The Dr Louise Newson Podcast - 71 – What’s your skin telling you about your hormones?
Episode Date: June 2, 2026So many women notice changes in their skin and hair duringtimes of hormonal change, yet hormones are rarely discussed as part of the conversation.In this episode, Dr Louise Newson is joined by consult...antdermatologist Dr Sajjad Rajpar to explore the powerful relationship between hormones, skin health and ageing. Together they discuss why the skin is far more than just appearance, how declining hormone levels can affect collagen, wound healing, inflammation and hair health, and why skin changes may actually reflect what is happening inside the body too.The episode also explores the wider health implications ofcollagen loss, including bone health and osteoporosis, alongside the importance of looking beyond symptoms to address underlying hormone deficiencies.We hope you love the podcast. If you enjoyed this episode,please make sure to follow us, leave a 5-star rating and share it with someone who might find it helpful.LET'S CONNECTSubscribe here 👉 https://www.youtube.com/@menopause_doctorWebsite 👉 https://www.drlouisenewson.co.uk/Instagram 👉 / @drlouisenewsonpodcastLinkedIn 👉 / https://www.linkedin.com/in/drlouisenewson/TikTok 👉 / https://www.tiktok.com/@drlouisenewsonSpotify 👉 https://open.spotify.com/show/7dCctfyI9bODGDaFnjfKhgLEARN MOREDownload my balance app 👉https://www.balance-menopause.com/balance-app/Get tickets for my new theatre tour, Breaking the Cycle 👉https://www.nlp-ltd.com/dr-louise-newson-breaking-the-cycle/Order my new book 👉https://bio.to/ThePowerofHormones
Transcript
Discussion (0)
On the podcast today, I'm with Dr. Saj Rajpaw, a consultant dermatologist.
We talk about hormones in the skin, how important they are, and why they've been neglected for so long.
We do also touch on whether using estrogen on our faces is a good idea or not.
So, Saj, you are a frequent visitor for my podcast, but not in real life, actually.
This is the first time that we've done it in this studio, which is great.
It's really great to be here and to be on your podcast again.
Thanks for having me.
Oh, thank you.
Well, you are, I was saying to Jack who runs the studio, you are my go-to dermatologist,
not just for me, but for patients, my children come to you, my husband comes to you,
because you're a general dermatologist.
And there's very few people that are really general dermatologists,
because the skin is a window into our bodies.
We've talked about this many times before.
And so often, and I think it's getting worse, actually, that people think if their face looks all right,
then the body's going to be okay.
and so many people have work and tweakments and all sorts of things to their face,
but they're not thinking about the rest of their organs
and how their skin is a window into everything else, do they?
Oh yeah, I think it's so important to appreciate that the skin is an organ.
Yeah.
And it's one of the biggest organs in the body.
And yes, we can actually tell when somebody's got systemic illnesses or issues with their health,
you know, there are findings on the skin that could suggest
somebody's got a low thyroid hormone level or a high thyroid hormone level
diabetes presents on the skin
even a low iron level can present on the skin
and of course hormone deficiencies
present on the skin as well
so yeah the skin really is a window
into somebody's health status
and well-being
and you can only go so far
in covering up deficiencies
you know with aesthetic treatments
unless you get the underlying problem
your whole skin will not improve
so it's really important to address
the systemic issues as well
About 10 years ago when I started clinic on my own, this lady came to see me as a review.
So I'd seen her once.
She came back three months later and she said, I'd just like to thank you, Dr. Newson,
you have saved me about £10,000.
And I said, what?
That's great, isn't it?
That's great.
And she said, I was going to have a facelift.
She said, I'd booked in.
She said, I'd save the money.
I was going to tell my husband that I was going on a holiday with my sister because I couldn't
tell him what was happening.
I'd booked time off work.
And she said, partly it was because I'd felt so withdrawn and so negative in myself.
that I just felt that if I had a facelift,
it would give me like a new lease of life.
But also my skin was so dull.
I looked so tired.
I felt that I had more lines.
My collagen are gone.
Just everything.
And she said, even within three months,
firstly I've got that oomph back.
I don't care what I look like
because I feel so much happier.
She said, but my skin is already starting to glow.
I can see that, you know, I've got less lines
and I've got more moisture in my skin.
It's less dry.
And I thought, wow, isn't that amazing?
But it's true. You get this response with hormones, don't you?
Yeah, it's fantastic to hear. And isn't it the case that as doctors, you can tell from a mile away if a woman's, a postmenopausal woman's on hormones or they're not.
