First Step in Fighting Hormonal Acne
Just because hormones cause your acne does not mean you need a doctor’s prescription right away. A typical acne-treatment routine can help clear cyclical acne. When the body releases the male sex hormone, androgen, the sebaceous glands may react by releasing more oils. Sweating can also cause the pores to release oils. So showering, especially after workouts and rigorous activity, can help clean the oils from skin and prevent swelling and inflammation in the form of pimples.
A study by the Urban Life Research Institute in Tokyo showed that taking a shower in the morning “removes and controls sebum.” Several hours after taking a shower, subjects had significantly lower levels of sebum compared to subjects who did not shower.
Anticipate Hormonal Acne Breakouts
Keeping on top of your skin care routine is crucial to treating acne and preventing future breakouts. The good news about hormonal acne is that you can sometimes predict when you’ll have outbreaks. For women, acne typically appears a week or so before menstruation. For men, pimples can be precipitated by stress and sweating.
Non-Prescription Medications for Hormone-Related Acne
Washing your face with a soap containing salicylic acid slows the shedding of cells inside the pores. It also helps unclog pores. Over-the-counter acne medications like sulfur and resorcinol work by drying skin and breaking down blackheads and whiteheads. Resorcinol is slightly less drying than sulfur. Benzoyl peroxide is one of the most effective nonprescription acne medications as it helps kill the bacteria that cause acne. Because your acne is a result of the sebaceous glands' reaction to hormones, you may not get results with this medication.
With hormonal acne, it’s important to pre-treat because blemishes, in their early stages, are not visible.
Treating Women with Cyclical Acne
Three oral contraceptives have been approved for use in treating acne including ethinyl estradiol and norgestimate (sold as Ortho Tri-Cyclen), ethinyl estradiol and norethindrone (Estrostep), and ethinyl estradiol and drospirenone (Yaz). It takes a few weeks before the oral contraceptive start having an impact on your complexion.
If you're planning to get pregnant, it's not advisable to take an oral contraceptive. Talk to your doctor about taking an antibiotic used to treat acne.
Treating Men with Hormonal Pimples
Men cannot take oral contraceptives for treating acne. Instead, your doctor can prescribe Adapalene (brand name Differin) to slow your pores from shedding cells. Isotretinoin (Accutane) is a strong medication that reduces the oils produced by the sebaceous glands. Accutane is not safe for women who are planning to get pregnant.
Predict Acne Breakouts
The upside to hormone-induced acne is that you can anticipate it, you can predict where it will appear and how badly your skin will be affected. Once you've found a routine that work for your unique issues, you should be able to minimize and control future breakouts.
Sources:
AcneTalks.com *"A Glance at the Adult Acne Statistics" (accessed on February 24, 2010)
SkinCarePhysicians.com *"Prescription Medications for Treating Acne" (accessed on February 24, 2010)
Shannon Marks - Shannon Marks is a writer living in Austin, Texas. She spent most of the 90s and 2000's living in New York City where she was an editor at ...
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