Hormones play a significant role in various body functions and this includes the development of acne and pimples on the skin, especially all over the face despite all treatments and healthy lifestyles you have performed. Hormone imbalance can easily lead to hormonal acne problems that may not only affect female teenagers, but also adult women. Once this imbalance presents, you will see some pimples occurring all over the face or around your chin, nose, and jawlines.

Risk factors leading to hormone imbalance

• Stress, which can be either emotional or physical stress that lead to elevated cortisol level.
• Birth control pill consumptions, which disrupt natural hormone production inside the body.
• Certain medications and treatments that affect certain hormone production.
• Unhealthy diet and lifestyle.
• Toxins from environment and food we consumed.
• Pregnancy and monthly period.
• Puberty and growth spurts.

When hormonal imbalance occurs, women are suffering from excessive male hormone—or androgens production. Excessive production of male hormones, one of which is testosterone, triggers over-production of oil under the skin known as sebum. This often leads to clogged pores that develop into acne and pimples on the skin surface.

How to control hormonal acne naturally

Since it is triggered by hormonal imbalance, hormonal acne is often complicated to treat. Despite all the performed skincare routines, women are still susceptible to this type of breakout during their monthly period and pregnancy. Prolonged use of acne-controlling products and medications is not recommended as well, since these may lead to some unexpected side effects. However, there are some ways that can be helpful in controlling hormonal acne naturally. These methods emphasize on controlling your hormone production and its balance, so that hormonal acne breakout can be minimized.

Control your stress level. Reduce it if possible.

Your stress level holds an important role in hormone production. When you are stressed, your body produces more cortisol, which intrudes your body’s normal functions. As a result, you are prone to acne breakout as one of the effects of this abnormality.

Eat right and healthy.

Your hormonal acne is also influenced by what you eat. If your body is already in its abnormal state, adding some grease will only aggravate the condition, which as a result, may lead to sebum overproduction and pimples occurrence.

• In addition to eating right and healthy, during certain periods when your hormones are hardly balanced, add some anti-androgens foods, such as green tea, spearmint oil, and pumpkin seed oil to your daily intake.
• Fish containing omega 3 fatty acid also helps minimizes androgens production and thus, essential for balancing your hormones.
• During hormonal imbalance, decrease your consumption of milk, as milk contains DHT, which is able to bind to the receptors in the oil glands that leads to increased oil production. Thus, if you consume large amount of milk during this time, you are likely to develop more acne and pimples.
• Adding fiber foods is essential in promoting balanced hormones, because fiber is researched to be able to decrease blood testosterone, which has a significant role in acne prevention.

Use topical remedies for getting rid of existing hormonal acne.

Most of the time, you do not realize you are suffering from a hormonal imbalance until some pimples pop out. Therefore, getting rid of these existing hormonal acne is as important as preventing them from occurring at all. Some remedies can be applied topically to improve affected skin.

• Honey—this contains antibacterial that helps getting rid of infesting bacteria around the infected skin. To apply, use a dampened finger to massage it onto the face and rinse with warm water.
• Apple cider vinegar—this contains gentle exfoliating acids to calm acne and balance the skin’s PH.  To use this remedy, mix a glass of water with some drops of apple cider vinegar and keep it refrigerated. In the morning and afternoon, spray the mixture onto your face to improve acne-affected skin. This remedy is not only useful for acne, but also for skin rashes and fungal infection.

Limit caffeine and smoking

Caffeine and smoking also have some roles in inhibiting the work of your endorphin system. This, together with other acne-inducing factors, such as pregnancy, period, and stress, will increase your risk of developing acne. Thus, limit your coffee consumption and replace it with herbal tea to help balancing the hormones and prevent hormonal acne from appearing during the time that can be crucial.