Table II.
Summary of the studies visually assessing the amount of distribution of hair in women
| Study | Year | Subjects | Grading | Results |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Danforth and Trotter (1922) | 1922 | 350 College women ‘mostly 18–24y of age’ from the USA | Hair color: light/medium/dark | Grade 1: |
| Grade 0: no well-developed hair on the body except pubic/axillary hair | 23% In women with light color hair | |||
| Grade 1: terminal hairs in any other region(s) than the pubic/axillary hair | 30% In women with medium hair color | |||
| 51% In women with dark hair color | ||||
| Beek (1950) | 1950 | 1000 Women 10–65 years and older compared with 1000 men of similar age range from the Netherlands | Count of terminal hairs (>0.5 cm) on several regions of head, trunk, arms, legs, pubic and axillary regions | Regions of hair growth is same between men and women |
| Relative differences in the amounts of hair | ||||
| Disperse upper border of pubic hair found only in men and this finding should be considered as a sign of hirsutism in women | ||||
| Shah (1957) | 1957 | 100 Women without complaints of excessive hairiness (15–48 years) | Terminal hairs (>0.5 cm) | Terminal hairs on the face, chest or upper back absolutely unusual in non-hirsute women |
| 34 Women referred for excessive hair (15–41 years) | Total hair score = quality * density * fraction of a particular region (see text for details) | Total hair score ≤7 in 97% of women without complaints | ||
| 50 Men (20–53 years) from India | Nine body regions: face, abdomen, chest, upper arm, lower arm, thigh, leg, buttocks, and upper back | Total hair score ≥8 with involvement of at least two unusual regions to define hirsutism in women | ||
| Ferriman and Gallwey (1961) | 1961 | 430 Women attending a general medical outpatient clinic (15–74 years) from England | Five grades (0–4), zero being no terminal hair | Significant hair growth in forearm and leg in most women of 20–40 years |
| 11 Body regions: lip, chin, chest, upper back, sacro-iliac region, upper and lower abdomen, arm, back of the forearm, thigh, leg | Hormonal score on 9 regions in 161 women of 18–38 years: | |||
| >5–9.9% | ||||
| >7–4.3% | ||||
| >10–1.2% | ||||
| McKnight (1964) | 1964 | 400 university students from the UK | Absence/presence of terminal hair (>0.5 cm) | 36/400 (9%) ‘particularly hairy-hirsute’ |
| Seven body regions: face, abdomen, chest, upper arm/leg, lower arm/leg, lumbosacral region, upper back | Presence of terminal hairs: | |||
| Face 26% | ||||
| Abdomen 35% | ||||
| Chest 17% | ||||
| Upper arm/leg 70% | ||||
| Lower arm/leg 84% | ||||
| Lumbosacral region 16% | ||||
| Upper back 3% | ||||
| Moncada-Lorenzo (1970) | 1970 | 300 Women (15–45y) from the USA | Terminal hairs (>0.5 cm) | Total score >5 to define hirsutism |
| Five grades (0–4), zero being no terminal hair | ||||
| Five unusual body regions: chin, upper lip, chest, abdomen, thigh | ||||
| Lunde and Grottum (1984) | 1984 | 213 Women (16–44 years, 100 normal and 113 with complaints of excessive hair) from Norway | Terminal hairs (>0.5 cm) | The median score of 7 (0–15) in normal women |
| Four grades (0–3) | A score of 16 or more to define hirsutism | |||
| 19 Body regions: eyebrow, lip, chin, cheek, upper back, upper arm, lower arm, hand, nipple, breast area, sternal, upper abdomen, lower abdomen, pubic area, lower back, thigh, leg, foot and scalp | ||||
| Derksen et al. (1993) | 1993 | 81 Healthy women (18–43 years) and 71 hirsute women from the Netherlands | Grading (0–4) according to Garn (Garn 1951) and Ferriman and Gallwey (1961) | Sum of the scores for the upper lip, chin, lower abdomen and thigh provides best discrimination between normal and hirsute women (score ≥6 in all hirsute women and none of the controls |
| 12 Body regions (11 areas surveyed by FG with the addition of sideburns) |