How women end up paying more than men for hair-loss products

Women end up paying 40 per cent more than men for one of the most common hair-loss remedies, despite having the same ingredients.

An estimated 50 million men and 30 million women in America have androgenetic alopecia, otherwise known as male-pattern or female-pattern baldness. With men, it usually presents as a receding hairline, while in women, it usually causes thinning of the hair. And a recent study found the global market for treatments of this condition will reach $11.8 billion by the year 2024.

One of the most common products available is minoxidil, which originally contained a five percent solution for men and two percent solution for women. But in 2014 the Food and Drug Administration approved the use of the five percent solution for women. There is now a version of the product sold to both men and women as a foam. Women apply it once daily, while men are directed to use it twice per day.

Even if the foams sold to both men and women contain the same drug strength and the same inactive ingredients, women end up paying an average of 40 per cent more researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania say in their analysis. JAMA Dermatology published the findings online today.

“Gender-based consumer price differences are well-documented, but we believe this is the first analysis comparing the pricing of medication along gender lines,” said Jules Lipoff, MD, an assistant professor of Dermatology and the study’s lead author.

Lipoff and his team looked at data from 24 different pharmacies across four states and compared them considering the retail price. In each case, they used the price of the largest container available by volume.

When prices varied between different locations within the same chain, they used the average cost.

For the foam products containing five percent Minoxidil, researchers found the cost was 40 percent higher per ounce for women than men.

“These are products with the exact same ingredients,” Lipoff said. “They come in different amounts and packaging based on gender, so for the most part, women probably do not even realise they are paying more.”

The scientist say that given the fact that women apply the solution just once a day while men have to use it twice, this could account for the price difference. Especially since the scientists verified the products and found them to be virtually identical.

“We recommend that our female patients buy the male version of the product, because it doesn’t seem right to ask a woman to pay more when the products are, for all intents and purposes, identical.”

Lipoff started with a 2015 report that found women paid an average of 13 per cent more than men on equivalent personal care products. But Lipoff said since most medications are not gender-specific, it’s rare to have the opportunity to compare costs this way.

“We’re just taking an objective look at the current costs,” Lipoff said. “Still, we don’t think it’s right to charge different people different prices for the exact same drug.”