I had an acne resurgence last year and into this year which I feel was due to perimenopause. Fortunately, I’ve been able to control it with an Estroven menopause supplement. I’m so thankful that, for once, I was able to find a simple solution!
In April 2019, I noticed that my periods were starting to become more irregular. I began spotting between periods. In August, I didn’t have a period at all. I had never skipped a month since starting my period, so this was very concerning to me. I ordered LH and FSH labs to check on my hormone levels. My FSH was in the 20’s, and my LH levels seemed unremarkable. I decided to try the tests again three days after the start of my next cycle and run other tests as well, such as estradiol and anti-mullerian hormone. I actually showed those results to my endocrinologist who thought I could be in the very early stages of menopause. He advised me to make an appointment with a gynecologist. My primary doctor decided to refer me to one when I took the results to her. The gynecologist reran some of the same tests and checked additional things. None of her tests revealed anything earth-shattering.
Between the doctor visits, I was concerned about my acne. It was continuing to get worse. Since I already knew that my hormones were trending toward menopause, I wondered if a menopause supplement might help with my acne. I’d read online that soy isoflavones could help with acne during menopause or the transition to menopause. However, all I could find at the store was Estroven. It included the soy isoflavones along with other ingredients. There was a store brand version on the shelf that was a lot cheaper, so I decided to give it a try.
The first day I tried the supplement, I could tell it helped me feel better. However, over time, I couldn’t tell a difference in my acne. As a matter of fact, it seemed to be getting worse. I started taking the menopause supplement late in January. At the beginning of March, I went to the store to get another bottle of calcium supplements. I’d always taken supplements with just calcium. The store only had ones with vitamin D that day, so I just decided to get those instead of trying to search around for the plain calcium tablets. When I started getting low on the calcium tablets with vitamin D, I actually found the regular calcium supplements when I went back to the store to get more. I decided just to go back to the regular calcium supplements since I noticed no difference with the added vitamin D. About two weeks after I started taking the plain calcium supplement, my acne started clearing. It turned out that the extra vitamin D was what was causing my acne to get worse. I’ve only had very minimal breakouts since going back to the regular calcium supplement, so I believe that the menopause supplement has helped to clear my skin and keep it mostly clear. It just took a few months for it to begin working. The calcium with vitamin D supplement just kept me from realizing it sooner.
Right after I went back to the regular calcium supplement, I had a dermatologist appointment. I shared my frustration with my acne coming back and that I felt it was due to perimenopause. He decided to have me try some of the products I’d tried at other times, like tretinoin and clindamycin. I was hopeful that these would help. I bought all that he suggested, but two of the products were really expensive, a lot more expensive than what I remembered. The timing was horrible because about a week after that appointment was when my skin began clearing. I’m now stuck with some very expensive products that I most likely don’t even need! Right now, I’m just using them occasionally, and I plan to tell the dermatologist at my next appointment that I just plan to go back to what I was doing before, washing my face with non-medicated cleansers and using a benzoyl peroxide spot treatment for any breakouts that happen. Since breakouts are minimal now, I think that would be enough.
I’m so thankful that my latest acne resurgence had a very simple solution. The Estroven supplement has really helped control the breakouts that I started getting when I entered perimenopause. I also know now that calcium with vitamin D is not a good fit for me. It made my breakouts worse and kept me from realizing that the Estroven supplement was actually helping with my acne. Even better is that I don’t even need expensive prescriptions to keep it under control!
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