should you be applying an estrogen cream to your face I seen this question a lot here on YouTube let's get into it now when it comes to skin aging the visible signs of skin aging without a doubt without question the main contributing factor to premature skin aging is cumulative lifetime unprotected sun exposure ultraviolet radiation from the Sun damages the collagen in the deeper layers of our skin leading to coarse wrinkles it also damages the elastin leading to loss of elasticity we get rough dry skin texture sess model hyperpigmentation but there are other things of course
that contribute to skin aging genetics smoking drinking alcohol in excess having a poor diet but for women we definitely have to have a conversation about the role of estrogen hormones in the visible signs of skin aging during perimenopause and then menopause you have a decline in estrogen estrogen is a hormone binds to receptors to influence how different genes and different cells are expressed resulting in different outcomes what you see when estrogen levels decline in terms of the skin is you start to get a decline in collagen as a matter of fact uh within the first
5 years of going through menopause a woman gets um upwards of 30% loss in collagen in the skin so you can start to see more obvious wrinkles estrogen is also really important for the production of things down the deeper layers of the skin that like hold on to water and keep the skin hydrated so the skin becomes a lot less firm you get a loss of elasticity because you get a decline in both collagen and elastin then in the epidermis you have a decline in the Skin's ability to act as a barrier you get a
decline in natural moisturizing Factor so the water content stratum corium drops with that the um epidermis the turnover the epidermis and the normal exfoliation of the epidermis slows down because the enzymes there they require that good water content to operate efficiently that water content is is not able to be teed up as easily as readily as it once was due to decline in barrier function and natural moisturizing factors along with that you also have problems with uh slower wound healing because your epidermis the top part of your skin it thins in the epidermis you have
a system of antioxidants that helps to W off oxidative stress that would prematurely damage your skin damage proteins DNA lipids in the skin well as the epidermis thins you get a drop off a decline in antioxidant function so your skin systems are less able to fight off free radicals with menopause many women start to experience dry skin skin fragility and because of the impaired barrier function they're losing more water but also things that are irritating get into the skin more readily it's not uncommon for a lot of women to not only experience dry skin with
menopause maybe even for the first time like you may have been someone who had oily skin your entire life well with that drop of estrogen and um the changes in hormone profiles you're losing that stimulus for even seum production so you may be like oh my gosh why are my skincare products being you know now so irritating well a couple of factors you have drier skin and the barrier is impaired things get in more readily are more irritating now beyond the skin uh menopause is associated with a lot of very uncomfortable side effects depending on
the individual of course so here in you have hormone replacement therapy to address some of the symptoms of menopause as it relates to changes in hormones these are medications that um are given systemically meaning to to have hormones throughout the whole body now with that addresses symptoms like hot flashes but we also see that women start to get some improvement in their skin on hormone replacement therapy uh better collagen firmer skin less dry skin smoother skin Improvement in skin Clarity however you know hormone replacement therapy is not right for all women hormones can influence the
lining of your uterus also can stimulate the breast tissue to proliferate to divide and if you have a history of breast cancer may not be right for you hormones may impact your cardiovascular system and hormone replacement therapy and may also of course um you know put you at risk for blood cloths and things of that store so not a one-sized fits all by any means one of the nice things about Dermatology as a specialty is not only can we see things in real time in a sense on the skin as they are happening um but
also a lot of our treatments can just be applied directly to the skin and because they're applied directly to the skin in many cases that really really cuts down on systemic meaning total body exposure to the medication you're just putting it in the skin you are skin targeting for the most part now when it comes to the skin of course it's a barrier so you're you're always wondering like well if I put this on my skin is it really going to get in and do anything turns out um you know estrogens and topicals like creams
gels even the transdermal patches which a patch you put on your skin yes they definitely can get in the skin and bind to those receptors well they then go to work the The receptors activated can go to work to influence the expression of proteins and things and different cells in your skin and guess what that culminates in restoration of some of the things that originally the estrogens were doing for you before you went through menopause you know it's replacing it just there in the skin so you see things with topical estrogen that might be desirable
for you not just cosmetically but functionally as well um the topical estrogens they can improve collagen production and elastin production in the deeper layers of the skin so you get lessening of deep wrinkles you get an improvement in Fine Lines you get an improvement in skin firmness elasticity suppleness and importantly estrogens can help in improving the formation of healthy blood vessels estrogen as it turns out plays it a role in in the formation of the healthy blood vessels so not only might you have a depletion of healthy blood vessels from sun exposure but you also