Yeah.
You know, and it's that inkling that the skin is healthier.
Yeah.
And as a consequence, it looks better.
Yeah.
So I always talk about the function of skin as being more important than the structure.
Yes.
But if the function improves, the appearance is.
very likely also to improve.
We're actually improving the function and consequently the appearance improves.
And collagen is so, so important.
It's one of the building blocks in the skin.
It's the building block in the bones.
And we know from a lot of data that women who are on hormone replacement therapy
in the first five years of being on hormone replacement therapy
preserve 30% more collagen than women who are not.
So in other words, if you take HRT,
then published studies show that you will save 30% of your collagen in the first five years from being on HRT.
And I think that is a massive amount of collagen banking, if you like.
And I am not aware, Louise, of any aesthetic or dermatologic treatment that can do that.
And when we talk about collagen and, you know, yeah, your skin will look better.
There'll be fewer final lines and wrinkles.
There'll be less sagging.
but the skin integrity will be better.
You're going to heal better after an operation.
And we can see that when we're doing skin procedures.
You know, the skin quality in somebody who's been on HRT is better.
It can take sutures better.
It heals better.
And, you know, we've got data that potentially women who are on HRT
have a third less risk of venous ulcers.
So even wound healing is better.
It's so important.
And also collagen isn't just in our skin.
we have it throughout our musculoskeletal system as well.
And you show a great slide that you showed on a recent educational event
of it was a side on of a woman getting older
with more sort of laxicity of the skin.
And what was it that you asked people?
Yeah, so I said, which person do you think has thinner bones?
Is it the woman on the left?
And I assumed that the woman was the same age.
I said, is it the woman on the left of the slide who's got minimum lines and wrinkling
or is it the woman on the right of the side who's got very thin skin and consequently has more lines and wrinkling?
And a really good study showed that women who had fine lines wrinkling and skin aging
were much more likely to have a lower bone mineral density on dexas scanning.
So in other words, if your bones are thinning, it's like,
your skin is thinning and then we've got this indicator, we don't need a scan.
So if you see somebody in their late 40s and early 50s, and this is really important,
that this study was actually in women in their 40s and 50s.
We're not talking about elderly women in their 70s and 80s.
We're talking about women who are just, you know, sort of peri and postmenopausal.
That if they've got increased number of facial lines, they're much more likely to have bone
thinning and this is a marker of osteoporosis potentially.
Yeah, and that's really important because,
I was showing you a consensus statement that was written by one of the Manipuls societies not so long ago.
And they were saying that HRT is not an indication for skin concerns.
And I sort of feel for two reasons that's not right.
Firstly, the skin is an organ.
So why are we not worried about our skin?
But secondly, you've already said that the skin is a window into our health.
So if we are more worried about our skin just because it's easier to see than our liver, for example,
Is that a bad thing? And I don't think it is, actually.
No, absolutely not. And we know from published studies, again,
that something like 70% of women have skin concerns around the perimenopause and menopause,
and 40% have hair concerns around the perimenopause and menopause.
And certainly, if you can improve skin symptoms and hair symptoms with treatment,
and I'm not saying every single skin concern and every single hair concern is going to improve.
But why shouldn't we?
why should we be using expensive, dangerous immunosuppressant drugs for somebody's exma
that might have deteriorated around the perimenopause and menopause instead of guiding a person
and saying, look, potentially your low hormones could be causing this.
Why don't you see if that's the case and try HRT, seeing as, you know, your perimenopausal?
Yeah, and it has other benefits.
So, you know, the listeners already know the many benefits of taking hormones,
but we shouldn't dismiss skin.
And it was almost quite a sort of disparaging comment for dermatopause.
as well and we're saying the skin isn't important.
But it really is.
And it's very interesting when you talk about pre-existing conditions like eczema, like psoriasis, even acne, people who have had skin conditions,
pittoriasis sometimes can flare up with the immune system, not working so well, rosacea.
All of these conditions that people think, oh, I've grown out of that, for example.
They can often come back when hormones change, can they.
Yeah, absolutely.
And in a questionnaire study, 46% percent.
of women said that their pre-existing skin diagnoses flared around the perimenopause and menopause.
The skin clearly is important and estrogen is clearly important to the skin.
And when we look at skin cells, we actually know that virtually every cell in the skin has
estrogen receptors and is stimulated in one way or another by estrogen.
