How to Have Better Skin After Menopause
Women that go through menopause have undoubtedly heard about the night sweats and the hot flashes. However, many women are unaware that hormonal changes take place before, during, and after menopause that can also result in skin problems, and dermatologic symptoms. Here’s a closer look at how hormone changes affect your skin, how bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) can help, and other options for menopausal skin care.
How Menopause Affects Your Skin
During menopause, hormone levels begin to decrease as ovarian activity declines, resulting in a lowered estrogen levels. It is these hormonal shifts that cause many of the changes associated with menopause including; hot flashes, night sweats, the appearance of facial hair, and appearance of the skin.1
The decline in estrogen and progesterone production can result in an accelerated aging process of your skin. Estrogen stimulates the formation of natural skin oils and collagen. So as production diminishes within the body, many women experience itchy, dry skin and how their skin often begins to lose resiliency. The combination of elastin and collagen levels often drop as hormone levels lower which will give a noticeable difference in skin laxity as well.2
Estrogen controls the maintenance and growth of capillaries in the dermis, so menopause often results in a reduction of blood flow to the surface of the skin, resulting in thinned out, dry skin. Estrogen also helps temper the production of melanin, so after menopause, many women suddenly begin seeing the effects of damaging UV rays as age spots appear on the chest, hands, face, arms, and neck.3
Women often begin to see these changes to the skin start during perimenopause, and unless hormonal deficiencies are treated, these skin effects can be permanent. However, there are some steps women can take via skin treatments to reduce the signs of aging caused by menopause.
Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy for Better Skin
Since skin problems caused by menopause are a result of lowered hormone levels, one of the best ways to treat these skin problems is to re-introduce them with bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT).
What are bioidentical hormones? They are replicated hormones from plant materials that have the exact same chemical structure as the hormones that occur naturally in your body. Since they are biologically identical, your body shouldn’t know the difference. Leading to a lower risk of side effects and improved results when compared with traditional hormone replacement therapy via pills, creams, and synthetics.
Balancing hormone levels with BHRT combats problems with dry skin, skin laxity, thinning skin, and UV damage. Along with offering skin care benefits, BHRT offers a number of other benefits to women after menopause as well, including 4, 5, 6
- Improved mood, memory, and concentration
- Lower risk of osteoporosis and better bone density
- Lower risk of depression
- Better libido
- Improved strength and muscle mass maintenance
- Fewer problems with hot flashes
- Reduced occurrence of vaginal dryness
- Improved energy levels
Other Menopause Skin Care Options
Along with dryness, sagging, and age spots, the reduced production of collagen and elastin after menopause will alter the appearance of the skin making fine lines and wrinkles more apparent.
While BHRT often helps reduce many of these skin problems, other menopause skin care options may also provide results, such as:
- Botox – For wrinkles and severe fine lines, Botox smoothes lines and wrinkles by reducing muscle activity temporarily. It offers results in just a few days and the result last for several months.
- Dermal Fillers – Dermal fillers, such as Juvederm, help resolve the loss of volume in the face, reducing the look of sagging and lines. Results generally last at least two years after treatment.
- Facials – Regular facials offer an excellent menopause skin care option, and they offer many benefits to aging skin, including stimulating blood flow, improving elasticity, improving texture, and providing a healthy, youthful glow.
- LED Light Therapy – This skin care treatment helps to stimulate the production of elastin and collagen, which can help reduce wrinkles and fine lines while firming skin. For those who may have a bit of break out LED light therapy can kill the bacteria under the surface of the skin and reduce inflammation associated with breakouts.
- SkinPen Microneedling – Also referred to as Collagen Induction Therapy, this skin care service is an advanced medical treatment that is designed to improve the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, scarring, hyperpigmentation, and skin laxity on the face and body. Allowing for controlled induction of the skins natural self-repair process by creating thousands of micro-injuries in the dermis, automatically triggering new collagen production without causing the formation of scar tissue. Safe to use in a wide variety of patient-types including patients of all skin-types, SkinPen stimulates your skin’s natural ability to repair itself. The actual procedure typically takes 30 minutes depending on the size and number of areas treated and the severity of damage on the skin and results in little to no downtime for the patient.
- Microdermabrasion – Diamond Tip Microdermabrasion is a facial procedure that uses mechanical exfoliation to slough off the outer layer of skin, with vacuum pressure and a gentle grit diamond tip. Removing these dead skin cells allows for new cells to grow, and stimulates the body’s healing factor. Increasing the circulation to the surface of your skin, microdermabrasion reveals a youthful and healthy glow. There is absolutely no downtime with this procedure and can be done alone or in conjunction with other services.
Although those hot flashes can be some of the most troublesome symptoms of menopause, skin issues can be equally frustrating, making sure you take care of your skin will ensure improvement and help you experience a much more graceful aging process. Understanding how skin changes after menopause, addressing hormonal imbalances and deficiencies with BHRT and incorporating other skin care treatments can help you take care of your menopausal or post-menopausal skin for a healthier, more youthful appearance.
If you want to know more about all this, make sure you signed up for our FREE consultation for BHRT or skin services and products at the address below.
We’ll tell you all about BHRT and the striking results shown by the women who use it.
References:
