It has been said that menopause starts the day you get your first menstrual cycle. I don’t know if that’s a hopeful comment or a depressing one, but any way you slice it a woman will have periods for about 30 to 40 years after they first begin, and then they’ll stop. There is still a great deal of research that needs to be done on all the issues surrounding perimenopause (referring to the symptoms taking place in the years before the onset of menopause as estrogen production begins to fall off), menopause (the actual cessation of the menstrual cycle), and postmenopause (the years after your period has stopped). What is known for certain is that when the body has less estrogen available changes in the appearance of skin, hair, bone, and other physical manifestations begin to take place.
Perimenopause and menopause are brought about by the body’s changes in hormone production. The irksome side effects of menopause are caused primarily by the imbalance between a woman’s female hormones (estrogen and progesterone, which become depleted) and her male hormones (like androgens such as testosterone). Because the male hormones decline more slowly, there are proportionately more of them, so they have a stronger impact. This imbalance, for example, can affect hair growth.
When estrogen levels decrease, many women experience an increase in androgen production, resulting in varying amounts of dark hair growth on the face—particularly around the chin and moustache area above the lip. Ironically, while the hair on your face may get darker, the hair on your head will have reduced growth and you may experience some balding; even the individual hairs actually become smaller in diameter.
The diminishing levels and eventual loss of estrogen and progesterone also affect skin negatively. Aside from experiencing problems caused by sun damage, perimenopausal and menopausal women will have thinner, looser, and less elastic skin, reduced production of collagen, cessation of oil gland function, impeded wound healing, and dry skin. Other parts of the body are also influenced by the diminishing amount of female hormones; the vaginal lining becomes thin and can burn and itch, and the breasts’ mammary tissue is replaced with more fat tissue, which can cause sagging.
To make matters even more frustrating, perimenopause and menopause can also bring hot flashes, flushes, night sweats and/or cold flashes, a clammy feeling, intermittent rapid heartbeat, irritability, mood swings, trouble sleeping, heavier periods, flooding, loss of libido, itchy skin, and more brittle nails, just to name a few.
As complex and multifaceted as this all sounds, there are actually some fairly exciting options for addressing the side effects of perimenopause and menopause, and these include both alternative herbal options and conventional Western medical choices. For the purpose of this section I’m going to highlight a few of the current options as they affect skin, but it is also important to find a doctor or medical expert who is practiced and proficient on the complexities of this topic.
Warning: Please avoid the Web sites, companies, alternative health practitioners, or physicians who do not offer a balanced approach to this issue. Medical options are not evil or dangerous, as many alternative-based professionals or companies assert, and herbal alternatives are not as ineffective or as unproven as many medical doctors assert. Both approaches play a role in mitigating some of the more annoying (as well as intolerable) symptoms of perimenopause and menopause, and both have their pitfalls.
(Sources: Journal of the European Menopause and Andropause Society, November 2008, pages 227-232, and July 2001, pages 43-55; Epidemiology Biomarkers & Prevention 16, December 2007, pages 2524-2525; Journal ofBiomaterials and Science Polymer Edition, 2008; volume 19, issue 8, pages 1097-1099; Endocrine Pathophysiology, author C. B. Niewoehner, published by Hayes Barton Press, 2004; and Journal of Clinical Dermatology, 2001, volume 2, issue 3, pages 143-150.)