The results of hormone therapy to fight against Adult-Onset Acne

Research presented at the American Academy of Dermatology meeting this summer how the hormone can be used to treat acne in women aged 20 years. Although acne has traditionally been considered a disease of teenagers, it is also very common among adult women. Studies show that acne affects more than 50% of women between the ages of 20-29 and over 25% of women between ages 40-49 *. In fact, after 20 years, women are much more likely to report having acne than men.

Although there is no cure for acne, dermatologists find that hormonal therapies may help some women to combat the bothersome acne that occurs in adulthood. At the American Academy of Dermatology's Summer Academy Meeting 2009 in Boston, dermatologist Bethanee J. Schlosser, MD, PhD, FAAD, assistant professor of dermatology and director of Skin Women's Health Program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, considered the most widely used hormonal therapies available for women with acne and the best candidates for such treatment. Factors that contribute to the formation of acne include excess production of oil glands, skin inflammation, abnormal maturation of skin cells lining the hair follicle and an increase in the number of acne causing bacteria Propionibacterium acnes. However, hormones also influence the production of oil glands and maturation of skin cells, thus contributing to the formation of acne lesions. For example, when androgens (male hormones present in men and women) overstimulate the sebaceous glands and hair follicles in the skin, hormonal acne eruptions may occur.

"Women over the age of 20 May feel a worsening of their acne or a change in the nature of their acne. This may include increased damage on the lower third of the face (including the jaw line and upper neck), premenstrual flares, and resistance to oral antibiotics and other traditional acne treatments "said Dr. Schlosser." For these women, hormone therapy in the form of combination oral contraceptives and / or antiandrogen drugs such as spironolactone, flutamide and dutasteride, which work by reducing the activity of the hormone male testosterone, may provide significant benefit. "