IS YOUR HORMONAL ACNE HERE TO STAY?
Yes, to a certain extent.
“Hormonal factors are recognised as one of the triggers for all types of acne,”
said Dr Ho. “So females may struggle with hormonal acne for as long as the contributing hormonal influences persists.”
While both men and women can develop adult-onset acne, women are more prone to it as we experience hormonal fluctuations throughout our adult life: During menstruation, pregnancy or menopause, when using birth control pills, or being on fertility treatments, said Dr Lee.
Conversely, just as our hormones can trigger acne, they can also help resolve the condition spontaneously, as your hormone levels stabilise naturally, added Dr Ho.
Does it mean that if you had bad acne as a teenager, that you will have bad hormonal acne into menopause?
Dr Ho said that while in theory, it might be possible that hormonal acne can occur due to the relative increase in androgens during the teenage and menopause years, there are no studies that make the link between teenage and hormonal acne.
That said, if the cause of acne is due to a condition like PCOS, which was discovered in your teenage years but left untreated, it may persist through adulthood, said Dr Ho.
HORMONAL ACNE: A PRECURSOR TO MENOPAUSE?
While hormonal fluctuations occur regularly, it seems to become more prominent in our late thirties to early forties. In fact, many of my friends have noticed a surge in acne breakouts during this period.
