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age
26-29,
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writes: I'm a 16 year old girl and I don't know what's wrong with me. I have dark hair on my lower back and my bottom. I also have hair on my stomach, a little bit on my chest and dark hair on my arms. Is this normal? I have always been like this but I've been noticing that other girls cont have this body hair. Also my hair is dark brown and I'm half Puerto Rican if that also changes anything. should I go to a doctor, or shave it? I already shave my stomach and I hate it so I don't want to have to shave anything else if I don't have to. Please help me3 thanks for reading this. Reply to this Question
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female
reader, CindyCares  +, writes (3 March 2013):
 Sorry to insist, but " more hair than normal " IS definitely a medical problem, according to the location of the hair. Much hair on legs, arms, pubic area - fine. But, hair on chest, or shoulders , or buttocks ?.. and not obviously just a few random hair or a little fuzz, but visible enough to require shaving ? that's a medical condition called hirsutism, not a disease per se but a symptom, for instance of excessive level of androgens ( male hormones ). Now , while it's true that a few cases are just an innocuous quirk of nature , generally a healthy female body with a balanced endocrine system does not produce an excess of male hormons.
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female
reader, katiekate  +, writes (3 March 2013):
 Wax or shave it. Sounds like you have more hair than normal, but it's nothing I haven't seen before. I remember girls from school being "hairy" like that- like lots of hair on their arms, for example. Doesn't sound like a medical problem...
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reader, anonymous, writes (2 March 2013): This is verified as being by the original poster of the questionThanks for all of the help:) I'm going to talk to my mom about going to the doctor and I hope this also helps the other people with the same problem
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reader, anonymous, writes (2 March 2013): I'm a 17 year old girl and I have the same problem. I have hair on my arms, stomach, back, bum and chest, I also shaved my stomach which I regret massively now. It gets me down as NO boy would find this attractive or date me because of this.I never thought of going to the doctors about it but after reading these comments I think I will!I hope you manage to find a solution (:
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female
reader, Tisha-1 +, writes (2 March 2013):
 My vote is to get yourself checked out by the doctor. Don't shave or do the hair removal thing before you see her (or him, can't be sexist, now, can we?) and follow the instructions for whatever bloodwork might be needed.
It sounds like a lot of hair but it may be perfectly normal for you. Best thing to do is to have a medical exam to rule out any problems and then, when you are declared perfectly normal, though hairy, then you can figure out the strategies to deal with that.
Good luck!
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female
reader, CindyCares +, writes (1 March 2013):
It's not even that normal either. A visit to an endocrinologist can't hurt.
While it is true that " hypertrychosis " ( too much hair ) is also largely a matter of perception, and culturally influenced, what you describe would actually be irsutism. That's a different story.
The abundance of hair , and the darker pigmentation = generally no big deal unless it really bothers you. It's the android distribution ( hair where males have it ) that 's totally out of whack. ( Chest , lower back, bottom ...) That's not normal, at least not statistically normal, even among Latinos . It may be genetic, but it may also indicate serious thyroid dysfunctions, surrenal glands problems, and other stuff. Go get yourself cjecked- just in case.
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male
reader, CMMP +, writes (1 March 2013):
It's the latina half of you. If you're comparing yourself to girls of other ethnicities than its no surprise that you wonder if it's normal. For many Hispanics its totally normal and it's not that you have more hair, it's just darker.
As long as you don't have "man hair" then I think you should learn to be happy with who you are. If it's really thick then you could ask your mom about what your options have.
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female
reader, So_Very_Confused +, writes (1 March 2013):
 it's not that abnormal, that's why they invented waxing and bleaching for women.
NEVER shave it... you can wax it or bleach it...
I would go to the doctor and make sure your hormones are ok once you get a medial clearance then look into waxing... that means once every 6 weeks or so you would have the hair removed... the more you wax the finer the hair will become.
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