Is PRP stem cell therapy for hair growth worth it? 55-year-old woman with thinning hair.

Thank you for your question. You are a 55-year-old woman with thinning hair, and are asking if PRP stem cell therapy for $3500 is worth it. You state you have been using minoxidil, a low-level laser light therapy, are on estrogen and progesterone for menopausal symptoms.
I can certainly give you some guidance about this. I’m a Board Certified Cosmetic Surgeon and Fellowship-trained Oculoplastic Surgeon. I’ve been in practice in Manhattan and Long Island for over 20 years. I’ve been performing hair transplants since I started my practice. I’m also the founder of TrichoStem Hair Regeneration Centers, based on a system we developed that uses extracellular matrix and PRP for non-surgical treatment of pattern hair loss for men and women since 2011. We have patients from around the world who come to see us for this treatment.
Stem cell treatments are a pretty broad category. Our Hair Regeneration treatment recruits your body’s own stem cells to restart a healthy hair growth cycle. Adipose-derived stem cells uses your stem cells taken from a patient’s own fat. PRP alone can be considered as a stem cell treatment as it does contain some of the body’s own stem cells. The term stem cell treatment can be applied to a wide variety of treatments, so effectiveness boils down to individual treatments.
While I can’t make claims for other treatments, as a pioneer in PRP+ACell treatment with Hair Regeneration since 2011, and with the most experience with this combination, I can say ours works. Over 99% of male and female pattern hair loss patients have seen their thinning hair thicken, stimulated growth of hair follicles that were not growing, and achieved greater hair density and coverage. The treatment uses a wound healing response for the body to use its own stem cells to renew a healthier hair growth cycle. Most patients can do this one treatment session that can last up to 3-5 years, but some patients get a second treatment 15-24 months after the first at no extra charge.
An important factor in establishing if a stem cell treatment works is the follow up process. If you are investing in a one-time treatment, will there be follow ups to monitor your progress? This is where the belief in one’s own treatment is evident. If you are paying $3500 for the treatment, and there is no follow up process, that puts the effectiveness in doubt. Before and after pictures are taken in follow up appointments. However, I’ve had pictures of my own Hair Regeneration patients stolen by other hair loss practices, with other doctors claiming my results and patients as their own. It is very important to look at others’ results, but following up is how a doctor puts faith in their treatment. We see our patients at 3 months after treatment, and every 6 months after that to monitor their results, for up to 5 years. As we have many patients from outside the US, we often do this online over video conference and email. From this perspective, our patients are not just paying for one or two treatments, but they are paying for the service of follow up and monitoring their results long after the treatment is done.
I suggest you talk to your doctors about how long their treatments last, what the follow up is like, and if additional treatments are included in the price if you are not happy with the first. Look at their before and after photos, with a bit of a caveat, and determine if the doctors backup their claims by standing by the results of their treatment, even years after it is done. I hope you found this information helpful. Thank you for your question.

I’m sorry to hear that supplements, laser therapy and other procedures have failed you. In regards to your question, I would say yes, PRP therapy is known to be a safe, effective and a dynamic hair loss treatment.
 
The National Institutes of Health have documented preliminary results from PRP, reporting that a “significant reduction in hair loss was observed between first and fourth injection. Hair count increased from average number of 71 hair follicular units to 93 hair follicular units.”
 
PRP is loaded with growth factors that promote rapid angiogenesis, localized cell growth, decrease inflammation and decrease healing time.
 A note of warning: not all PRP therapies are effective because not all PRP practitioners know what they’re doing. The practice is not yet standardized, so finding a physician who has many years of experience and a large patient base under his belt is imperative. An ill-trained or inexperienced PRP practitioner can destroy the scalp and any future hope of hair growth.

There are no peer reviewed studies to document that stem cells add any value to PRP scalp treatment. It is my opinion, for androgenic Alopecia, that the subdermal depot injection technique (Rapaport) produces greater results than using topical PRP with micro-needling. The study that has been verified in  Dermatologic Surgery  is a protocol of 3 monthly injections followed by injections every 3 to 4 months. If you are treating androgenic alopecia,  maintenance is essential. Find a PRP expert. Ask to see photos.