Youthful Skin with Bioidentical Hormone Therapy

Bio-Identical Hormones make you look younger

So how much control do you have over how quickly your face ages? You know, sagging cheeks, wrinkles and frown lines? The surprising answer is that you have more control over facial aging than you think. Factors such as divorce, smoking, and the use of anti-depressants dramatically accelerate facial aging. So what is beneficial in making women’s faces look more youthful? Hormone replacement therapy. Yes , a Case Western Plastic surgery study found that hormone replacement therapy made a big difference by reducing the aging process.

Aging, especially in the skin seems to accelerate after menopause in women. Aging faster with wrinkles spreading rapidly, skin quickly loses elasticity and smoothness are common features in postmenopausal women not receiving hormone replacement therapy. The basis for the use of topical estrogen therapy stems from the documented evidence of reducing diseases of aging, including heart disease, osteoporosis and cancer but also in the estrogen depleted chronological aging of our skin. To a large degree the features of aging skin seem to result from the decline in estrogen levels after the menopause. Of all hormones that decline with age, estrogens have the most dramatic effect on the skin. Estrogens are known to protect women from heart disease, and now it seems that they also slow down skin aging. Several studies indicate that postmenopausal women on estrogen replacement therapy develop less wrinkles and have better skin texture and elasticity than those not taking estrogens.
Studies in postmenopausal women have demonstrated significant decrease skin thickness with marked thinning of the epidermis (outer skin layer), loss of critical collagen resulting in deterioration of skin structures, deepening of wrinkles and widening of skin pores. The more rapid the collagen loss, which occurs in the first two years after menopause, the more dramatic the appearance of aging in these women. Studies have shown up to a 30 % loss of skin collagen immediately after menopause and the loss continues if there is no estrogen replacement received. This British Medical Journal study amazingly showed that women who then received topical estrogen therapy experienced an increase in skin collagen content 48 % higher than those who did not received hormone replacement therapy. Proper bioidentical hormone replacement with estrogen, progesterone and testosterone replacement is a complex decision requiring the analysis of one's medical history and a physician who has the knowledge to expertly balance a women’s hormones.
Women after menopause have been shown to have improved skin benefits using estrogen topical preparations. A University of Vienna study in postmenopausal women demonstrated a marked improvement in skin elasticity and firmness after only six months of therapy; wrinkle depth and pore size decreased by over sixty percent in both estradiol and estriol groups. Skin moisture and collagen synthesis increased significantly.
I believe that estrogen creams could also improve the signs of aging in premenopausal women as well although further studies are needed to confirm that. The Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery article showed that hormone replacement therapy dramatically reduced the appearance of facial aging in women. So not only does hormone replacement reduce your risk of heart disease, cancer , and osteoporosis, but it also makes you look younger. So now you have European and American studies that support the benefits of Hormone Replacement therapy on the skin. The benefits of Hormone replacement therapy on the heart, bones, memory and cancer are being clearly documented in the medical literature. So, it’s about time we took the fear out of HRT and provide women with a safe and healthy approach to wellness. Now that sounds like a great idea to me.
Robert Carlson, MD, FACS