Dealing with hormonal skin? We’ve all been there! But did you know hormones are one of the largest factors that affect your skin? This is because pregnancy, menopause, periods, PCOS & other hormonal irregularities can impact your skin health.
What Hormones Affect Your Skin?
The three main hormones that affect the health of your skin negatively are: Progesterone, estrogen & testosterone. TSH levels & stress induced cortisol can also affect the health of the skin. All of these hormones can lead to over active oil glands, acne, dryness/dehydration, brown spots/melasma (pregnancy mask), & inflammation.
What Problems Can these Hormones Cause & How Do you Treat Them?
When it comes to acne & excess oil production, the hormones responsible are progesterone & testosterone. Both activating the sebaceous glands & stimulates the creation of sebum (oil). Salicylic acid or gluconolactone can gently clear up blemished without over-stripping the protective barrier.
Stressed induced cortisol, TSH levels & estrogen can cause the skin to become dry, dehydrated & inflamed. Elevated stress hormones, dehydrate the skin. Humectants like hyaluronic acid & urea supply necessary moisture to the skin. Stress hormones can also increase inflammation so you’ll definitely want to include anti-inflammatory foods into your diet! Ceramides, Niacinamide, Aloe & CBD are great skin care ingredients to use to help fight inflammation.
Brow spots, melasma (pregnancy mask), hyperpigmentation happen when your body produces high amounts of progesterone & estrogen. melasma affects up to 70% of women. Lightening ingredients like kojic acid, azelaic acid, retinoids, vitamin C, along with laser therapies, chemical peels & microneedling can help clear up hyper pigmentation. Also, once these hormones balance out, these patches will begin to fade over time!
Understanding these hormones & how they affect your skin will help you better navigate how to treat the concerns you’re dealing with. Aka reach your skin goals a lot faster without all the guesswork!
Thank you for reading!