Hormones Role In Acne

Do you know that without hormones, you wouldn't have acne? But then again without hormones, you won't be able to live as hormones control every function of our bodies, from regulating our metabolism to enable us to grow and produce off springs.

I bet you have heard of the hormone named androgens. Androgens is the hormones that give us a masculine feature. It is also the hormones that cause facial hair growth, increase of muscle mass and other sex characteristics in a male. By now, surely you would have the term testosterone. The androgen testosterone is the main male hormone. However, females also have androgens too, except that the quantity present in them are less than those in males and also these hormones are weaker.

The bad news about having androgens in your body is that these hormones can cause acne. Even though the primary female hormones, estrogen and progesterone, that control menstrual cycle, also have some effects on acne, their effects are far more weaker if compared to the androgens hormones.

All acne developments start with blocked sebum in our skin follicles. And the tendency of a follicle getting blocked is vastly increased if there is an increase in the production of sebum by the sebaceous glands in our skin. By now, you might be asking what androgens got to do with the sebum production. Well, androgens regulates the production of oil in the sebaceous glands.

Don't ever think that acne sufferers have more androgens compared with non acne sufferers. Actually it is their sensitiveness of their sebaceous glands to the hormones' message that leads to an excessive production of sebum on our skin.

As your face, chest, shoulders and back contain the highest amount of sebaceous glands, you will stand a very high chance of getting acne in these areas.

During your adolescence years, your androgens production will increase tremendously and make your sebaceous glands larger and producing more sebum. After the adolescence years are over, the amount of androgens will also decrease and with less androgens, you get less sebum and for most of us, acne will be a problem of the past in this period.

Of course, some of us, males and females inclusive, will continue to have acne well into our adulthood due to our bodies retain their androgens sensitivity. Yet, there are some of us who only get acne when we are adults.