Everyone knows that teenagers and adolescents are most likely to get acne. “It’s just part of the territory” or “par for the course”—we’ve accepted that acne is part of puberty. But how much do you know about the relationship between acne and hormones? Let’s look at some of the most basic connections.
Here is an overview.
Hormones and Glands When puberty hits (and really not just puberty, but menstruation or any number of transitional times for the body), the levels of many hormones in the body change.
This is because the transition stimulates various glands in new ways, different from how they were acting before the transition occurred.Glands, then, are what send the body signals for how to behave, in particular, how much oil to produce. In the case of puberty, the body starts producing more androgen, a hormone that stimulates the sebaceous glands.
Sebaceous glands rest below the skin and control how much oil (or sebum) is produced. This oil is the facial oil or body oil that we associate with clogged pores, and which has a negative impact on
acne. The oil not only clogs pores, but also feeds skin bacteria (which can cause infection) and helps spread bacteria into the pores.
The result is a clogged and infected pore, which turns pink or red, fills, and swells above the skin.
In some cases, the swelling occurs below the skin, which is known as cystic acne and is generally worse than regular acne. Reasons for Hormone Changes While physical transition
(puberty, menstruation, etc.) is a major trigger for hormonal changes, and the most common, it is not the only cause of this type of change in body function.
Stress is another major cause, and the second leading cause of increased oil production that leads to acne. When the body becomes stressed, it goes into overdrive mode, so to speak, and starts doing things that it would not normally otherwise do. For example, if your hands get sweaty when you are nervous, this is because your body’s response to your stress is to increase the amount of moisture released from those areas of our skin.
The sebaceous glands can also be stimulated by stress. If you are not sleeping enough and under a lot of pressure (such as finals for college, working two jobs, or a time of emotional/psychological stress), your body is not getting the rest it needs and may very well produce hormones as a result. Try to get more sleep and maintain overall wellness (both mental and physical health) to minimize the impact of stress on your acne.
