Pregnancy is a complicated time in a woman’s life. First, her body is literally changing every single day. In addition, her body is growing another person inside of it, so that in itself is complicated! But, when you add in changes to the exterior of the body (the skin), it adds a whole mess of complications that can be very stressful. Hormonal skin changes during pregnancy are extremely common and are usually quite easy to treat.
You may have heard of the mask of pregnancy? If you haven’t, this is a common skin condition technically known as Melasma, which occurs during pregnancy. Portions of the skin on the face become discolored (usually darkened) resulting in a “mask” appearance.
This is the most common skin change that may occur during pregnancy, though there are many others, which I’ll cover below.
First, let’s talk about some of the more common changes that occur during pregnancy due to hormones. We’ve already discussed Melasma, but as I mentioned before, there are others.
Now that we’ve talked about a few common skin conditions during pregnancy, let’s dive even further and talk about hormones and which ones are responsible for some of these conditions.
First and foremost, let’s talk about how the levels of hormones in the body change dramatically during different stages of pregnancy.
This excellent, yet simple graph by OpenStax, breaks down the 3 main hormones involved in pregnancy.
Looking at the graph, you can see that hCG isn’t present prior to the pregnancy, but around week 4 and through to week 10, it skyrockets. Around 10 weeks it begins to drop at a pretty steep decline until 24 weeks where it levels off.
Progesterone and Estrogen stay on a relatively similar path throughout pregnancy. They both start off fairly low and then between weeks 0 and 2 they begin to gradually increase throughout the rest of the pregnancy, with progesterone beginning to drop towards the end.
So, as you can see, hormonal changes during pregnancy really are like a roller coaster!
Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (hCG) is the main pregnancy hormone. This is the hormone that is picked up by pregnancy tests, both at home tests and blood tests. hCG levels are at their highest during the first trimester, and are likely the cause of morning sickness. It is produced predominantly by the placenta.
Rapidly rising levels of hCG can be responsible for acne in the early pregnancy, but in some lucky cases, the rise in hCG can cause a “glow” rather than acne. Frequently, the increase in this hormone will cause oily skin. Oily skin can cause acne, or it can cause this “glow” that some women experience.
As with everything, it all depends from person to person and you can’t really predict exactly what will happen.
Similarly to hCG, Progesterone is also produced in large amounts in early pregnancy, and beyond. Progesterone’s job is to maintain the uterine lining to keep it thick enough for embryo implantation. Once pregnancy occurs, progesterone continues to be produced to maintain the thickness of the uterus and support the growth of the embryo, while the placenta is growing and being established. It is produced by the ovaries prior to pregnancy, and then by the placenta during pregnancy.
Progesterone, when produced in high amounts, can cause acne and breakouts. Like with hCG, Progesterone isn’t always going to cause breakouts, but it is fairly common for the huge influx of this hormone to cause this type of skin change.
Estrogen is another hormone that is initially produced by the ovaries, but as pregnancy occurs, begins production within the placenta. Similar to progesterone, estrogen also contributes to uterine lining thickness. It also helps with uterine growth, and triggering the development of the fetus’ organs.
Swelling in the mucous membranes throughout the body is largely thanks to estrogen production during pregnancy. This swelling is due to extra blood flow to the skin. This excess in blood flow can cause red, itchy skin.
The combination of high levels of Estrogen and Progesterone is what’s behind Melasma and Hyperpigmentation.
The best thing you can do for your skin during pregnancy is to properly care for it. What does this mean? This means 2 things.
So first off, properly caring for your skin is all about having a healthy, daily skin care routine. A basic routine consists of (Morning & Evening):
However, if you want to really give your skin the best health possible, I recommend adding a little more to your routine.
Morning:
Evening:
2-3 times per week and only once that day:
Because of all of the changes throughout pregnancy, there are specific ingredients to avoid. Why is this? Because all of these rapidly and constantly changing hormones can make the skin extremely sensitive and certain ingredients can cause irritation, rash, thinning of the skin, and other issues.
Product ingredients to avoid in pregnancy include:
So, to sum it all up, pregnancy causes many changes to the skin because of the rises and drops in hormones. Taking care of your skin properly can help keep at least some of these issues at bay. At the very least, taking care of your skin regularly can help clear up acne and other concerns that may pop up.
