A question we are regularly asked on Instagram and by patients is “ How can you tell if your pimples are caused by hormones or by something else?”
And this is a really important question because the answer determines what the treatment is going to be.
So here are seven signs to look out for that confirm your acne is caused by hormones –
- Your acne is located around your chin, neck, back or chest. Acne in these areas is considered ‘hormonal’ because the skin in these areas is sensitive to hormones. To illustrate this think of young men. They grow hair and get pimples in these areas because they have a lot of the male hormone, testosterone. In women, if there’s too much testosterone or it’s out of balance with the female hormones then testosterone will cause acne in these areas.
- You took the birth control pill and it cleared up your acne. The birth control pill contains female hormones so if it cleared up your acne then it must have been hormonal.
- You took the birth control pill for another reason but after you stopped it you developed acne. The birth control pill contains synthetic female hormones which suppress your natural production of female hormones. So when you stop if you develop acne then it’s because you’ve been left with unbalanced hormones.
- You changed your diet and removed sugar, dairy, gluten and processed foods but your acne didn’t improve. When you have hormonal acne this makes a lot of sense because it confirms your acne is caused by something internal, not by your diet!
- You have tried every type of skin care for acne-prone skin under the sun but none worked. When you have a hormonal imbalance, topical treatments are only going to get you so far because they don’t rebalance hormones!
- You’ve tried androgen blocking supplements such as DIM or Saw Palmetto and these helped a bit. These supplements stop androgens from getting into your cells so if these have worked for you in the past then it shows your acne is hormonal!
- You tried Accutane/Roaccutane and it either didn’t help or your acne returned once you stopped. Accutane and Roaccutane work by turning off oil production not by rebalancing your hormones.
So if your acne is due to unbalanced hormones then once you stop these medications your acne hormone imbalance remains and your acne returns.
Now if any of these sound familiar to you then we can help you because we are the hormonal acne specialists?
Your acne might be period related also. Read our Guide “How To Treat Period Pimples And Breakouts” for more info around this.
We have helped over 1000 women fix their hormonal acne naturally. We get to the root cause of the problem by testing your hormones and then creating an individualised supplement program.
To get our help like Brittany (see picture) and YouTube and Insta influencer Sarah, from Sarah’s Day, click here.
