Is it a good idea to use estrogen cream on your face?
If you’re someone who follows skincare trends on social media then it may have come to your attention that quite a number of women have taken to putting vaginal estrogen cream on their faces!
It’s become a thing because we know insufficient levels of estrogen decrease the skin’s defences and it becomes thinner with lower levels of collagen, loss of elasticity, increased wrinkling and dryness.
That’s why our skin can suffer so much in menopause.
And studies have linked the increase in our blood levels of estrogen through HRT with improved collagen production and skin hydration and reduced inflammation.
What happens when we apply estrogen topically?
Well in one study which looked at the application of topical estrogen: skin elasticity, moisture and firmness did improve, and wrinkle depth and pore size decreased after six months of treatment with 0.01 percent estradiol and 0.3 percent estriol (a weaker estrogen).
No changes were picked up in systemic hormone levels, that’s the hormone levels in your body, meaning the impact appeared to be localized to the skin.
Another study which set out to explore whether estrogen’s effects could be enhanced, found that when patients applied 0.01% estradiol, or 15% glycolic acid alone or in combination, the epidermal thickness increased 23% with estradiol alone, 27% with glycolic acid alone, and 38% when the two were combined.
And though the majority consensus among experts who have commented on this is that it’s unlikely that using a low-strength vaginal estrogen cream on your face would pose much of a risk of affecting your overall hormone levels, if you’re already using estrogen hormone replacement therapy then we know through studies that you are going to get the benefits to your skin just from having increased blood levels of estrogen.
Safety first
And the bottom line about applying estrogen anywhere on the body is that it’s something you should speak to a doctor about first.
What you use and how much you use for anti-aging purposes should be weighed up against your overall health and hormone profile and stage in life because, with the evidence we have at this point, we can’t completely rule out an increased risk for some, particularly those with a history of breast cancer.
