MANAGING THE MENOPAUSE WITHOUT HRT: DRY SKIN
Skin blooms in the presence of oestrogen. Once you are producing little or no oestrogen, your skin gradually becomes drier and more wrinkled. To counteract this, many of the so-called moisturisers work by introducing moisture into the very top, thin layer of skin (the epidermis), so mat it looks fuller and small wrinkles are eased out. But in the process of doing this, the epidermis stretches slightly to accommodate the moisturiser, so that when you stop using it, your skin starts to sag more than ever. The beautiful skin of a young woman (especially a pregnant young woman) is due to oestrogen acting on the thick underlying layer of skin (the dermis) and its collagen, which increases the moisture content of die skin. No amount of artificial moisturising in die thin top layer can produce this effect.
But you needn’t start to look like an old hag the minute your periods stop! You just need to be aware of what makes your skin look older as time goes on, and time starts going on from about the age of 35!
Most damage to die skin is done by smoking and by excessive exposure to sunlight. Smoking reduces the blood supply to the skin cells by narrowing the tiny blood vessels; also the blood of a smoker carries less oxygen and more carbon monoxide than the blood of a non-smoker, so die cells of both the upper epidermis and the underlying dermis don’t receive enough nourishment, and lose moisture. Yet another reason to stop smoking! In fact, if you look around you, you will notice mat, on die whole, the natural ‘unmoisturised’ skin of older women tends to be less attractive in smokers than in non-smokers.
Too much sun on the skin can also damage the underlying layers, and make diem less elastic. In excessive amounts it can also cause skin cancer. (As with smokers, you have probably noticed mat the skin of a woman who has spent much time in a hot climate tends to be dryer and more
wrinkled than the skin of a woman who has spent her summers in Britain.) But in small quantities, sunlight on the skin is the best possible way of taking in vitamin D, which plays a vital part in helping the body use calcium effectively to build good bones. So do get out into the sunshine for your bones, but don’t overdo it.
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