Conventional Treatments

Conventional treatments don’t heal the root cause of your hormonal imbalances, but the following options may provide a quick solution for severe acne.  If you choose to go this route, please make sure to discuss any side effects with your dermatologist before beginning treatment:

Topical Cream

The most common topical cream prescribed for hormonal acne is Tretinoin — a generic form of Retin-A, also known as Isotretinoin and Accutane. It doesn’t address your hormones, but it can reduce breakouts and the appearance of acne scars over time. Side effects include redness, peeling, and sun-sensitive skin, to name a few.

Birth Control

Birth control pills contain hormones that artificially balance the circulation of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone in the body. Using oral contraceptives for hormonal acne is a bandaid at best and comes with risks like blood clots. (4)

If your hormones are unbalanced, there is a root cause. A functional medicine provider will help you find it so you can balance your hormones for good.

Antibiotics

Antibiotics such as types of tetracycline are commonly prescribed for acne. While they can help fight acne-causing bacteria, they don’t address the hormones driving hormonal acne breakouts.

Isotretinoin

A form of vitamin A, this medication is taken orally and is reserved for severe, cystic acne that hasn't responded to other treatments. It works to lower surface inflammation and the buildup of dead skin cells, while also decreasing sebum by shrinking your sebaceous glands.

Spironolactone

This medication, more frequently used for high blood pressure, helps to artificially reduce male hormone production in females to address hormonal acne.

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5 Signs Your Acne Is Hormonal

Chances are if you identify with one or more of these characteristics, you are dealing with hormonal acne:

1. You Are No Longer A Teenager

Unfortunately, acne doesn’t just go away once you graduate high school and turn 20. Don’t we wish!? If you are dealing with breakouts well into your 20s, it is most likely hormone-related, as hormonal changes should balance out after puberty.

Unless you are pregnant (which can also contribute to hormonal acne), blemishes that continue cropping up long after high school can be a sign that your hormones are unbalanced.

2. You Have Acne On Your Chin And Jawline

Location, location, location. Since a good portion of your oil glands are located around your chin and jawline, excess oil production caused by a hormone imbalance can clog your pores and lead to breakouts.

If the majority of your breakouts happen in these two places, it’s a telltale sign you are dealing with hormonal acne.

3. You Have Cysts

Hormonal acne tends to appear more often in the form of painful cysts. This type of acne occurs deep under your skin’s surface caused by a large accumulation of oil, leading to a more severe inflammatory response.

4. You Break Out When You Are Stressed

Every time you are stressed, your cortisol levels spike. When you are chronically stressed, cortisol levels remain high and in turn, can throw off all of your other hormones — progesterone, estrogen, and testosterone. Since all of these play a role in the formation of hormonal acne, it’s no surprise that you may be struggling with breakouts during a season of extreme stress.

5. You Break Out Around Your Menstrual Cycle

If you notice that your breakouts correlate with your menstrual cycle, that’s a sure sign you are dealing with hormonal acne due to the dip in sex hormones estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone.

What Not To Do

If you are dealing with hormonal acne, balancing hormone levels is a great first start to treating your breakouts. However, other factors can aggravate acne and make breakouts worse if you aren’t aware. Keep these triggers in mind when treating hormonal acne fast.

Don’t Stress

Since stress can spike cortisol levels and throw off the balance of other hormones involved in hormonal acne, it’s vital to keep stress levels under control. Breathwork, meditation, and other mindfulness practices are great tools for alleviating stress.

Don’t Sweat

Thank goodness for air conditioning! Humidity and sweat can result in your skin being the perfect sticky surface for dust and other bacteria to cling to, leading to clogged pores and increased breakouts. When you sweat for good reasons, like after a good workout, be sure to use a gentle cleanser immediately afterward.

Don’t Pick Your Pimples

Not only does picking or popping your acne cause permanent scars and dark spots, but it can also lead to further acne, as the force of popping pushes the bacteria deeper into your hair follicle and other surrounding areas of your skin.

Don’t Eat Junk Food

A poor diet filled with inflammatory foods can directly impact your hormone levels and cause imbalances in estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone. (5) Eating processed foods also contributes to chronic inflammation, leading to even more breakouts.

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