And also traveling cells such as the immune system and white blood cells that go into the skin
also have estrogen receptors. So there is this, you know, inflammatory balance. Is estrogen reducing
inflammation in the skin? And is that the reason why inflammatory conditions like X-Men cirrhosis might flare?
Absolutely. I mean, in my book, I've got a whole chapter about inflammation, because I'm very
interested in the immune regulating effects of all three hormones, progesterone, estrogen,
testosterone. And what's very interesting is that all our immune cells, as you know, have receptors
for those hormones on them. So they'll improve our inflammatory response.
reduce inflammation.
But what's very interesting, I think, also, if you've got low estrogen dial in the blood,
your macrophages, one of your really important immune cells, become pro-inflammatory.
So they're not just neutral.
They actually turn against us an increased inflammation.
And you see this time and time again, because we know the longer women is menopausal,
the greater the risk of all inflammatory conditions, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, non-alcoholic, fatty liver disease,
inflammatory bowel disease, cancers, but also skin conditions as well.
A lot of it is this inflammation.
And as you say, quite often in dermatology it's been giving steroids,
topical steroids, systemic steroids.
Now people are having more of the biologics.
But the biologics are not without risk either.
They help some of the immune system,
but they suppress some of the immune system.
And you don't really want your immune system completely suppressed
because we need it to fight infections and other illnesses.
Absolutely, absolutely. If there was a better way to treat skin conditions, we should be doing that.
You know, we're doing our patients a disservice by neglecting basic treatment.
Totally. And I'm very simplistic in the way that I think. I'm sure you realize that.
But I was in America recently and I was shocked because there's so many adverts for drugs on the television.
We can't do that in the UK, obviously.
But every other drug was for a biologic, it seemed, just the bit that I was watching on the television.
in the hotel. But there were three adverts that I saw for Exma, and one of them was for a child
with X-Men, two were for adults, saying if your ex-ma was out of control, consider having a
biologic. It's about $400 a month, but you might get it on insurance. And these were all
women in the adverts, actually. One was an adolescent girl, and then the other two were women.
And I was thinking, oh, gosh, actually, I would prefer to get my hormones balanced that it's a lot
cheaper, but it's treating the underlying cause because in adolescence, often people are very
low in progesterone, sometimes eustodal as well. And then obviously any age, people can be low of hormones.
Yeah, oh yeah. But Louise, as you said in one of your previous podcasts, if this was a new drug
with new farmer funding and that said, you know, this drug will preserve 30% of your collagen in the first
five years. Yeah. It may improve preexisting skin conditions that flare.
it may improve hair loss, and we've certainly seen many individuals with hair loss
improve with hormone replacement therapy, then, you know, they would be all over, you know,
the billboards if this was a new drug that was being licensed for those indications.
But the problem is, as you've said in previous podcasts, it is not a new drug.
It's dirt cheap.
It's dirt cheap.
Nobody's going to make anything out of advertising the benefits.
And obviously we can't advertise in the UK, but educating even.
individuals about the benefits.
And you know, one of the other things
I just wanted to mention about hormones
in the skin is I think we're just touching
the tip of the iceberg in our understanding of it.
It's really interesting because
the skin itself can make
estrogen and progesterone and testosterone.
So the skin is actually an organ
that can make cholesterol
from the blood and make its own hormones
in an intracrine fashion.
And this is why when people
come to me and say, look, my blood test shows
is this. I say, look, your blood test is telling us what's circulating in the body at that point
in time. It's not actually telling us what's in the tissue. It's not telling us how much your
receptors are being stimulated by that. And there's so many things we don't understand. So that
doesn't necessarily mean hormones are not involved in this particular instance.
My new book, Power of Hormones, is officially out now. I wrote it because too many people are still being
told things about their hormones that don't match the science. So in this book, I explain how our
hormones, estradiol, progesterone and testosterone really work, why there's been so much
resistance to this knowledge and how gaps in training and outdated thinking have affected women's
health for decades. It also explores the history behind hormone treatments, the myths that
continue to circulate and the reasons why so many women are still struggling to access
accurate information. So if you want to understand your hormones and your health in deeper,
more honest way, you can buy power of hormones now. I've included a link in the show notes.
We know that the dosing, the individualisation of hormones is really crucially important and
most of us are on some sort of journey where we're fine-tuning our hormones and trying to work out
what's right. And increasingly, you know, we give the Easter dial, as you know,
through the skin usually as a patch or gel,
but the absorption can be a real issue.
For some of us,
I've got thicker skin than others, it appears,
and it's harder to get it through.
