Hormonal Acne Care and Treatments

What is hormonal acne, and what can be done about it? The fact is that almost all acne can be traced to some hormonal component, but acne tends to flare up when hormones are particularly active. The most glaring example of this is in teenagers, where the onset of puberty almost always brings an introduction to hormonal acne. However, any time there is a hormone imbalance, acne outbreaks can result. This effect is also noticeable in women either around their menstrual cycle or around the onset of menses, pregnancy or menopause.

How Does Hormonal Acne Work?

When certain hormones are activated in your body, it affects the action of certain glands and their secretions. One set of those glands are the sebaceous glands. The sebaceous glands produce oil which makes hair flow smoothly through the skin. This oil is called sebum, and unfortunately, it can build up in pores, “gluing” together dirt and excess skin cells, which are acted upon by acne causing bacteria, clogging the pore and causing pimples and other types of acne.

Dealing with Hormonal Acne

The acne that results from hormone changes is standard acne vulgaris and should respond to standard acne treatment. If you are a teen suffering from hormonal acne, you should pursue standard remedies, which will be discussed below. If you believe your acne is related to changing hormone levels due to your reproductive cycle, you may wish to consult your doctor about strategies for regulating estrogen levels. There are also antibiotics and other powerful medications that can be taken to deal with hormonal acne, but these options should usually only be considered in the case of severe acne, as they can have strong and unwanted side effects.

General Acne Care

The general approach to handling acne is twofold. First, make sure to keep skin clean and free of excess dead skin, oil or other products that can contribute to acne. Second, apply an acne bacteria killing solution like benzoyl peroxide. To handle the first part, you should wash with soap and water on a regular basis, but not excessively, as you will want to avoid drying out the skin. You should also consider a skin cleanser. Skin cleansers are designed to flush out unwanted skin debris while still being gentle on skin. Ideally, a good acne cleanser will include benzoyl peroxide.

For the second part, a complete acne control system that makes use of benzoyl peroxide will usually be your best bet.

Such a system will offer not only a cleanser, but several products that will maximize the power of benzoyl peroxide to reduce your current acne and help stop the spread of acne in the future. It should also offer protection for your skin from the sun’s damaging rays and a humectant to keep moisture in your skin. Hormonal acne, like most acne, will come and go on its own, but probably not according to a timetable that you would prefer. With the right treatment, however, you can control your acne, hormonal acne or otherwise.