A Young Woman with Excessive Facial Hair Meets with 'The Doctors' to Find Out Why She's Growing a Beard
“I would shave once a week,” she says. “There were times that people did notice and teased me about it, but I didn’t really pay too much attention to it.”
This article originally appeared on PEOPLE.
Diamond Smith began growing facial hair when she was 15 years old.
“I have a beard,” Smith, 23, says on Wednesday’s episode of The Doctors, hosted by Dr. Travis Stork. “I get ridiculed every day. People question my gender. No matter what I do, it just keeps coming back.”
The Norfolk, Virginia-based woman says when she first noticed the growth, it wasn’t yet excessive.
“I would shave once a week,” she says. “There were times that people did notice and teased me about it, but I didn’t really pay too much attention to it.”
Then three years ago, “It started to get really bad,” says Smith. “I had to start shaving every day.”
Smith does not know what caused the growth, because she has been too ashamed about her condition to seek out a professional opinion.
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“I haven’t been to a doctor because I’m embarrassed,” she says. “I fear what the results might be.”
She even questions if she caused the hair growth by shaving her face.
“If I never would have shaved my face, maybe it wouldn’t have grown as bad as it did,” says Smith. “What mistake did I make?”
Stork arranges for Smith to meet with OBGYN, Dr. Nita Landry.
“Although we’re here to address the hair growth, we also need to address the emotional aspect of this, because at the end of the day, I want you to feel good when you look in the mirror,” says Landry in the preview clip.
Landry explains that she is going to give Smith a physical exam and an ultrasound, and perform blood work to determine what could be causing her facial hair growth.
“Once we get all of those results back, then I’ll be able to give you a definitive diagnosis,” she says, “and we’re going to make Diamond feel good about herself inside and out.”
To learn what is causing Smith’s hair growth and if she could have prevented it, check your local listings and tune in on Wednesday
