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Hormones and skin
Last reviewed: 08.07.2025
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Hormones play an important role in the physiology of the skin, so a hormonal imbalance immediately affects its condition. For example, an imbalance of thyroid hormones can lead to excessive dryness of the skin. And a decrease in the level of sex hormones during menopause leads to accelerated skin aging, increased hair growth on the face and body.
Excess estrogen may increase skin pigmentation and dark spots may appear on the skin. Male sex hormones (androgens) cause atrophy of hormone-dependent hair follicles on the head, which leads to baldness, and also stimulate sebum secretion, which makes an important contribution to the pathogenesis of oily seborrhea and acne. The effect of growth hormone on the skin is now being actively studied and even attempts are being made to use it to rejuvenate the entire body in older people.
There is practically no hormone that does not affect the skin, so hormones could be a powerful means of influencing the skin. But in cosmetology, the use of hormones (as well as other substances of systemic action) is prohibited. That is why substances that, when applied to the skin, can have an effect similar to the effect of a hormone (we are talking about the visible effect, not the molecular mechanism of action) are so popular. In its structure, such a substance can resemble a hormone molecule (although this similarity is sometimes very distant). Such compounds include, for example, phytoestrogens - the most popular group of cosmetic "hormone substitutes" obtained from plants. A separate section on the site will be devoted to phytoestrogens.
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