Natural Remedy For Adult Acne
Although acne affects us mainly when we are teenagers, many people get acne when they are adults, specially women and sometimes, it can continue from the teenage years into adulthood. Many also get acne for a second time after having suffered through it as teenagers and being acne-free for years. The most common times that adults get acne is during pregnancy and menopause, when the hormones are acting up.
Adult acne is not caused by elevated androgen levels but rather shows a higher response to normal androgen and progesterone levels. Some foods, performance enhancing drugs and oral contraceptives that contain hormones or that have similar effects as androgen may also cause adult acne.
The menstrual cycle is a common time for adult acne to present itself and last from a few days to a month or more. Estrogen actually acts to prevent acne but during the week before you have your period, estrogen levels fall and progesterone levels rise, causing the sebaceous glands to produce more oil. This is when pimples tend to appear most of the time but they can also appear apparently at random.
Pregnancy is a time when a lot is going on with your hormones and estrogen and progesterone levels are getting elevated and acne is common and quite normal at this time. In fact, many women get acne for the first time when they get pregnant and the worst levels of acne usually occur during the first three months of pregnancy. The only thing to do is wait it out and let it go away on its own. Care should be taken with medications as these may be passed on to the baby. Certain drugs are known to cause birth defects.
Some women don’t outgrow their acne even through menopause and this is again because of hormonal activity that causes estrogen to go down and testosterone to become more dominant. Although acne caused by hormonal activity starts in your 20s, it can stay with women into their 40s and well beyond till well after menopause because of this.
Treatments can be effective in keeping adult acne at bay. Androgen receptor blockers contained in oral contraceptives reduce the male androgen hormone can be effective but should be used with caution as there are many side effects. For women who have sever acne, one option is the drug Accutane but here again, extreme care is called for because of the potentially serious side effects. It should not be used by women who are pregnant.
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