Hormonal Acne: 1. How Did It All Started?
What could be the relation between love and acne? Between warm, touching feelings and an irritating skin disease? The grotesque, strange connection between these two different things is made by hormones!
Love and acne have the same root; they have both begun to talk through you starting with puberty. Those were the times, weren’t they?…
So, starting sometime before adolescence, around the age of nine or ten, the adrenal glands started to produce dihydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEAS), which is an androgen. Other androgens, or so called “male” hormones, that are at work in a woman’s body are testosterone and dehydrotestosterone (DHT). They have both joined in at the onset of puberty.
And little by little, DHEAS, DHT and testosterone started to stimulate the sebaceous glands to secret more of the skin’s natural oil, called sebum. Although during this period, boys suffered a lot more from acne (since they had more male hormones), girls started also to cope with zits, spots and so on.
At that time, acne was a sign for both boys and girls. It was the symbol of the fact that they started to grow up and to head towards adolescence. Love’s bites and hot feelings came also along with acne!