As Dr. Wu says in "Feed Your Face," "as teenagers, our hormones made us irritable and anxious with stubborn breakouts and oily skin. For some women, adolescent acne then becomes hormonal acne, which can drag on into your late 30s and 40s. Then, when you finally think you have things worked out, wham menopause [hits] and you have a whole new set of problems."
The hormonal gist: "Fluctuating hormone levels cause the classic symptoms of menopause like hot flashes, flushing and night sweats," explains Dr. Wu who also notes that as we enter menopause, our bodies produce less estrogen and that this "drop in estrogen leads to a loss of collagen," which, of course, leads to less elasticity, causing the skin to start to sag. And, as Dr. Murad says, falling estrogen levels can also lead to "thinning, dryness and fragility, medium to deep fine lines and wrinkles, lackluster tone and acne breakouts." Yikes. All in all, not a pretty picture.
Next: The ingredients menopausal women can use to help their skin
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Menopause -- Plan of Attack
"You are never too young or too old to start taking care of your skin," says Dr. Murad. "So even if you have never adopted a skin care regimen and are experiencing the effects of aging, you can still combat these effects by adopting one now."
So, what specifically should menopausal women use? Murad recommends "products that contain essential fatty acids (like Lanc�me Bienfait Multi-Vital Night, $50) and plant-derived phytoestrogens" saying that they will "help to replenish hormones that diminish with age, bringing life back to a lackluster complexion and slowing the sagging process."
Ah, hormones. Those wacky chemicals that carry messages from our organs to our cells. Those super-busy messengers that dictate pretty much everything in our bodies -- from the speed of our metabolism to how tall we grow -- hormones call all the shots, they have the control, they, in short, are king. And, as noted dermatologists Katie Rodan and Kathy Fields say in their book, "Write Your Skin a Prescription for Change," hormones also have a ton to do with the way our skin "changes and ages throughout life" and, a lot to do with any and all of our skin problems.
"With the onset of puberty," the doctors write, "sex hormones skyrocket, ruling behavior and altering the appearance of skin." And, guess what? That roller coaster continues all the way through menopause � and then some.
There are six major hormones that affect our skin: estrogen, progesterone, melanin, cortisol, testosterone and the thyroid hormones. And, their levels fluctuate all the time, which explains, among other things, why our complexions also change throughout the month (and years).
To get an idea of how our skin is affected by these hormones during three key periods of our lives (adolescence, pregnancy and menopause), we talked to two preeminent dermatology experts, Dr. Howard Murad and Dr. Jessica Wu -- both of whom specialize (and excel) in the medical and cosmetic aspects of their field. They walked us through the three stages, offering up insight into what happens from a physiological standpoint and giving suggestions for how to best handle the situations to keep the resulting skin problems to a minimum.
So, if you're ready to get a firmer understanding of what the heck is going on inside our bodies that can sometimes wreak havoc on our complexions, and learn what you can do to outsmart them, you're in luck.
