Those habitual breakouts you get right. About the same time you get your period? It turns out that’s not the only time your hormones influence the appearance of your skin. To help us understand our hormones better, we talked to Dr. Rebecca Booth, board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist and co-founder of VENeffect Anti-Aging Skin Care. Here, Dr. Booth outlined the many ways our hormones impact our skin and overall health and what we can do to keep our hormones under control for clearer, healthier skin.
1. Your skin is also on a 28-day cycle.
Dr. Booth: Hormones affect virtually every organ in the human body, and most certainly our skin. Much like our reproductive cycle, our skin is also on a twenty-eight-day cycle, regenerating and renewing itself as the body’s largest organ.
Before menopause a surge in estrogen during the fertile window, what I call the “Venus Week,” contributes to a healthy glow by increasing collagen, elastin, and other elements of beautiful, supple skin. At the same time this effect, coupled with peaking testosterone just before ovulation, results in increased lubricity, augmenting a glow that is clearly designed by Nature to optimize our appearance when we are most fertile. Estrogen keeps a “check” on testosterone by increasing binding proteins in the bloodstream. After ovulation, estrogen and testosterone drop a bit, and even later in the cycle, during the typical PMS days, estrogen takes a steep dive down, prompting a slight surge in testosterone causing unchecked oiliness, enlarged pores, and resultant acne breakouts.
2. Testosterone is mainly responsible for hormonal acne.
Almost all instances of acne are aggravated by testosterone, or an imbalance in the ratio of testosterone and estrogen. Testosterone increases both pore size and sebum (the oil of skin) production. Read more
Also read 5 Things You Need to Know When Starting a New Skin Care Regimen
