The Harley Street Skin Clinic takes on the Menopause
Today is World Menopause Day and the renownedHarley Street Skin Clinichas launched a brand new treatment: theHormones to Balance Skin Programmeto help combat the misery of menopausal skin.
Dr Ameer Khan, the clinic co-founder, has written a few words of overview to highlight the complexity of addressing symptoms and how finely tuned effective treatment needs to be.
The menopause refers to that time in every woman's life when her periods stop and her ovaries lose their reproductive function. Usually, this occurs between the ages of 45 and 55. In the UK the average age is 51. In rare cases women may become menopausal in their 30's, or even younger. This is then known as a premature menopause, or premature ovarian insufficiency or failure.
The menopause reflects a flux in the balance of hormones, primarily the dramatic reduction of oestrogen in comparison to testosterone levels. This leads to the following changes:-
Signs and symptoms.
Coming to terms with the loss of reproductive function can have a psychological effect that may be very distressing, and require help from a GP.
Hot flushes are a common symptom, occurring in about 75% of women
Sleeplessness
Restless legs
Vaginal dryness and dyspareunia (painful intercourse)
Skin dryness and irritation
Skin sensitivity
Thinning out and weakness of the pelvic structures resulting in urinary frequency, Stress incontinence
Increased risk of urinary infections
Loss of bone volume
Osteoporosis
Metabolic changes leading to increased fat deposition around the abdomen
Physiological changes leading to insulin resistance, raised cholesterol and triglyceride levels combine to raise blood pressure and increased risk of heart disease and stroke.
Mental and psychological changes, including:
Loss of sex drive
Anxiousness
Low mood
Poor sleep
Depression.
Forgetfulness, with poor memory and recall.
All of which can lead to loss of confidence, and even social avoidance and isolation.
Here at the Skin Clinic we see the skin changes that menopause brings: oestrogens are an inhibitor of collagenase, the enzyme that breaks down collagen. This means that collagenase is more active. This, combined with reduced cellular activity, and reduced collagen production, leads to the accelerated appearance of ageing and thinning of the skin. A healthy oestrogen and testosterone balance before menopause helps regulate inflammation in the body. Following menopause the inflammatory factors increase. This leads to more aches and pains and, in the skin, increased sensitivity, and can even result in redness, flushing, broken blood vessels, and increased bruising as well as dryness and itchiness.
The hormonal imbalance in favour of testosterone results in loss of pinkness of the skin, especially lips, a coarsening of the skin and features, growth of facial hair, and acne, not to mention the thinning of scalp hair.
Your best way of combating these changes is to look at your diet, nutrition, exercise, and skin care. Blood tests can also show your doctor the hormonal imbalance, so they can correct it with hormone replacement therapy both medically and with natural bio-identical hormones.
Skincare that contains peptides and stem cell factors will acts like bio-identical, or bio-mimetic hormone replacement for your skin, keeping it healthy and youthful.
For further information please contact Melanie Faldo at melanie@kbapr.com