Uh. I beg to differ.

Talking with your doctor isn’t always easy. Whether you are afraid she will judge you, you just don’t feel comfortable sharing the intimate details of your life between the sheets, or you can’t think straight with a speculum between your legs, many people get tight lipped in the doctor’s office. But that doesn’t mean you don’t have questions.

We thought we’d help and every Thursday our friend Dr. Lissa Rankin will be answering your questions. The ones you couldn’t ask your doctor in person. Just leave your questions in the comments, or send em over to us. (We’ll keep it all anonymous for you.) Dr. Lissa will answer anything – really, anything – about sex and other lady things. Don’t be shy; she’s waiting for ya!

Q: A few months ago I was sitting with my BF and he thought I had something on my cheek. He went to pull it off and…it was a long, dark hair….growing out of my face. I was mortified, but figured it was a one-time deal. But now I’m finding these hairs popping up more often. They are dark and big and show up on my cheek and neck. Do I have too much testosterone or something? Is this fixable??

Help – it’s really embarrassing.

A: I know how you feel. In fact, I have a few sprouters myself.  Nothing like a big black facial hair to spoil the mood. I wish I knew more about what else is going on with your hair growth. Are the hairs growing out of moles? How many are there? Do you have hair on your chest, under your belly button, or around your nipples? Are your arms hairier than normal? Do you tend to get acne?  These would all give me some idea of how much testosterone you may have in your body.

Finding the occasional facial hair is not uncommon for a woman.  An individual’s hair distribution is influenced by androgens like testosterone, the hormones we typically think of as being exclusively male.  Androgens also exist in females, though in lower concentrations.  Androgens can be produced by the adrenal glands, as well as by the ovaries, and higher levels of androgens lead to more hair growth. Each woman’s hair distribution may change over time, since hormones fluctuate widely from puberty, through the reproductive years, to menopause, and beyond.

If you tend to be on the hairier side, you may also have hair on your upper lip, chin, around your nipples, and below your belly button.  Check out Mom. If she looks like you, chances are everything is fine. But if you’ve been relatively hairless and suddenly you feel like a monkey, see your doctor. You may have a condition we call hirsutism. Your doctor will examine you, check hormone levels, and evaluate whether you’re taking medication that can cause hair growth as a side effect. Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) can cause excessive hair growth, as can hormone-producing tumors and rare conditions such as congenital adrenal hyperplasia and Cushing’s syndrome.

If your hair growth is the result of a medical condition, the condition may be treatable. For example, facial hair resulting from PCOS sometimes responds to the medication spironolactone. Otherwise, there’s always plucking, waxing, or electrolysis.  Keep in mind that a few facial hairs shouldn’t get in the way of your confidence and is nothing to be embarrassed about. You’re beautiful just the way you are.

–Dr. Lissa Rankin’s book, What’s Up Down There? Questions You’d Only Ask Your Gynecologist If She Was Your Best Friend, will be published by St. Martin’s Press in Fall 2010. She invites you to join her Pink online community (www.owningpink.com/forum) or read more of her writing at Owning Pink (www.owningpink.com).

Love ‘em or hate em, no one can deny that we are surrounded by the hipster generation these days. We are living and breathing in the second-hand smoke of Parliament Lights everywhere we go.  I have spent some time observing them in their natural habitat (dark basements and dive bars in Brooklyn and the entire campus of Virginia Commonwealth University) and have seen the light.

Hipsters really aren’t that bad. In fact, I kind of like them and the wonderful changes they’ve made to our world:

Jeans: Dear Hipsters, Thank you for putting the kibash on baggy jeans. If I had to see one more pair of Tweety Bird boxers muffin-topping out of a sagging mess of denim, I would have gouged my eyes out. And while I may be slightly envious of your lean legs, that’s my own burden to bear. Rock on, skinny-legged hipster. If you got it, flaunt it.

The Polaroid Camera: Yes the Polaroid camera is coming back! And I’d like to thank, in part, the hipster generation. There’s nothing hipsters love more than the instant gratification of seeing themselves in all their avant-garde glory on film. But hey, don’t we all? Otherwise, websites like this would never survive.

The Art of Facial Hair: You may not have thought facial hair to be an art form, but I can guarantee you it is. And it is one that hipsters have explored in depth. The time and precision it takes to perfect a pencil-thin stache is almost obscene.  Never have I seen so many chin-whisker-mustache combinations in my life. I applaud you, uniquely-groomed hipster. You are a special brand of street art as you walk past me.

American Apparel: I’ve often contemplated which came first, the Hipster or the gold-lame filled American Apparel store. But either way, Hipsters brought my favorite deep-v t-shirt to every corner of the U.S.of A. And I do love them for my weekly entertainment that is trying on unitards and trying to figure out where I could wear them.

Eyewear: As a contact-wearer for the past 9 years, I have serious issues when I have to wear my glasses out in public. I feel vulnerable to attack and ridicule. But we all have those days when our eyes simply reject any foreign objects in and around the vicinity of the eyeball. Hipsters have brought sexy back when it comes to eyewear. My retinas thank you.

PBR: I’m not going to lie to you. I enjoy a frosty PBR from time to time. They’re usually a special at bars, probably because they assume no one will order one. But if you’re offering me a $2.50 Pabst Blue Ribbon, I’m gonna take the bait. Hipsters have turned cheap into hip when it comes to binge drinking at a good price. There’s no shame in accepting a PBR, especially when a young hipster bought one (or 5) for you.

Scarves for Men: American Apparel has created the man of my dreams. And in all of my fantasies, Mr. Right is wearing a checkered scarf in a well-fitted tshirt. It takes a special kind of man to pull off a man-scarf. I’m thinking Ashton Kutcher, ladies.

Fanny Packs: I no longer have to be burdened with the task of carrying around a purse or clutch all night. I can strap on my handy fanny pack and hit the local hipster scene with my hands free for more important things, like my Polaroid camera.

[Photo courtesy of LATFH.com. One of the best sites I've ever seen.]

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