The Challenge:
The skin is the outermost layer of the organ, but also the external environment and internal environment respectively interface with the ability to alert the immune system and regeneration. In the patriarchal health care system, the skin is considered as the less important (no life-threatening) organ. In fact, the skin as a healthy window, it can deeply affect a person's self-image and dignity. For example, hair loss issue, when it happen to men, called "male pattern baldness" (androgenic alopecia), also the followed research named the disease and focused on male hormones. However, due to male bald appearance, female hair loss as a disease is named "female androgenetic alopecia". But the truth is that we still lack scientific research evidence to proof a relevance between male hormones and female hair loss problem.
By integrating gender analysis and clinical experiences, Professor Zhang founded that the most relevant factor which cause female hair loss is iron deficiency not male hormones. These results suggest that a hypothetical medical diagnosis would make these patients in the absence of objective assessment and research lose the opportunity to accept the right treatment.