lose the beneficial property of estrogen in growing those healthy blood vessels so applying it to the skin you can start to see Improvement in the vasculature in the skin no longer so much just these dilated sort of useless dysfunctional blood vessels but you know effic you know good blood vessels for bringing in growth factors and nutrient nutrients necessary for skin health and for efficient healing which is another thing topical estrogens have been shown to improve wound healing times and uh you know better wound healing rates in general so that is also a a real you
know beneficial thing that needs to be examined further in the setting of what we call estrogen deficient skin not only that but topical estrogen can improve the hyaluronic acid content in the dermis so you get better water holding ability in the deeper layers you also get Improvement in the elastin in the deeper layers of the skin not only just the production of it but how it's oriented patients with estrogen deficient skin when they start using a topical estrogen they do get an improvement in water binding capacity of Skin's outermost layer the stratum corium so as
a result of that you know the natural turnover processes they go a lot smoother and as they go smoother well the skin gets smoother more hydrated also they get an improvement not only in the water binding ability of the stratum corneum but in overall barrier function so transepidermal water loss goes down dryness improves itch improves the um symptoms of sensitivity May improve so a lot of benefits to be had there and anytime you have an improvement in moisture retention whether it be just in Skin's outermost layer the stratum corneum but here in the case of
topical estrogen it's not just there where the moisture is getting better it's also getting better down in the deeper layers of the skin so you get firmer skin but as everything is getting plumped up and the space is being filled again with volume that your body is making well you also get a visible diminishment in the appearance of pores most women are going to spend a very large chunk of their lifetime postmenopausal with estrogen deficient skin uh so addressing these things is really important you might be wondering well shoot why not just SLO every woman
who's going through menopause and you know with menopause why not just SLO them all in estrogen cream um so so what are the side effects what are the what are the negatives then of of using an estrogen cream well first of all the studies that we have on using it and the experience that we have it's kind of variable all the studies they look at specific things we can get into the limitations in a moment but I would say as far as the side effect profile of a topical estrogen on the skin it's actually pretty
good um you know people don't really have side effects per se uh you know even really much in the way of like irritation of course anything you put on your skin can be irritating but by and large is pretty well tolerated cream gel um there are there are some instances where women do develop with a patch um redness around the around the patch Sometimes women develop brast tenderness with with the patch however there is there is concern you know estrogen it it does get in the skin even though um you know in theory it should
just you know pretty much be in the skin if you're applying it to the skin especially if a large surface area you really have to start to question well this is going to you know get absorbed into the body to some extent and the some evidence that that we have to suggest this is the fact that in some of the studies when women are applying estrogen to say they're forearm they're applying an estrogen cream they're you know looking at the forearm and it's like like wow you know the pigment there looks better the Skin's firmer
the collagen there is better but then they look at their cheek where they're not applying the cream and they're seeing those changes there too so it suggests that yeah it could be getting absorbed into the body and and you know having because it's having effects outside of where the cream is being applied some researchers have even you know monitored hormone levels to see is it is this actually getting in and changing a woman's hormone levels around at all they've monitored uh what's called follicle stimulating hormone prolactin another hormone that can be influenced um as well
as estrad showed no changes um but you know research studies only are snapshots in time of what exactly they're looking at so may not paint the full picture the reason that's concerning is because well if it's getting absorbed in the body those same adverse health effects that are of concern for some people with hormone replacement therapy they're going to be a concern here I really hesitate to encourage anyone to do this without talking to their doctor first um and whether or not it's going to be right for you they do have their limitations these studies
as you all you know we don't the studies themselves are not huge um in each study while we have multiple studies looking at the effects of topical estrogen on the skin each study uses either a different type of topical estrogen they look for a different period of time or you know they're looking at different outcomes some studies are looking at collagen other studies they're talking to the patients and saying you you know is your skin still dry they're looking for dry skin um other studies they're looking at wound healing so different outcomes right and they're
also looking at different body side locations some of these studies women are putting it on the forearm some they're putting it on some protected skin of the hip others they're putting it on the buttocks face um you know so each of these studies they're looking at a different body sight and the reason that matters is the skin at different body sites it varies a lot um and also some of these studies include another hormone called progesterone which could you know help to counterbalance any potential risk of U uterine lining um growth uh which would be
a concern of the absorption of of the hormones from the cream so that's those are topical estrogens estriol estradiol 17 beta esterol we have some Alternatives though that I I think are worth mentioning here besides you know an estrogen cream which would require prescription you can't just walk into like Walgreens and get those first you have me methyl estradi propanoate or MEAP MEAP is found specifically in the product line emel I reviewed this a few years in contrast to estrogen me is not a hormone but it does bind to estrogen receptors in the skin when
