further exposure to lupus.
I am a 26 years old female, with no hair loss history in my immediate family. I visited his office to treat my hair loss problem. After asking few questions that any layperson will ask when you tell them that you have severe hair loss problems, he told me that my problem is genetic and that Rogaine was the only thing that could treat me. He reached this conclusion because my hair loss was very diffused (scattered all over the place) and it's been chronic (over 3 years). He did NOT perform any sort of laboratory tests (including thyroid, iron level, any sort of test that an average prudent dermatologist would perform). Mind you again I'm 26! I have no history of hair loss in my immediate family!
Lucky me I don't completely trust doctors. After couple of months with no results using Rogaine (in fact, my hair loss only got worse), I went to a reputable hospital to seek a second opinion. A simple punch test performed at the hospital revealed that I had scarring alopecia, a form of irreversible hair loss that will only get worse unless diagnosed and treated by medication ASAP (other than Rogaine). Basically something the second lair of my skin (dermis) is inflamed and the hair follicles are dying due to reasons to be determined on a case to case basis. Rogaine would not have helped regrowing my fallen hair, because when those hairs fall, there will be no live follicles capable of growing out new hair. Further tests also revealed that I have lupus, which is the ultimate culprit for the scarring alopecia. So turns out my immune system is so overly active that it started to attack and destroy my hair follicles, along with other healthy cells of my skin.
I have signs of cutaneous lupus written all over my face, my arms and my legs, Dr. Wendschuh choose to ignore all of them and simply told me that I had bad skin, even though the texture of the unaffected areas is as fine as a baby's skin. I have no clue why did not perform a simple punch test that would only take about 5 min, especially when I do not meet any of the characteristics of a typical patient with genetic hair loss problems. Hey, maybe he was busy and could only afford to spend 5 min with me.
So... Thanks Doc! Had I kept going back to his office and trusting his diagnosis, over half of my follicles would probably have died by now. More importantly, I would have never found out that I have lupus.
If after reading about my unfortunate story and you still decide to go see Dr. Wendschuh, please go ahead. However, I will have a very very hard time saying that I feel bad for you if you receive unsatisfactory results from him. read more