During menopause, lower levels of estrogen have a big impact on your skin. Less estrogen makes you prone to thinning, sagging, and wrinkling. Fortunately, you can relieve some of the skin-related effects of aging by taking care of your specific skin care needs.
Your skin also becomes thinner, because the levels of collagen and elastin also dip along with estrogen. The hormone estrogen is responsible for making skin look younger due to the hyaluronic acid it produces. Estrogen not only affects your skin but also your muscle mass, metabolism, and energy levels.
What won't change is your bone structure, including the bones of your face as well as your hips, arms, hands, legs and feet. The hair on your body, including your chest, back and arms, will decrease in thickness and grow at a slower rate.
Estrogen is an essential component of skin function, health and wellness. It has been shown to improve skin elasticity, hydration and thickness.
The hyaluronic acid produced by estrogen helps your skin look younger and helps you maintain your body mass, energy and metabolism levels. Progesterone is the regulatory hormone for balancing estrogen levels. Progesterone also decreases your body's reliance on the hormone cortisol, which ages the skin.
By supplementing your body's natural hormone levels, HRT can help you maintain a more youthful body composition. While this effect is particularly evident in men, research suggests that women can also benefit. HRT is also known to help women maintain softer, smoother skin, resulting in a younger look.
Loss of muscle tone and thinning skin gives the face a flabby or drooping appearance. In some people, sagging jowls may create the look of a double chin. Your skin also dries out and the underlying layer of fat shrinks so that your face no longer has a plump, smooth surface. To some extent, wrinkles cannot be avoided.
Estrogen insufficiency decreases defense against oxidative stress; skin becomes thinner with less collagen, decreased elasticity, increased wrinkling, increased dryness and reduced vascularity.
While estrogen likely won't reverse or erase signs of aging, it may offer some protection against wrinkles and other common skin concerns in menopausal women.
Estrogen helps to stimulate collagen, elastin, and hyaluronic acid production that helps the skin to stay plump and firm. Progesterone stimulates the production of sebum or the oil glands in the skin. It can cause the skin to swell, and compress the look of pores. Too much of it, however, can lead to oil build up.
Traditional natural hormone replacement therapies
phytoestrogens, which are dietary estrogens found in legumes, seeds, and whole grains. folate (vitamin B-9 or folic acid) St. John's wort.
And how do you go about it? If you are healthy, most experts agree that HRT is safe to use at the lowest dose that helps for the shortest time needed. If you're 59 or older, or have been on hormones for 5 years, you should talk to your doctor about quitting.
Nuts and Seeds, including almonds, flaxseeds, peanuts, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds. Soy and soy products, such as soybeans, tofu, miso soup, miso paste. Vegetables, particularly broccoli, Brussels sprouts, kale, onions, spinach, sprouts.
In addition to increased skin thickness, estrogen has also been shown to increase the collagen content of the skin.
Human growth hormone is described by some as the key to slowing the aging process. Get the facts about these claims. Growth hormone fuels childhood growth and helps maintain tissues and organs throughout life. It's produced by the pea-sized pituitary gland — located at the base of the brain.
Systemic estrogen therapy remains the most effective treatment for the relief of troublesome menopausal hot flashes and night sweats. Have other symptoms of menopause. Estrogen can ease vaginal symptoms of menopause, such as dryness, itching, burning and discomfort with intercourse.
A third study in women using HRT for at least 5 years also produced improvements in skin elasticity with less pronounced wrinkling.
A Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center study involving postmenopausal, overweight, and obese women who took 2,000 IUs of vitamin D daily for a year found that those whose vitamin D blood levels increased the most had the greatest reductions in blood estrogens, which are a known risk factor for breast cancer.
Estrogen helps protect the heart from disease, potentially by maintaining higher levels of good cholesterol, called high-density lipoprotein (HDL), in your blood. Lower estrogen levels, especially during menopause, can increase your risk of developing heart disease.
Estrogen (estradiol) promotes physical changes that are more consistent with a feminine appearance. Progestin therapy may also help produce feminine physical changes. Changes from estrogen or progestin therapy include: Softer skin.
Exposure to light is a top cause of premature aging: Sun exposure causes many skin problems. Ultraviolet (UV) light and exposure to sunlight age your skin more quickly than it would age naturally. The result is called photoaging, and it's responsible for 90% of visible changes to your skin.
As we mature, some physical skin changes occur naturally: Collagen production slows down – so skin loses its firmness. Elastin production decreases – and skin becomes less elastic. Fat cells start to disappear – and skin starts to sag.
"The number one thing that makes your face look older is being overly dry," says Julius Few, MD, director of the skin clinic at The Few Institute for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Aside from drying due to arid winter air, oil production in your skin also decreases as you age, exacerbating parchedness.