Shabina Akhtar explains: Women don’t have facial hair growth. The primary reason being that the female glands and hormones (chemical stimulators) inhibit the growth of facial hairs. Dr Sujoy Majumdar, consultant endocrinologist, Ruby General Hospital, says, “Hair growth is influenced by the relative abundance of the male sex hormone ? testosterone (which is transferred to the target tissue via blood circulation). Its active form dihydrotestosterone stimulates the receptors present at the base of the hair follicle to facilitate hair growth.” As males have a higher level of this hormone, they develop beards.

Women either lack this hormone or has it below optimum level. “In women the precursors to testosterone produced by the adrenal glands or the ovaries are converted to active testosterone,” he says.

But oestrogen ? the primary sex hormone in women ? tends to inhibit the action of testosterone present in them. Moreover a normal woman produces a very small amount of ovarian and adrenal androgens to effect any significant hair growth in areas such as face, ears, pubic area and chest. But under certain circumstances, this hormone’s level somehow increases in women, which triggers hirsutism ? a condition when growth of facial hair is enhanced in women.

The question was sent by Md Rehan Yousuf, Calcutta.