ESTROGEN PILLS AND SKIN THICKNESS
Report #6431 2/5/95
Two recent medical reports show that applying a topical estrogen cream to the face can help to make the skin thicker, decrease wrinkling and lighten age spots. However, another recent report shows that estrogen pills do not prevent the thinning of skin that follows the menopause.
All women suffer a progressive thinning of bones and skin after the menopause. As a result, they develop weak bones and thin skin. A recent study shows that estrogen pills reduce bone loss significantly, but they do not halt the 8.6% reduction in skin thickness that occurs every 10 years after the menopause. On the other hand, doctors have known for more than 50 years that lack of estrogen at the time of the menopause often causes a woman's vagina to become dry and thin and that vaginal creams containing estrogen help prevent this. Doctors asked postmenopausal women to apply readily available/ commercial/ vaginal estrogen creams to their faces three times a week. After 6 months, their faces had less wrinkling, fewer dark spots and a more youthful appearance.
Doctors know that estrogen pills can cause uterine cancer unless postmenopausal women are also given progesterone. Therefore, they usually give progesterone with estrogen to women who have not had a hysterectomy. We do not know if estrogen creams require progesterone in the same way that estrogen pills do. However, one study showed that after 6 months of applying estrogen creams to the face three times a week, there were no precancerous changes in the uterus, no rise in blood levels of estrogen and no change in the brain hormones that control estrogen production. Add 18.75 mg of Premarin powder to one ounce of facial cream.
By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News
1) DC Bauer, D Grady, A Pressman, SR Cummings, D Black, HK Genant, C Arnaud, W Browner,
L Christianson, M Dockrell, C Fox, C Gluer, S Harvey, M Jergas et al. Skin thickness,
estrogen use, and bone mass in older women. Menopause - the Journal of the North American
Menopause Society 1: 3 (FAL 1994):131-136.
2) JB Schmidt, M Binder, W Macheiner, C Kainz, G Gitsch, C Bieglmayer. Treatment of skin
ageing symptoms in perimenopausal females with estrogen compounds. A pilot study.
Maturitas 20: 1 (NOV 1994):25-30.
3) P Creidi, B Faivre, P Agache, E Richard, V Haudiquet, JP Sauvanet. Effect of a
conjugated oestrogen (Premarin(R)) cream on ageing facial skin. A comparative study with a
placebo cream. Maturitas 19: 3 (OCT 1994):211-223.
4) GE Pierard, C Letawe, A Dowlati, C Pierardfranchimont. Effect of hormone replacement therapy for menopause on the mechanical properties of skin. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 43:6:(JUN 1995):662-665. HRT has a beneficial effect on stretching of skin and thus may slow the progress of intrinsic cutaneous aging.