How to keep your skin healthy during menopause and smooth over fine lines and wrinkles as your estrogen level declines – doctors’ expert advice
- The body’s estrogen level drops during menopause. This has been linked to a drop in collagen that can leave your skin dry, dull and prone to wrinkling
- Doctors recommend hydrating and moisturising more, replacing skin irritants with soothing ingredients, and applying topicals containing synthetic estrogen
Hot flushes and mood swings aren’t the only side effects women experience during menopause. As hormone levels fluctuate, the facial skin can also undergo dramatic changes that can make this sensitive time even harder to endure.
“These changes are the result of decreasing estrogen levels, which in studies has been linked to the collagen content in the skin,” explains board-certified dermatologist Dr Rita Linkner.
“Estrogen aids in preventing ageing and has multiple functions, including hydrating and plumping the skin [and] keeping it supple and elastic,” she says.
Unbeknown to many women, estrogen levels can start to drop in your 20s or 30s, but it’s only when the transition into perimenopause – the years immediately preceding menopause – and finally menopause begins that these changes become noticeable.
According to a study published in Gynecological Endocrinology, women may experience a loss of up to 30 per cent of dermal collagen in the first five years of menopause and a 2.1 per cent decline thereafter. This can result in issues that can include skin dryness, dullness, thinning and wrinkling. Treating these can also be tricky, according to experts.