applied to the skin and say cream or a serum like this brand has or an eye cream around the eyes um it binds to estrogen receptors on the surface of cells in the skin like the fiber blast to um you know in theory because this is a cosmetic not a drug uh encourage enourage them to produce collagen uh so having the same effects but in contrast to a topical estrogen estradiol estriol uh map is uh inactivated uh and so it's not absorbed into the body so it removes some of the concerns about potential systemic side
effects so if you recall back to my video reviewing emel a few years ago if you watch it if not you know check it out pretty much say the same thing uh today but I will highlight a few points first of all it did show you know it is promising a lot of people do see Improvement uh in Fine Lines wrinkles skin texture skin quality some of the visible signs of skin aging that are you know brought on an accelerated rate with menopause do seem to improve with those products with consistent use and it's again
one of those things like pretty much anything in skincare you have to continue using it in order to maintain those results however you know you've got to also look at what else those formulas have they also you know the cream and I think the serum for example they have nice cinamon which you know can have some anti-aging benefits for improving the visible signs of skin aging it's an antioxidant they also have I think vitamin c e fuic acid they have peptides which can improve moisture content they also have uh one of the products has retinol
in it which we know you know can potentially improve collagen as well so to what extent the outcomes people get with mipel which has MEAP to what extent those outcomes are solely or if at all related to MEAP the ingredient is hard to say it's definitely worth pointing out that unknown because those products from emel are pretty expensive moving along you also have phytoestrogens in skincare products so phytoestrogens are structurally related to estrogens but they're um not quite the same thing and they um are a little bit more selective in terms of The receptors they
bind kind of think of them as a weaker estrogen if you will so probably one of the more well-studied phytoestrogens for uh improving the signs of skin Aging in estrogen deficient skin is going to be uh soy isoflavone specifically genistin genestin applied topically it has been shown to uh improve collagen as well as elastin it's been shown to improve the number of collagen and elastin fibers in the dermis when they you know go in and look under microscope on biopsy and it's also been shown to improve uh the appearance of wrinkles to increase hyaluronic acid
levels in estrog deficient skin so many of the same beneficial outcomes that you would be seeking from a topical estrogen phytoestrogens namely soy isoflavone genestin H you know they've been shown to do that to a lesser extent honestly like it's not as striking as the topical estrogens but it's not you know as concerning for these potential systemic effects into the body because they're a lot weaker and you know they're a little bit more selective in terms of the types of estrogen receptors that they bind so uh genin it's a soy isop flavone but it's found
in fava beans it's found in lupini beans the other thing I will say about soy isoflavones is they're also antioxidants which you know is good uh outside of the potential for them to have effects on the estrogen receptor just the fact that they're antioxidant you know they may depending on to what extent they are formulated correctly to get into the skin they may offset some of the you know negative effects of environmental exposures generating free radicals and as I said earlier you know with um menopause you also do have menopause and aging skin in general
you start to have a decline in your Skin's own antioxidant system so that's another you know potential perk of using something like genesin or soy isoflavones in your skin care so you know you can find Brands out there in the drugstore um that have soy isoflavones I know number seven has a whole menopause line that has so soy isoflavones I've never used those products I can't speak to you how good they are but um Paul is Choice also has a phytoestrogen elasticity renewal body treatment with genestin and some other compounds from soy that you know
are antioxidants anti-inflammatory and then of course you know you also have of course retinol or retin aldhy those are forms of topical vitamin A that you can um buy in the drugstore without a prescription or you know you have so those are cosmetic ingredients but you also have the topical vitamin A retinoids if you will like uh tretinoin which is prescription only Tartine prescription only altreno prescription only and then over the counter acne treatment adapalene so those things definitely um can improve collagen can improve elasticity in the skin with ongoing use you can get an
improvement in wrinkles as well as modeled hyperpigmentation uh an improvement in how the blood vessels are oriented in the skin uh lots of benefits to be had with a topical retinoid as a matter of fact check out my video on five perks of using adap besides acne um I go into a lot of this there but you know that's that's one to really ask yourself like you know if you're thinking about this but you're already using a retinol and you're protecting your skin from the Sun you're really doing the most evidence-based thing you can do
um if you're interested in using a topical estrogen like a prescription topical estrogen definitely talk to your doctor um before you know going on one of these like direct to Consumer sites and getting one uh cuz you want to make sure that it's the right thing for you like I said there are a lot of unknowns with it and it's not going to be the right thing for everyone um anyways guys that's what I wanted to say about using an estrogen cream to improve the signs of skin aging I hope this video was informative helpful
answered your questions um and if you guys enjoyed it give it a thumbs up share it with your friends and as always don't forget sunscreen And subscribe I'll talk to you guys tomorrow [Music] bye [Music]