Progesterone can be quite different the way it's absorbed
and metabolized, whether it's given orally,
as a cream or as a pezzary,
and then testosterone as well,
usually the cream or gel,
but having the balance, the right dose is really important.
And then vaginal hormones, really important.
But increasingly, you know,
there's a lot of people on social media
talking about, what about putting it on my face? What do I put on my face? And there's been a bit
of a confusion, hasn't it? There has been. There has been. Do you know, using estrogens on the face
isn't a new thing. And in the 40s and 50s, creams, beauty creams in the States, contained
estrogen. So Max Factor had a product called Cup of Youth. Cup of Youth. Cup of Youth. And Elizabeth
Arden had a product called Joie de Vivre. And these contained estrogen. And that was because people
realize people twigged on pretty early on that, you know, this improves skin. And you know,
by improving the function of the skin, you're going to improve the appearance of the skin. So this
is not new to us. So we know that estrogen stimulation to the skin improves certain parameters.
And this is in men and women, by the way. So there are studies that show...
Of course, because men have estrogen as well, don't they?
They have estrogen. We forget about that, you know. So one study showed that men who had skin biopies,
heal quicker when they've got estrogen applied to it. And another study showed that men who had
estrogen put on their skin for two weeks had improved collagen production in that area of skin.
So certainly both genders respond to estrogen. And the question about face creams keeps coming
up nowadays. It's a big, big topic on social media. And my take on it is, yes, if you apply
estrogen to the skin, it will respond, providing you're absorbing it. But what is your goal here?
is your goal to protect and preserve the 100% of your skin surface area
or just 2 or 3% of your skin surface area?
You know, what is your goal?
Is it a functional improvement in your skin
or is it an aesthetic improvement?
And really, you should be thinking about protecting your whole skin
because you don't know where that injury or that leg ulcer,
you know, when and where that's going to come in, right?
And then you've got all the other benefits of HRT,
protecting your bones, your heart, your brain.
Now, if you were to put estrogen on a small area of skin like your face,
it is possible that that's going to be absorbed.
It's going to be part of the surface area that you would absorb your topical estrogen therapy through.
So potentially it may contribute to a systemic effect anyway.
So if you're going to be having systemic HRT anyway,
why don't you just optimize your systemic HRT?
And this is what I tell my patients, is that that would be your goal.
So the studies that show 30% preservation of collagen in the first five years were not on topical HRT on the face.
It was systemic coldness.
That will improve your skin.
That will, you know, reach your skin.
You don't have to necessarily top it up.
And, you know, with all receptor interactions, there is this dose response, isn't there?
You can't just keep overstimulating receptors, you know.
So if you double the dose on the skin, you're not going to get double the response.
So if you've already peaked and plateaued with optimized systemic HRRTHA,
T, you don't really need to go ahead and put, you know, facial estrogen cream.
Does that make sense?
Is that a reasonable justification?
It totally makes sense because I think, like we said at the beginning, you know, the skin is not
just the face.
You know, if you're concerned about the face, why are you concerned?
If it's because maybe you've got accelerated aging, like you said, more lines or whatever,
then we should be thinking systemically because does it mean that there's more accelerated
aging in the body, as in more inflammation, loss of collagen elsewhere?
So that's really important to take a step back and think systemically in the body.
Because as a dermatologist, you're not just focused on the face.
It's really important to think about that.
Then the other thing is some people do use some of the vaginal hormonal preparations
like the low dose estradiol or estradiol or eustriol creams or gels on their face.
I mean, there is some data that might have an effect.
Of course it's going to probably have an effect.
But I'm more interested, you know, if someone had an area of eczema, for example,
and they used one of these low-dose vaginal creams, would that help?
Well, I've had patients certainly come in and tell me that my skin's improved by doing that.
So, you know, clearly there is something going on and we don't have enough data on it,
but there is something going on there, isn't there?
And that makes physiological sense.
I think in medicine, we're constantly adjusting and changing and learning.
We're learning from science.
We're learning from basic physiology.
And we're also learning from our patients.
and, you know, the risks of using a low dose vaginal hormonal preparation on an area of the skin are incredibly low.
Especially if it's going to be for a week or two, you know, while the exma is active or something like that.
Yeah, yeah.
Somebody sent me a photo, I think I might have said it to you, she had an awful X-Bel.
Like, she can go out to the house.
It was absolutely terrible.
And her having the right dose of systemic hormones was transformational for her.
It really was.
So there's no right or wrong with any of this.
But it's thinking beyond the face, I think, is what I'm trying to come up with.
