{"id":32153,"date":"2025-10-20T21:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/?p=32153"},"modified":"2025-10-20T16:33:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T21:33:43","slug":"your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2","title":{"rendered":"YOUR \u201cLOW ESTROGEN FACE\u201d AND HOW WE CAN HELP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sex hormones are not to be taken lightly. Some recent research measuring blood levels of estrogen in several hundred young women and then making facial \u201ccomposite photos\u201d showed that those with normal to high (but not too high) levels of estrogen were more physically (read \u201csexually\u201d) appealing. Go overboard with estrogen and all sorts of medical complications occur, like blood clots, endometriosis, weight gain, PCOS and so forth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then, come your late forties and you\u2019re trotting into the foothills of menopause. The late Nora Ephron titled her book well, \u201cI Feel Bad About My Neck and other Thoughts About Being a Woman\u201d. Yes, look carefully (or even not so carefully) in the mirror and you\u2019ll see changes in your skin<\/a> that you might not like. These occur because your estrogen levels are dropping, and you’ve been exposed to the great outdoors. If you smoke cigarettes, you\u2019ve pressed the \u201cUltra-Fast Forward\u201d button on the whole skin aging process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Estrogen deficient skin has a lengthy list of unique characteristics, all generally less than desired: dryness, wrinkling, itching, thinness. Your skin becomes more sensitive to itchy fabrics, soaps, beauty products. You may get more skin rashes or hives, you bruise easily, and because of less collagen production even minor cuts and bruises seem to take forever to heal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, of course, the other aspects of perimenopause\/menopause I\u2019ve written about many times: hot flashes, night sweats, mood changes, vaginal dryness, weight gain (especially mid-section), brain fog), virtually all of which can be pretty dramatically helped by bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, a reasonable question: does BHRT, whether capsules, cream, or those twice weekly estradiol skin patches, actually help your aging skin as well? Yes, sometimes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, interestingly, I have had patients who used estradiol vaginal cream (for lubrication) twice weekly for years, saving a pea sized dollop to apply around their eyes. Seemed like a good idea and their eyes looked wrinkle free. You could do the same with Premarin Cream, though I haven\u2019t prescribed it in years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Basically, there are two ways you can get estrogen onto your face:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mild form of estrogen is called estriol (E3), <\/strong>a prescription cream, applied every morning. Since there is no systemic absorption <\/strong>of estrogen, you don\u2019t concern yourself about the necessity of taking progesterone. If you want to know about the effectiveness of estriol skin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

cream, there are umpteen articles on Google. Here\u2019s one<\/a> from the Beauty Editor of the online magazine The Cut. She seems to like it but thought it was too early to pass judgment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The stronger form of estrogen is called estradiol (E2). <\/strong>This is the same I prescribe as a cream, capsule, or skin patch for menopausal symptoms. With estradiol, there can be systemic absorption so a small dose of oral progesterone should be used with it. The effect of your face will likely be more dramatic (in a positive way) and faster as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly, we include DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) called \u201cthe mother of hormones\u201d because it is a precursor to estrogen and testosterone and can help maintain hormonal balance in women going through perimenopause and menopause or experiencing any hormonal imbalances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anti-Aging Effects: DHEA may improve skin elasticity, reduce wrinkles, and enhance skin hydration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those of you already using bioidentical hormones as a cream, you know how your dose is in \u201cclicks\u201d of the plastic dispenser (e.g., \u201capply four clicks to your thigh\u201d) Well, change that: \u201cApply three to your thigh and one to your face\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you’re new to bioidentical hormones altogether and just want to start with facial estradiol\/DHEA, the compounding pharmacist will prepare a low dose in a dispenser. Systemic hormones are contraindicated in women with a history of breast cancer or blood clots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Schedule at any of the WholeHealth Chicago<\/a> offices with your questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Be well,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Edelberg, MD<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sex hormones are not to be taken lightly. Some recent research measuring blood levels of estrogen in several hundred young women and then making facial \u201ccomposite photos\u201d showed that those with normal to high (but not too high) levels of estrogen were more physically (read \u201csexually\u201d) appealing. Go overboard with estrogen and all sorts of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4902,"featured_media":32155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[352,2789,2337,2848,2685,1,33],"tags":[937,2262,2732,124],"class_list":["post-32153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aging","category-bioidentical-hormone","category-bioidentical-hormone-replacement","category-hormones","category-menopause","category-uncategorized","category-womens-health","tag-aging","tag-bioidentical-hormone-replacement-therapy","tag-estrogen-replacement","tag-menopause"],"yoast_head":"\r\nYOUR \u201cLOW ESTROGEN FACE\u201d AND HOW WE CAN HELP - WholeHealth Chicago<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"YOUR \u201cLOW ESTROGEN FACE\u201d AND HOW WE CAN HELP - WholeHealth Chicago\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sex hormones are not to be taken lightly. Some recent research measuring blood levels of estrogen in several hundred young women and then making facial \u201ccomposite photos\u201d showed that those with normal to high (but not too high) levels of estrogen were more physically (read \u201csexually\u201d) appealing. Go overboard with estrogen and all sorts of […]\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"WholeHealth Chicago\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wholehealthchicago\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-10-21T02:00:00+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/menopause-and-aging-scaled.jpeg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1280\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"WholeHealth Chicago\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@wholehealthchi\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@wholehealthchi\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"WholeHealth Chicago\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2\",\"name\":\"YOUR \u201cLOW ESTROGEN FACE\u201d AND HOW WE CAN HELP - WholeHealth Chicago\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/menopause-and-aging-scaled.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-10-21T02:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d50f4de39e7b716da78656222844edf3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/menopause-and-aging-scaled.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/menopause-and-aging-scaled.jpeg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1280},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"YOUR \u201cLOW ESTROGEN FACE\u201d AND HOW WE CAN HELP\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"WholeHealth Chicago\",\"description\":\"WholeHealth Chicago is the Midwest's oldest and most respected center for integrative care, successfully blending the latest advances in conventional medicine with a wide range of clinically proven alternative therapies.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d50f4de39e7b716da78656222844edf3\",\"name\":\"WholeHealth Chicago\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0c966c2c24390cd5bf2bd47b3b1ee3849a6b5ab62777b6986b67c9a785444f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0c966c2c24390cd5bf2bd47b3b1ee3849a6b5ab62777b6986b67c9a785444f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"WholeHealth Chicago\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/author\/kdillard\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"YOUR \u201cLOW ESTROGEN FACE\u201d AND HOW WE CAN HELP - WholeHealth Chicago","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"YOUR \u201cLOW ESTROGEN FACE\u201d AND HOW WE CAN HELP - WholeHealth Chicago","og_description":"Sex hormones are not to be taken lightly. Some recent research measuring blood levels of estrogen in several hundred young women and then making facial \u201ccomposite photos\u201d showed that those with normal to high (but not too high) levels of estrogen were more physically (read \u201csexually\u201d) appealing. Go overboard with estrogen and all sorts of […]","og_url":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2","og_site_name":"WholeHealth Chicago","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/wholehealthchicago","article_published_time":"2025-10-21T02:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1280,"url":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/menopause-and-aging-scaled.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"WholeHealth Chicago","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@wholehealthchi","twitter_site":"@wholehealthchi","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"WholeHealth Chicago","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2","url":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2","name":"YOUR \u201cLOW ESTROGEN FACE\u201d AND HOW WE CAN HELP - WholeHealth Chicago","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/menopause-and-aging-scaled.jpeg","datePublished":"2025-10-21T02:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d50f4de39e7b716da78656222844edf3"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/menopause-and-aging-scaled.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/menopause-and-aging-scaled.jpeg","width":2560,"height":1280},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2025\/10\/20\/your-low-estrogen-face-and-how-we-can-help-2#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"YOUR \u201cLOW ESTROGEN FACE\u201d AND HOW WE CAN HELP"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/","name":"WholeHealth Chicago","description":"WholeHealth Chicago is the Midwest's oldest and most respected center for integrative care, successfully blending the latest advances in conventional medicine with a wide range of clinically proven alternative therapies.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d50f4de39e7b716da78656222844edf3","name":"WholeHealth Chicago","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0c966c2c24390cd5bf2bd47b3b1ee3849a6b5ab62777b6986b67c9a785444f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d0c966c2c24390cd5bf2bd47b3b1ee3849a6b5ab62777b6986b67c9a785444f5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"WholeHealth Chicago"},"url":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/author\/kdillard"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4902"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32153"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32154,"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32153\/revisions\/32154"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}