Your Friday Five: When Health Gains Meet Hair Fears

Hair loss is one of the most common fears people bring up when considering GLP-1 medications—especially women in menopause whose hair is already feeling thin, fragile, or vulnerable. This week’s Friday Five dives into the actual conversation you should be having before you make any decisions.

In this short episode, I unpack why there is no one-size-fits-all answer to “Will I lose more hair?” and why it requires a real clinical evaluation. But more importantly, I walk you through the two essential steps anyone worried about hair loss should take.

Here’s what we cover:

1. Why the “risk vs. benefit” conversation matters more than the internet does
   Hair thinning is a real risk—and for some women, it’s a deeply emotional one. This isn’t superficial or silly. But the question to sit with is:
   Do the potential health benefits outweigh this risk for me?
2. Why hair loss varies wildly
   Some people lose none.
   Some lose a lot.
   Some lose slowly and never notice.
   Others lose slowly and still see big changes.
   This variability is exactly why you can’t predict it without personalized care.
3. Why dermatology needs to be part of the plan—GLP-1 or not
   If hair loss is already a concern, don’t wait.
   There are evidence-based treatments—oral, topical, supplement-based—but they need to fit your medical history.
   A dermatologist can get you started before you ever step on a GLP-1.
4. How focusing too much on aesthetics steals your joy
   Loose skin, wrinkles, thinning hair—all part of the process of being human.
   But letting them take the wheel derails the bigger picture: your long-term health, your energy, your quality of life.
   We talk through why it matters to stay anchored to your North Star.
5. Why you’re not meant to make these decisions alone
   So many people are trying to assess risk in isolation.
   Please don’t.
   Talk to your physician. Talk to a dermatologist. Build a real plan—not a fear-based one.

If hair thinning is something you’re afraid of, this episode will ground you, normalize the concern, and give you a clear next step.

See you Monday.

All of the information on this podcast is for general informational purposes only. Please talk to your physician and medical team about what is right for you. No medical advice is being on this podcast.

If you live in Indiana or Illinois and want to work with doctor Matthea Rentea, you can find out more on www.RenteaClinic.com

Health is the best gift you can give. Select ‘Give as a gift’ at checkout to share one of our programs with someone you love. Explore the details here.

Transcript

0:29

Welcome back to another, your Friday five. Someone asked this question I want to go on a GLP one, but I'm afraid of losing my hair. It's already thin due to menopause. How likely am I to lose more hair? This is something that, there's no way that I could answer this without seeing you in the clinic or a dermatologist seeing you in the clinic. That's a question that we can't answer. What we can do is talk around it. The first question that I think is most valuable to get answered is. You working with your physician, whoever would be prescribing this GLP one. I would be going through a risk and benefit conversation. So when we talk about that, it's not just horrendous side effects that we're talking about. You losing your hair is actually a risk, if that is something where you already feel that it's thin, you al, you're already in a scared spot with it and you know that potentially putting this stress on your body that you would lose. Additional hair. The reason I'm like, I don't know that if you would lose it or not, is that some people do not have hair loss. Some people have a ton of hair loss. Some people lose so slow that nothing happens. Other people, despite you losing slow, still lose a bunch of hair. It's so variable. But the question is, is the benefit to me going on this medication, does it far surpass these risks that I have? Or the things that I really care about. I think then if you're coming from a place of health, yes, my health would improve. If I do this, then sometimes there's some collateral damage that occurs because of that. Let's take loose skin, for example. Am I enjoying loose skin? Absolutely not. But I would any day of the week. Take loose skin over what it feels like to have 80 to a hundred extra pounds on me. It's one of these, every day we have to come back to what's the actual point of all of this and it's health, and I don't know from this,, this person might have. It might be more of a vanity metric than an actual health thing, it's all valid, right? I just wanna really, normalize this for everyone. I would come from that question first, and I think that that's something that you talk with your physician about, because everyone's making all these decisions in their bedroom on their own, and I'm like, you need to actually talk to someone, talk this through Kate. Thing number two, valuable thing. You need to see a dermatologist. If this is already a concern, forget if you're going on a GLP one or not. There are things that can be done for hair loss. There are oral medications, there are topical things you can do. There are different supplements you can take. And the reason I don't just get on here and I'm not just like neutrophil for all's because you all have different medical things going on. It would be irresponsible to have the same blanket recommendation for everyone. I would have the conversation with your doctor. And then I would a hundred percent see a dermatologist and maybe even seeing the dermatologist before you ever get on the GLP one. So if they can already have you on treatment and you already have a plan in place before this occurs, but this is a risk. And I think I just had this thought a long time ago. I don't even care if I go bald. Fine, I'll buy some wigs, I'll do whatever's necessary, but to me. Health is just, it has to be my North Star because if I let skin or wrinkles or any of that other stuff get in the driver's seat, it just leads to a very distorted sense of life for me because you never can win with that. I hate to break it to everyone. We are, we age, so things only, gravity only goes in the, in the downward direction. And so if we're constantly hyper-focused on that, I just find that it steals all the joy in life. It steals how far I've come. It steals the opportunities for the things I get to do because I'm working on my health and fitness and all the things. And so I know that that's not why you asked this question, but that actually is part of it because. If that wasn't such a focus, it maybe would make it an easier decision to go on the medication or not. So I hope that this was helpful just to talk about things a little bit. But if this is something that you're worried about. A dermatologist for sure is going to be helpful. I can tell you with certainty that all the dermatologists that I know in my life, they love helping patients with this. I hope that this episode was helpful and I'll see you all Monday.