Well, absolutely.
And also, what about the bones?
And, you know, facial aging, if say that were the goal, you know, the bones are really important on facial aging.
And we know in women that the skeleton changes rapidly, the facial skeleton changes rapidly around the perimenopause and menopause, especially on the lower part of the face.
So we get a lot of chin and mandibular resorption in women in the first five years of that sort of perimenopals, menopause transition.
And, you know, you're not going to be able to overcome that if that is related to hormone deficiency, which is likely to be.
You're not going to overcome that with topical estrhyol to stimulate very gently the skin cells only.
You know, you're going to need systemic HRT.
And you've also talked before in a previous podcast about, you know,
our bone structure changes, especially the mandible, the jawline, it's not just the skin.
And, you know, using a topical cream on this or a gel on the face, it's not going to get into
the bones that way.
It won't work in the same way.
And I do think, if anyone's listening, I think, or I might try it, I would always say,
optimize your hormones first, progesterone, estrogen, testosterone.
And Louise, can I ask you?
Because I get asked, how do I know I've optimized my hormones?
Yeah, it's a great question.
And so with estradiol, blood tests can be useful.
We do the symptom questionnaire.
You know, it's available on balance.
It's been extended, so it's got over 80 questions on it.
And that's very useful as well, actually.
So thinking a lot of times it's looking at physical symptoms as well
because mental health symptoms are very common.
But if someone's also got palpitations, they might have some cystitis,
they might have skin changes.
There's more likely related to hormones.
But looking at estradiol levels, looking at testosterone levels are useful as well.
Because testosterone is very beneficial for,
for the skin. Everyone thinks it's going to give them acne and it's going to make the skin greasy
and it often really helps the skin as well. Testosterone is a really interesting one, isn't it?
If your testosterone is so low and it's down to your boots, then your hair will drop out.
Yes. And replacing testosterone in women can really help with hair growth.
It will actually improve hair growth because it's an anabolic hormone required for several bodily functions.
Yeah. And a lot of women, when they come back, having started,
the testosterone component of their HRT will say my dry skin is so much better.
My dry eyes are so much better.
Dry eyes is huge with testosterone.
Virtually cleared.
And that's because part of your body's moisturising factor includes sebum,
which is produced by sebaceous glands.
And we all know sebaceous glands as one of the causative issues in acne.
But that sebum is really important in hydrating your own skin.
And that's where, you know, the testosterone stimulates.
the sebum and helps hydrate your own skin.
So I think there is definitely...
And it's funny because you were saying
I can recognise people and you can too who run HRT
but now I can actually recognise people on testosterone as well.
And it's very sort of subtle but you can see the skin changes
but also hair changes as well with testosterone.
But then the other hormone is progesterone.
We don't usually routinely do blood tests
because like you say what's in the blood isn't necessarily
what's in the tissues, it can be unreliable.
But having enough progesterone is really important
for hair and skin.
A lot of people find their hair growth is really beneficial with progesterone,
like in pregnancy, very high levels of progesterone we have when we're pregnant.
But increasingly, we're giving progesterone as a pezzary that is a good dose to get absorbed into the body.
So a lot of people with PMS, PMDD, and some people who don't tolerate oral progesterone,
the pezzary is amazing and they notice skin and hair changes and nail changes.
is in a positive way as well.
And isn't that interesting?
I think progesterone is probably the most misunderstood hormone, isn't it?
And as a dermatologist, I have no significant understanding
and I'm really interested to hear that that, you know, skin and hair also improve it.
It doesn't surprise me because how complex the interaction is.
You see, we've been scared of progester for many years because so many women are mistakenly thinking
they're taking progesterone, but they're using a synthetic progesterone.
So something like norathistrone, something like mojoxyprogesterone acetate, the marina coil, they all contain a synthetic progestergent.
They might have roles, but they block the progesterone receptors.
Sometimes they increase inflammation.
Even the marina can get absorbed into the body through the uterine supply, blood supply, into the rest of the system.
And so a lot of people find that they have really bad acne, they have hair loss.
I mean, you've seen it a lot with marina coils.
as well, haven't you?
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think this is one of the really most important points that synthetic progesterone is a
completely different beast.
It's not a hormone.
It's a chemical.
And so.
And it's displacing the hormones actually want to go into that receptor and properly
stimulate that receptor.
So it's actually causing a relative deficiency of...
It's worse than not having anything, really.
