Anxiety and Hirsutism

To compare anxiety of 15 hirsute women and of 20 control subjects (student nurses) seen at the Soroka Medical Center, Israel, three hypotheses were considered: patients with hirsutism have significantly higher state anxiety than the control sample; patients with hirsutism show significantly higher trait anxiety than the control sample; the extent of hirsutism generates no significant differences in state or trait anxiety. The two groups were compared on the Hebrew version of the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The first two hypotheses were confirmed but no correlation was found between extent of hirsutism and state or trait anxiety. The findings are discussed and implications made with regard to physicians' understanding of the hirsute patient.