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.
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.
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.
Most people associate human growth hormone and DHEA with aging, but progesterone, testosterone, estrogen and cortisol play a role in aging as well. If the delicate balance of any one of these hormones is destroyed, it can take a serious toll on your body, mind and spirit – and be mistaken as classic signs of aging.
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.
Your skin is another obvious indicator of your age. This doesn't just include wrinkles, but things like dry skin and tired eyes, which can both be avoided. Reddit user Redhaired103 posted in /r/AskWomen that dark circles, pale skin, puffy eyes, and heavy makeup can also make you look older.
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.
HRT is also known to help women maintain softer, smoother skin, resulting in a younger look. In addition to—and, often, as a result of—these physical changes, HRT often changes how you see yourself.
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.
Hot flashes, flushes, and night sweats are the most common symptoms of low estrogen. At times, blood rushes to your skin's surface. This can give you a feeling of warmth (hot flash). Your face may look flushed.
For a clearer picture on the significant impact estrogen plays in the skin's appearance, a study of elderly males and females found that administration of topical estrogen increases keratinocyte proliferation and epidermal thickness after only two weeks of use.
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.
Current guidelines indicate that it's okay to take estrogen and progesterone for a short time to help with the transition to menopause — and there are ongoing studies investigating the efficacy and safety of different estrogen and progesterone formulations that could potentially be used for longer periods of time.
Estrogen (estradiol) promotes physical changes that are more consistent with a feminine appearance. Progestin therapy may also help produce feminine physical changes.
Many people take estrogen specifically to change the shape of their body. Taking estrogen can affect your weight. It can also shift where your body fat settles on your body. For example, if you have narrower hips and a round belly, some of your belly fat might move into your hips and upper thighs.
Hormone replacement therapy (HRT) can help combat the effects of ageing by replenishing the body's levels of hormones such as oestrogen and progesterone. Low hormone levels can cause some age-related changes, such as: Wrinkles. Thinning skin.
Another study using Premarin cream (0.625mg conjugated oestrogens) in women aged between 52 and 70 for 24 weeks did produce a significant improvement in fine wrinkles. A third study in women using HRT for at least 5 years also produced improvements in skin elasticity with less pronounced wrinkling.
“Estrogen-deficient skin can be characterized by dryness, wrinkling, thinness and itching. Interestingly, many women don't associate that with menopause, just with getting older,” says Dr. Berson.
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.
Many women also notice an increase in belly fat as they get older — even if they aren't gaining weight. This is likely due to a decreasing level of estrogen, which appears to influence where fat is distributed in the body.
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.
Natural aging
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 biggest changes typically occur when people are in their 40s and 50s, but they can begin as early as the mid-30s and continue into old age. Even when your muscles are in top working order, they contribute to facial aging with repetitive motions that etch lines in your skin.