Health-Related Quality of Life, Depression and Anxiety Correlate with the Degree of Hirsutism

<b><i>Background:</i></b> Hirsutism has a negative impact on women's quality of life. The relation between quality of life, anxiety, depression and the level of hairiness has not been described. <b><i>Aims:</i></b> To investigate the correlations between the levels of hairiness, quality of life, anxiety and depression. <b><i>Methods:</i></b> 200 patients from Malmö, Örebro and Uppsala, who had been in contact with the clinics for problems with excessive hair growth, were invited to answer a self-administered questionnaire including sociodemographic questions, EQ-5D index score, Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Ferriman-Gallwey scale (F-G); of these, 127 women participated in the study. <b><i>Results: </i></b>The mean values were: EQ-5D index 0.73 (SD = 0.27), EQ visual analogue scale 61.0 (SD = 22.6), HADS-anxiety 9.5 ± 5.3 and HADS-depression 6.5 ± 4.6. The mean DLQI was 11.8 ± 8.4, indicating a very large effect on patients' lives. All were significantly correlated with the amount of hairiness. <b><i>Conclusions:</i></b> Higher levels of hair growth were significantly correlated with a lower level of quality of life and symptoms of both anxiety and depression.