Hormonal Imbalance and Acne

It is has been an established belief that acne is mainly due to hormones, hormonal imbalance and hormonal changes. Basically, people easily inflicted with acne possess oily skin due to the high level of androgens and testosterone in the body. Additionally, androgens and estrogens are essential in keeping a healthy skin.

Acne usually appears during the teenage years up to the age of 24 for women. Generally, people get lesions on the face, the chin, cheeks and the forehead. However, a number of individuals are observed to have acne on the back or chest.

To further prove the point, the hormone androgens are known to trigger the onset of this skin disorder. It stimulates the enlargement of sebaceous glands, and so giving way to the production and secretion of the sebum, an oily substance found only in the skin. Studies show that there is not yet any concrete use for this substance except that they are typically synthesized by the cosmetics manufacturers as to adopt the skin to the natural condition given by the sebum.

Once the sebum is produced by the sebaceous glands, it gets accumulated in the hair follicles. It then goes up to the hair shafts until it reaches the external layers of the skin. During the process, dirt and bacteria mixes with sebum, plugging the follicles which provide breeding grounds for the bacteria, ultimately causing the acne.

Hormones basically regulate a number of bodily processes. A slight imbalance in the hormones may result to complications and may disrupt body processes; in contrast a good hormonal condition will even decrease the possibility of developing the skin disease.

At puberty, the adrenal gland secretes hormones such as dihydroepiandrosterone sulfate or DHEAS. Combined with testosterone, these hormones induce the sebaceous glands to produce extra sebum. This is the explanation why the skin disease is more prevalent among teens.

Moreover, male has greater presence of hormone testosterone. This results to more severe cases of acne breakout in boys. Acne-inflicted teenagers are much harder to treat because of the constant flux in the level of their hormones. Initially, their body may respond to a specific topical medication, but later on as their body develops, their body may experience hormonal shifts and cease on reacting to recent medications. To accommodate to the changes in the hormones of teenagers, doctors often keep on changing their prescriptions.

In adult acne in women, cases often appear a week before the menstruation. This condition generally affects those who are in their mid-twenties and thirties. Women are said never to outgrow this natural process, but this is only true to some special cases. Experts advise that women experiencing this should seek the help of their dermatologists and doctors as to determine the real cause of such conditions. Under certain situations, many acne breakouts in adult women may be due to hormonal imbalance.

It is considerably hard to treat acne patients at this point in time. Once the doctor successfully identified the relation of hormone to acne, he may normally prescribe certain medications for treatment. For women, he may provide birth control pills for these may suppress the androgens in the body. Corticosteroids may be prescribed for the more severe cases of acne; however it may aggravate the acne condition in a number of patients.