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.

Skip to learn how to solve your age-related 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.

Let's start with puberty...