Nevertheless, many women have such hair. Although unwanted hair is certainly a cosmetic problem, it may be a medical problem as well, depending on what causes it. Hypertrichosis is inherited, according to Jerome Z. Litt, M.D., assistant clinical professor of dermatology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland. Everyone goes to the grave with the same number of hairs she is born with, but that number is genetically determined. People of Mediterranean heritage appear hairier than Asians.
White people are much hairier than black people.
Hypertrichosis may also occur in women with anorexia nervosa or hypothyroidism. Her Life Naomi Courtney is a customer service representative for QVC in San Antonio, Texas. She started missing menstrual periods in high school and first noticed coarse, dark hair on her cheeks and chin in 1987, when she was 21. As her condition worsened, she sought medical advice, but to no avail. Then one evening in the fall of 1992, as Naomi sat in a hospital lounge waiting to visit a friend and flipping idly through a discarded medical newsletter, she happened to see an article describing a pilot drug study for women with her constellation of symptoms.