Hormone Inbalance and Acne

Acne usually appears during the teenage years and all the way to the age of 24 for women. Typically, people get lesions on the face, the chin, cheeks and the forehead. Too add, quite a number of people grow acne on the back or chest. (More acne facts here).

To be sure, androgens have been know to induce the onset of this skin disorder. They stimulate the enlargement of sebaceous glands, and thus lead to the production and secretion of the sebum, an oily substance found in the skin.

Upon production of sebum by the sebaceous glands, it gathers in the hair follicles. It then moves up to the hair shafts until it reaches the external layers of the skin. It is during the process that dirt and bacteria mixes with sebum and plugs the follicles thus providing fertile grounds for the development of bacteria. Ultimately this causes acne.

Hormones are a good thing. Basically, they manage a number of bodily processes. A minimal instability in the hormones might result in complications and could disrupt these processes; in contrast a good hormonal condition will even minimize the probability of developing the skin disease.

By the age of puberty, the adrenal gland secretes hormones such as dihydroepiandrosterone sulfate or DHEAS. Mixed with testosterone, these hormones induce the sebaceous glands to make additional sebum. This is the reason why acne is more common among adolescents.

Moreover, males naturally produce more testosterone. This results in more severe cases of acne breakouts in boys. Acne-inflicted teens are much more harder to treat because of the constant flux of their hormones. Initially, their body will probably respond to a specific topical treatment, but later as they develop, their body may undergo hormonal shifts and finish responding to the medications. To compensate for the changes, physicians will often vary their prescriptions.

In women, acne breakouts often pop up a week prior to their menstruation. Typically affects women who are in their mid-twenties and thirties. It is believed that women do not outgrow this. However, this is true only in a bit of cases. Experts advise women experiencing this to seek the help of their skin doctor* or doctor to find out the underlying cause of their condition. In certain cases, many acne breakouts in adult women may be the result of a hormonal unbalance.

It is a bit hard to treat acne sufferers at this point in time. Once the doctor properly identifies the relation of hormone to acne, he or she may prescribe some medications for treatment. For women, he or she may provide birth control pills as they can suppress the production of androgens in the body. For more grievous cases of acne, corticosteroids may be prescribed. However, they have been know to aggravate the condition in a number of patients.

Learn more about acne treatments.