Menopausal Skin Changes and the Potential Role of Microneedling

As hormone levels drop following your last period, you may feel your appearance, more specifically, your skin’s quality and feel does so too! This is completely normal and exists due to a phenomenon known as menopause starting in women aged 45-55 years. This phenomenon occurs largely due to the change in structural function and integrity of your epidermal, dermal, and subcutaneous layers, a fancy triplicate of words for the key layers that make up your skin. These changes you see in your skin are due to the sudden deficiency of estrogen and progesterone in your body as a result of menopause. These key hormones, like estrogen, work to actively promote the production of key molecules like collagen, glycosaminoglycans, and elastin in skin cells. As a result of its loss, you may feel your skin’s elasticity and texture change during menopause, reporting common side effects such as:

Increased wrinkling
Dry, itchy skin
Acne and rashes
Dark spots/ hyperpigmentation
Unwanted facial hair

Current therapies for the changes in skin accompanied by menopause, include hormone replacement therapies, topical retinoids, and estrogen-based topical treatments. However everyone’s skin is different and if you have experienced no success with these current therapies, you may be interested in a different, emerging therapy you might have heard of already!

Now what is Microneedling?

Microneedling is an emerging skin therapy and potential treatment for dry, aging skin, doubly coined as “collagen induction therapy.” Does the word collagen sound familiar? It’s exactly one of the key molecules lost in skin during menopause as a result of estrogen levels dropping! Microneedling works by using a handheld machine, smaller than a mini epilator, to create small agitations in the skin. These small agitations, produced by micro-needles in the machine, produce micro-irritations! These mini irritations trigger the skin to kickstart natural, innate healing processes, producing increased amounts of collagen and elastin as a result.

How can Microneedling Positively Influence Menopause Skin Symptoms?

Menopausal skin symptoms, such as wrinkles, dryness, texture, and elasticity, have been proven in past studies to provide positive improvements through the stimulation of the natural healing processes in skin. In a recent 2022 study, the efficacy testing of microneedling devices on a patient cohort showed significant improvement in the patient’s wrinkles, their perception of their wrinkles, and their satisfaction with the lasting results after 4 months of treatment. In another study in 2018, forty-eight subjects were enrolled into a single center study to investigate the safety and effectiveness of automated microneedling devices on symptoms of aging skin (Alqam 2022). The results were significant, and regular treatment of microneedling on aging skin “produce[d] noticeable improvements in lines and wrinkles, skin laxity, and skin texture at Days 90 and 150 following the first treatment” (Albon 2018)

Menopausal Skin Symptoms & Reasons

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10092853/