Hormones play a huge part in your skin health, and not just your sex hormones such as oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone. But also stress-related hormones including adrenalin, corticosterone-releasing hormone (CRH), cortisol and adrenal androgens. Our bodies are finely balanced but when a shift of hormones occur this can lead to an imbalance which may lead to breakouts.

Adult and teenage skin are both affected by these hormonal changes. Teenage skin can often seem severe due to puberty and the massive shift their bodies are going through, but often a good and thorough skincare routine will make a significant difference and a key point is educating teenagers from the start about how to manage their skins needs. Often teenagers will grow out of their acne period in their life but some will see it into adulthood. Others won’t develop acne until adulthood and often this needs to be targeted much more specifically.

While acne can affect everyone, adult woman are five times more likely than men to be affected due to fluctuating hormones. Woman tend to experience hormonal fluctuations and acne around the time of menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause. Also, when present, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome is a main cause of adult acne in woman. We also know that there is a relationship between testosterone and the sebaceous glands. In men testosterone is secreted by the male sexual organs, and the-hydro testosterone. This stimulates increased sebum production and stickier sebum.

You are limited to the changes you can make to your hormone levels (*please consult a medical professional before considering any changes to medication) although what we can do is target your skins needs, this may be focusing on your skincare routine and considering changes in the products that you use. This is something we can discuss during a Skin Mapping Consultation.