Are Hormones Causing My Acne?

Hormonal acne is different from normal acne because it is based on fluctuations in your hormone levels.  Acne is usually linked with young adults going through puberty, and hormonal acne can affect teenagers but it can also affect anyone of any age.  Regular acne can affect your face anywhere, but hormonal acne can affect the jaw line as well. The pimples are usually very deep and cystic, being very large, red and painful.  Though the pimples can even range to just small black heads. There are more than three million cases of hormonal acne per year.  

There are lots of different reasons to what causes hormonal acne.  Menstruation, PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), or menopause. What causes this is excess oil production, hair follicles being clogged by oils or dead skin cells, bacteria, and excess androgens being produced.  Androgens are also known as the male hormone, the primary androgens are testosterone, and androstenedione.  These are both present in both males and females. Somethings can aggravate your hormonal acne, such as stress, diet, certain medications, or hormonal imbalances caused by underlying diseases. 

There are some myths of things that we all believe to affect how much acne we get but aren’t scientifically proven.

  • Greasy foods, hygiene, and cosmetics do not cause acne. Greasy foods do not cause your skin to become extra oily causing breakouts.  Greasy foods may not be extremely healthy for your gut health or your overall health, but they won’t cause you more breakouts.
  • Dirty skin does not cause acne, you can scrub your skin or use too harsh of cleansers that can make your acne worse.
  • Cosmetics as long as you use non oily products that can clog your pores, and as long as you remove the makeup regularly it won’t cause more breakouts than normal.  Make sure when using new products to test them out to make sure that they aren’t too harsh on your skin or that you aren’t allergic to them if you have extremely sensitive skin.

From someone who suffers from hormonal acne I can say that the pimples can be very painful on the jawline.  They are large and tender but seem to not always come to form. The bumps are awful and can cause skin scarring on your skin.  Though I get the majority of the breakouts on my jawline, you can also get breakouts on other parts of your face, neck, back, or chest.  I am twenty nine years old, so long past the puberty age. But hormonal acne affects about fifty percent of women from the age of 20 to 30.  I have very sensitive skin so I have to be careful about what I use on my face so that I don’t cause more irritation. It is hard to find a good solution.

There are lots of ways to try and treat your hormonal acne.  The problem with hormonal acne is the cause can be so many different things its hard to find a solution right off the bat.  For me at first what really cleared my skin up was being on birth control. The birth control helped balance out my hormones so there was no more fluctuation in my hormones balancing my skin out and really making it clear.  Though when I came off the birth control the acne came back with a vengeance. 

Some other treatments can even be bought over the counter.  Such as over the counter cleansers, or exfoliating scrubs. A good cleanser to try and get is one with probiotics in it.  Probiotics can help balance out your skins pH, making your skin clearer and less prone to breakouts. A product that I have just recently started using is Kirk’s Castile soap.  It is a bar soap that is sulfate free, paraben free. It is safe for sensitive skin and hypoallergenic. This soap truly leaves my skin feeling smooth and super clean, it is not too harsh and I use it with my Clarisonic Mia smart face brush to cleanse my face once or twice a day depending on if I have worn makeup or not.  I can tell a difference from when I started using this soap to when I was using other cleansers.  

If you have tried a few things and it still isn’t clearing up your acne, you can always go see a dermatologist.  During my puberty years I did go see a dermatologist because my acne was a mess. A dermatologist will be able to prescribe you topical creams that are more powerful to help fight acne.  They can also do blue light treatments, chemical peels, or even laser treatments. Dermatologists can do what are called extractions, ,which is a procedure where they go in and dig out white heads or black heads from your skin.  Another option is oral antibiotics, which can cut down on bacteria on your skin and cut down on inflammation.  

Hormonal acne affects both men and women and of all ages.  It can be very common and can be a big pain to try and get rid of.  There are a lot of ways though to try and treat it, so try some things out before you throw in the towel.  If all else fails consult with a dermatologist so they can help you in finding some ways that can manage your hormonal acne. 

 



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Written by HealthStatus
Medical Writer & Editor

HealthStatus has been operating since 1998 providing the best interactive health tools on the Internet, millions of visitors have used our health risk assessment, body fat and calories burned calculators. The HealthStatus editorial team has continued that commitment to excellence by providing our visitors with easy to understand high quality health content for many years.

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