Clinical diagnosis of hirsutism in Thai women.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the cutoff score for identifying hirsute, Thai women, by using modified Ferriman-Gallwey-Lorenzo (mF-G-L) method.


METHODS
Hirsutism was defined as an amount of terminal hair in the androgen-sensitive skin areas that the women themselves would consider obviously abnormal, and their mF-G-L score was above 97.5 percentile of general population. The subjects were consecutive unselected premenopausal women who came to our hospital for their yearly Papanicolaou smear check up, without any complaint. Acne and oily skin were also assessed.


RESULTS
Five hundred and thirty-one women underwent a physical exam. The women who had the total hair-growth score of 0, 1 and 2 by mF-G-L method accounted for 97.8% of all the subjects. All of the 11 subjects with a total score of 3 or more considered themselves to have excessive growth of hair. None of these 11 women had acne.


CONCLUSIONS
The authors purposed that the cutoff score to diagnose Thai hirsutism may be 3 or more by mF-G-L method.
Cheewadhanaraks
Sopon
S
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Faculty of Medicine, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Thailand. csophon@medicine.psu.ac.th
Peeyananjarassri
Krantarat
K
Choksuchat
Chainarong
C
D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People; D005260:Female; D006628:Hirsutism / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D013785:Thailand