6 Reasons Why Your Skin Improves After 50

If you’re dreading turning 50, here’s something to look forward to: your skin might become the best it’s ever been. Most women believe that their 50th birthday is the ultimate death knell for beautiful skin. But things might not be so dire after all. Your 20s are usually celebrated as your skin’s prime, but how many of us actually had great skin at 20? If your 20s were marked with rosacea, acne and large pores, you should be excited about turning 50. Here are seven ways your skin might improve after 50.

# Your Breakouts Stop

For most women, acne is caused by hormones in their body, not by any external factors. Your body produces estrogen and progesterone which are essential for its normal functioning. However, these hormones need to balance each other out or they can create chaos. Every month around your menstrual cycle, both these hormones become unstable and out of balance. This can lead to acne breakouts in women, regardless of their age. After menopause, both these hormone levels come down and stabilize. If you’ve had stubborn breakouts all your life, which no amount of tea tree oil, benzoyl peroxide or steaming could cure, menopause will finally give you clear skin.

# Hormonal Rosacea Will Improve

If your rosacea stems from hormonal factors, menopause could help bring it under control. It’s important to remember that all forms of rosacea will not improve after menopause. Rosacea from bacterial or fungal reasons might not show any signs of budging even after you turn 50. But if you have purely hormonal rosacea, you can expect your skin to improve. This improvement will only come after you have truly hit menopause and your hormones have stabilized. When you’re in the process of going through menopause, your hormones become even more unbalanced, which can worsen your rosacea.

# Your Skin Becomes Less Oily

Your hormones control everything in your body, even your sebaceous glands. Unstable hormones or overproduction of some can cause your sebaceous glands to produce more oil. However, when you reach menopause, these hormone levels become lower and your glands don’t produce as much oil as before. If you’ve always had shiny skin you’ve had to blot every half an hour, menopause might bring an end to that. This also helps you get clearer skin since less oil means less bacteria accumulates in your pores. Your 50th birthday might be the perfect time to shift to a gentle, creamier cleanser, because you don’t need harsh face washes which suck out oil anymore.

# Your Pores Shrink

Can your pores actually become smaller as you age? Large pores are caused by excess oil production. If you have oily skin, oil can accumulate in your pores, harden and clog them. This expands the walls of your pores, making them appear larger. With menopause, your skin also becomes less oily, so your pores begin to shrink. Menopause could even bring an end to blackheads, another side-effect of having oily skin.

# You Become More Alert About Health Problems

In your 20s, you barely pay any attention to your skin. But when you’re 50, you know every inch of your body perfectly and so you’re immediately able to recognize if something is wrong. If a mole doesn’t look right to you, you can spot it immediately and get it looked at. Catching it early is crucial for treating skin cancer. When you treat it in its early stages, skin cancer is rarely threatening.

# You Take Better Care Of Your Skin

Your 20s are usually a blur of late nights, binge drinking and sleeping with your makeup on. Most of us barely used sunscreen when we were tanning at the beach and didn’t have the patience to spend time on our skin every day. All of that usually changes when you get older. With maturity comes a growing realization that this is the only body you have, so you need to treat it well. We start eating better, drinking less and devoting more time to skin care. The effects of these changes can show up in healthier, more radiant skin than you’ve ever had before.