The investigation of the frequency of menstrual irregularity and hypertrichosis due to isotretinoine usage in female patients

Background and Design: To investigate the rate of hypertrichosis and menstrual irregularity in female patients receiving isotretinoin treatment. Materials and Methods: In our study, we included female acne patients who were started isotretinoin treatment and who had no history of menstrual irregularities and hypertrichosis within 6 months prior to isotretinoin use and had no any systemic disease and did not take any medicine except isotretinoin. They were started 0.5-0.8 mg/kg isotretinoin treatment and followed by routine laboratory tests until the total cumulative dose of isotretinoin therapy was completed. They were controlled if they had menstrual irregularity or hypertrichosis after starting isotretinoin. Results: Fifty-six patients were included in the study. The mean age of the patients was 24.91 +/- 5.72 years. The mean treatment period was 6.28 +/- 0.56 months. We found that 16 of 56 (28.8%) patients had menstrual irregularity. Six patients had prolonged interval (delay), -4, hypomenorrhea, -2, hypomenorrhea and prolonged interval, -2, metrorrhagia, - 1, shortened interval, and 1 patient had missed period. Of the 56 patients, 11 patients (23.8%) had hypertrichosis. 5 (45.45%) patients with hypertricchosis were found to have also menstrual irregularity while 5(31.25%) of 16 menstrual irregularity patients were found to have hypertrichosis. Nine patients reported having a stressful life event. One of them were both had menstrual irregularity and hypertrichosis, 2 of them had only hypertrichosis, 2 of them had only menstrual irregularity and 4 of them had no more finding. Conclusion: Our study showed that the complaints of menstrual irregularity and hypertrichosis may develop during isotretinoin therapy. Based on this result, we assume that further laboratory tests and controlled studies investigating the effects of isotretinoin on hormones are needed