And so increasingly when we see people who've had a hysterectomy, have a marina coil, even
people on hormonal contraceptives, I'll often top them up with progesterone as well. And they come back
and they say, gosh, I'm sleeping better, I'm feeling calmer, but also my hair and skin is so much better.
And that's really interesting, isn't it? And yeah, so absolutely. So really, when we talk about hormone
optimization, we really need to be looking at all three hormones. It's not just about one. No,
absolutely. Yeah. And often people just talk about estrogen because they feel a bit more comfortable
with it. But, you know, it's interesting because we're talking about the synthetic hormones
blocking our natural hormones, but there are drugs that are given to block hormones as well. So
we know how common breast cancer is and a lot of women are prescribed aromatase inhibitors
that block the conversion of testosterone to all estrogens actually. But also the tomoxifen
works as a selective estrogen receptor modulator so it stops the action of estrogen in various
tissues and there's some interesting data about wound healing, skin, hair changes on those drugs,
isn't there?
And I think it's a good model of trying to work out what is estrogen doing on the skin, isn't it?
Because people say, does it really do this?
And one way of looking at it is to say, well, what happens when I block all estrogen
and what's the consequence of this?
And we do see hair loss very commonly in women who are on any form of estrogen blockers.
And 5% of women can get quite severe hair loss and thinning, significant thinning of the hair shafts.
And that's called endocrine-induced alopecia.
And the other thing the studies show is that women who are on estrogen blockers following breast cancer and have surgical reconstruction have a much more difficult post-operative course.
So women on estrogen blockers have something like a four or five times higher risk of infection.
after surgery.
This is breast reconstruction surgery.
And they have a two or three times greater risk of slow wound healing.
So that's telling us that being on estrogen or your tissues having exposure to estrogen must improve wound healing and reduced infection.
And we know that estrogen brings in inflammatory cells to help clear wounds and also helps bring in new blood vessels, something called angiogenesis.
And that's probably why wounds heal a lot quicker.
when somebody is adequately treated with estrogen than when they're not.
So, yeah, I think looking at the instances where estrogen is blocked
helps us understand what estrogen does.
Yeah.
And it's really important, actually, because quite often I see patients
who tell me that they've been told to go on an aromatose inhibitor
right from the start since diagnosis before their surgery.
And actually, there's no urgency, usually, for a lot of these women.
So waiting a few weeks until after surgery, then having the discussion,
might really help with wound healing, especially if they're needing reconstructive surgery as well.
Or if they're on those drugs and they need an operation for another reason,
it's worth talking to a specialist about,
could I just come off the drug for a little bit to try and help with wound healing?
But also, not just for women who've had cancer,
so many women are incorrectly told they need to stop their body identical hormones before an operation.
and I always say, well, there's no clot risk
so you can carry on, but also you are more likely to heal better
after your operation, which is what you're saying, isn't it?
It's ironic, isn't it?
Because a lot of the DVT screening questionnaires
before surgery in many of the hospitals
still say, you know, is this person on HRT?
And if they are, they need to be given extra DVT precautions
because they're at high risk.
And, you know, this just is so far behind.
the truth, isn't it?
Yeah. Yeah. So we've got a long way to go.
Yeah.
But I just love talking to you about skin.
There's so much more that we can talk about.
And I'm sure there'll be lots of questions, which is great.
And there's lots of information on Balance app.
You're our go-to dermatologist on Balance, which is great.
But before I end, I always ask for three take-home tips.
So we've covered a lot of information.
But what are the three most important things about hormones and our skin and hair
that you would want people to know.
Okay, well, the first one is think about hormones
as a potential cause for certain skin and hair conditions,
especially if they're happening around the perimenopause and menopause.
Because we now have data to suggest that pre-existing skin conditions can flare
and new skin concerns can also develop.
The second is not every skin and hair condition
around the perimenopause and menopause is going to be from hormones
and, you know, get good advice on getting a proper diagnosis.
And I know it's really tempting to self-diagnose.
We haven't got the time to see someone.
You don't always see somebody who can help you.
And it's difficult.
I get it.
But sometimes just getting that first bit right, you know, this is diagnosis X.
You know, this is diagnosis.
That will actually change your future trajectory of managing that concern significantly.
And number three is referring our.
listeners back to what you said about optimizing your hormones, you know.
Really think about getting the most out of your hormones by optimizing them
because I think that's the way we're going to see the better outcomes.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much.
It's been great.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thanks so much for listening.
It would be amazing if you could follow me or subscribe because it will really make a difference
to grow numbers, enable this to reach even more people.
Thanks so much.
