One of the most troubling complications of PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) is loss of hair. The hair on the top of the head may thin, or there may be hair loss in a horseshoe pattern, or there can be total loss of hair from the top of the head. PCOS hair loss mimics male pattern baldness, and for good reason. Both conditions are caused by testosterone.

Women suffering PCOS hair loss are sometimes able to regain their hair, but there is no one treatment that works for every woman. Here are three possibilities, one of which might be the one that works for you:

1. Strict avoidance of dietary sugars.

Rosa had been taking metformin and type 2 diabetes for five years, but she began to loosen up her diet. Her blood sugars were OK, but she started losing her hair. Realizing that not all high blood sugars occur at usual testing times, she resumed her strict low-sugar diet. In about six weeks, she noticed her hair was getting thicker again.

There is an indirect path between eating too much sugar and losing hair, but it’s one that medical science has well documented. When women eat so much sugar that insulin cannot take it out of the bloodstream, most of the tissues of the body-except the ovaries-protect themselves from absorbing too much sugar by becoming insulin resistant. The ovaries, however, absorb more and more sugar and make more of their hormones, including the testosterone. The testosterone in turn causes hair loss. Sometimes in the earliest stages of PCOS-related hair loss careful diet is enough to stop hair loss and even grow hair back.

2. Flutamide (Eulexin)

Samantha had always had a thick head of hair. At 24, however, when she was first diagnosed with PCOS, she started noticing more and more hair in her combs. By age 26 Samantha’s hair was visibly thinning. It took a year to find the right medication, but flutamide (Eulexin) not only stopped Samantha’s hair loss, fine vellous hairs and then darker, longer hairs started growing back.

Flutamide is a common anti-androgen, a drug that stops the effects of testosterone throughout the body, including the scalp. The downside to treatment with flutamide is that it can cause vaginal dryness and dry skin, and it’s absolutely essential to avoid pregnancy while on the drug. It can prevent the action of testosterone during the development of an unborn child.

3. Acupuncture

Gudrun was horrified to find her hair falling out in hands full. She didn’t know what to do, but a friend recommended a Chinese-trained acupuncturist. She was skeptical, but she tried the treatment. Her hair came back, one strong lock at a time. Complete restoration of her lost hair took about two years.

Sometimes, for reasons that Western medical science can’t understand, acupuncture treatments restore lost hair. Natural health expert Robert Rister, who has interviewed many women who have had the procedure, reports that unlike drugs that seem to bring tiny hairs back first and longer hair back later, acupuncture seems to restore entire locks of hair that come back very fast once the treatment works.