Managing Hormonal Acne: Causes & Natural Treatments
POV: Mount Fuji (and a few friends) pop up on your chin on the morning of a big social day. They’re big. They’re red. They HURT. S.O.S!!
If you experience hormonal acne then you’ll probably be searching for answers. Desperately. Let me guide you through the basics of hormonal acne and how to manage it.
Driven from within.
You may have tried all the chemical exfoliants, masks and acne treatments available but only see marginal results in your skin. You can have the most amazing skincare regime that celebrities would be jealous of and still find new pimples popping up on your jawline each month. Frustrating, right?! This is because hormonal acne is driven by an issue inside of your body, as opposed to just a bacterial problem on the surface of your skin.
The cause of hormonal acne.
Hormonal acne occurs when an excess of androgen hormones (like testosterone) affects receptors on the surface of the skin. These androgen hormones increase sebum (oil) production, clog the pores and cause deep, cystic acne that seems as if it’ll take MONTHS to heal (sometimes it literally does take months to heal 😵💫).
💡 Testosterone is not the only androgen hormone that can cause. There’s also DHT, DHEAs and androstenedione.
Why do I have elevated androgens?
First, find the cause of high androgen levels and treat that specifically. This is the best way to find long-term change in your skin. TREAT. THE. CAUSE. See my blog for 4 causes of hormonal acne (and natural treatments).
Secondly, and additionally, block those pesky elevated androgen hormones from causing acne on your skin!
How to control hormonal acne
Reduce all refined sugars in your diet. Unnecessary dietary sugar can stimulate the ovaries to produce more androgen hormones. Sugar itself is also inflammatory, which can cause more pain and redness on the skin.
Consider cutting out dairy. the A1 casein protein is particularly inflammatory to the skin which can increase IGF-1 and cause redness, longer healing times and painful bumps.
Drink spearmint or green tea daily. Research shows that these herbal teas reduce the conversion of testosterone to its active form, called DHT. Less active DHT means less of a potent effect on your skin.
Supplement with Zinc or reishi mushroom. These are shown to reduce the conversion of Testosterone to DHT.
Change your pillowcase every 3 days. Remember how I said that blemishes are caused by an increase in sebum on the skin? This sebum can host bacteria and will not help the skin.
Everyone is unique, so if you are struggling with hormonal acne then you’ll need to find the main driver of it and address it in an effective, long-term way. If you love all this information but want to learn how to put it into action or you want a personalised, specific plan to tackle the ROOT CAUSE of your hormonal acne, then book your consultation with me, your fertility naturopath, here.
I can't wait to work with you 😊
