Pigmentation and hormones: different types of spots and their characteristics

Pigmented spots on the face lead women to a cosmetology clinic almost more often than the desire to undergo anti-aging procedures. This is not surprising, since the appearance of dark areas on the skin is not only disturbing, but also upsets by its unaesthetic quality.

Very often, after examinations prescribed by a doctor, it turns out that pigmentation on the face appeared against the background of a hormonal imbalance. How pigmentation and hormones are related, I tried to find out estet-portal.com.

• pigmentation and hormones - what is the relationship
• pigmentation and hormones: different types of manifestation spots and their characteristics

Pigmentation and hormones – what is the relationship

As you know, age spots are a concentration in large quantities of melanin pigment.  The production of this pigment – a kind of adaptive, protective mechanism, since melanin acts as an optical filter that can absorb UV radiation.

Special melanocyte cells located in the basal layer of the skin are responsible for pigment synthesis. Melanocytes are connected with keratinocytes by their receptors.

Under the influence of ultraviolet rays   on keratinocytes, peripheral receptors are irritated and transmit impulses to the hypothalamus and adenohypophysis, as a result, melanin-stimulating hormones begin to be synthesized and enter the bloodstream. Under their influence, the production and transport of pigment is activated in melanocytes.

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However, we should not forget that the skin – hormone-dependent organ, and the work of skin cells, including melanocytes, is influenced by sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone). In addition, the synthesis of melanin is also controlled by such pituitary hormones as thyroid-stimulating, somatotropic, adrenocorticotropic. 

All of these hormones, under the influence of ultraviolet light, trigger a cascade reaction leading to skin pigmentation.

 

 

This also explains the fact that the risk of age spots is significantly increased when taking hormonal contraceptives, a number of medications, and even in various phases of a woman's ovulatory cycle, not to mention pregnancy or menopause.

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In addition, age spots appear against the background of severe stress, neuropsychiatric disorders, a number of endocrine diseases.

Pigmentation and hormones: different types of spots and their characteristics

1. Melasma – uneven brown spots with irregular outlines, which can appear against the background of a pituitary tumor, as well as during pregnancy. Their occurrence is explained by fluctuations in the ratio of estrogen and progesterone in the blood.  The location of age spots can be symmetrical on the cheeks, forehead, temples, chin, upper lip.

2. Chloasma – clearly defined spots of irregular shape, experts associate this pigmentation and estrogen hormones, to which hypersensitivity develops. The impetus for the manifestation of this type of pigmentation can be the first menstruation in a girl, childbirth, an inflammatory gynecological disease, the start of taking oral contraceptives. Often, chloasma spots disappear on their own, but they can persist for many years.

3. Eyelid hyperpigmentation – provoked by solar active radiation, due to an imbalance of hormones that develops in diseases of the ovaries, adrenal glands, thyroid gland, in young women under 25 years old can be caused by oral contraception.

4. Lentigo – spots of rounded shape and different colors, from yellow to brown, appear most often in older people and are called senile ripples. This pigmentation and hormones are interconnected precisely by the age of the patient, when the amount of sex hormones produced in the body decreases significantly, their ratio changes.

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5. Broca's dermatosis – pigment spots of yellow-brown color and indistinct outlines that appear symmetrically around the mouth, near the nasolabial folds. The cause of pigmentation is a violation of the production of hormones due to ovarian disease.

How to Consider Pigmentation and Hormones When Prescribing a Treatment for Facial Spots

The choice of treatment for age spots depends on the cause of their occurrence, which is clarified at a preliminary consultation with a doctor. The principles of influence on pigmentation are as follows:

• reduce melanin synthesis,
• reduce the appearance of pigmentation with exfoliating treatments,
• take measures against the reappearance of age spots.

Reducing the production of melanin is carried out by drugs that inhibit the action of tyrosinase, which are usually administered by mesotherapy or phonophoresis. Next, peels or hardware procedures are applied that remove pigmented cells.

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Prevention of the return of pigmentation is the regular use of sunscreens and timely correction of conditions that can cause hormonal fluctuations in the body.

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