Still Have Acne in Your 20’s, 30’s and 40’s?

Why is this still happening? I’m too old to have acne!

I hear this all the time, and the answer is almost always, hormones!

These little, fluctuating culprits, that are affected by stress, birth control and lifestyle, can still cause major break-outs, leaving us frustrated, lacking confidence and searching for a miracle product to combat the problem. Most women experience adult hormonal acne on the lower jawline and chin area, so if you can relate to this, then your problem skin is probably related to your hormones. Hormones can increase the activity of sebaceous glands, which produce oil in your skin. When your hormones are out of balance, your skin produces too much sebum (oil). If you have too much androgen in your body, then you are likely producing excessive sebum, making your skin oily and clogged. Healthy levels of estrogen do just the opposite–reducing the activity of sebaceous glands, leaving your pores smaller, tighter and with less congestion. It’s actually more complicated than a deficiency in one hormone or a dominance in another hormone. It’s important to note that the mistake often made with hormonal acne treatment in adult women is the belief that androgen dominance is the primary cause of acne and not bad estrogen. Certainly, excess androgens are one of the leading causes of acne in adult women, but if we continue to have high levels of bad estrogen in our system and/or low progesterone, then no matter how much we work with our androgens, we’re likely to continue to get acne.

Now that we have an understanding on how hormones effect acne, what can we do to regulate our hormones and what can we do to get rid of these break outs? Stay tuned… I will give you some solutions in my next blog.