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Bea Benedicto reveals she has alopecia: 'The bald spots just kept getting bigger'
Bea Benedicto has revealed why she has become less active on social media last year.
On Instagram, she opened up about having polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and alopecia, a condition which causes hair loss.
Bea shared a video of herself showing the bald spots on her head, saying that she wants to be more real this 2021.
"There's a reason why I went off TikTok and why I stopped posting stories of my face (or head in general lol) last 2020," she said.
"No more workout stories, too, because that'd reveal something I've been going through in private," she added.
The TV and event host and fitness enthusiast previously mentioned suffering from hormonal imbalance and PCOS which caused her acne but she said "it was so much worse than that."
"I lost a lot of hair. I got this extreme alopecia that I didn't get treated right away because of the quarantine," she said. "The bald spots just kept getting bigger until it became like this in the video."
She added that it was a "bad cycle" of feeling depressed and anxious as more of her hair fell off.
"June 'til December 2020 really wasn't a good time mentally, and I just want to say— especially for those who are going through something similar—that things will be ok," she added.
In another video, Bea said she's had PCOS for a couple of years but she was in denial and never had any medication until recently.
At the beginning of quarantine, Bea said she has been "mega stressed because of the Philippines, our situation, and everyone suffering." She also realized she is an extrovert and needed to go out and see people.
Bea said she was overfatigued from work and felt "too stressed and too tired" for around two months, which caused her stress hormones to e overused.
"So much so na nag-deplete siya, na-overuse siya, na 'yung effect nun on a person you feel like you're so very stressed, nangyare skin aging negative siya."
She said even when she's not stressed she felt stressed.
In the earlier IG post, Bea said her hormones have been "getting along a lot better now and that there's been hair growing there already."
"It's not much, but at least they're coming back a little. FYI this video was taken at its worst hehe because I knew at the time that I'll be stronger one day. Strong enough to post this as a 'before' video," she said.
According to Healthline, many people with PCOS grow thicker hair on the face and the body but some experience the opposite: hair thinning and hair loss or "female pattern hair loss."
Meanwhile, Contemporary OB/GYN said hair loss due to male hormones is called androgenic alopecia, a "major source of psychological distress to women."
"This male-pattern hair loss is often seen in women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), congenital adrenal hyperplasia, and other disorders of male hormone excess," it added.
—Jannielyn Bigtas/MGP, GMA News
