Adult Acne

Dear Doctors: When I was in high school, I had beautiful skin. But now, I'm almost 40 and I've got the worst adult acne. What's up with that? I don't want to take antibiotics, but when the commercials talk about having a younger looking complexion, I don't think this is what they had in mind. Can you help?

Dr. Wesley Grootwassink:  Again, we're talking about estrogen here. It really is the "beauty hormone". Not to get too technical, but estrogen increases your sex hormone binding globule, which is a protein in your blood, which binds up the testosterone.

Dr. Shannon Klingman:  And it's the testosterone that causes the acne and facial hair.

WG: So as your estrogen declines, so does that protein. Which means you have "unbound testosterone", which can cause problems. A low-dose birth control pill would actually help.

SK:  Actually, birth control is the wrong name for those pills. They're more like "hormone regulating" pills.

WG:  Exactly. We prescribe them for perimenipausal systems, PMS, heavy periods, cramping...

SK:  And acne. We get referrals from dermatologists for patients to be started on a low-dose birth to control their acne.

WG:  I'm not a dermatologist, but in my opinion, sugar intake-like pop, juice and candy-- probably plays the key role when it comes to skin.

SK:  I learned something there. 

 

Adult Acne

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