Beauty+: Creme De La HRT

You can’t have missed the revised information about HRT that came out yesterday. Broadly speaking, safe, for as long as you want to take it.

Aside from the millions of women who are either denied it by their GPs, or arbitrarily taken off it at a time deemed suitable by the GP, regardless of circumstance, there are women who have been so put off even trying HRT because of any perceived risks they’ve just battled on through it with nothing.

As we all know, advice can change like the wind, and I would never point anyone one way or another (I’m not in the least qualified to do so) but there is one point that I’d like to make.

Similar to this

What if… just what if.. all the women who DO take HRT have that to thank for their beautiful skin, and er, not beauty products? You know, a nice surge of daily oestrogen so that your skin stays plump and hydrated.

You have to take a look at extrinsic skin ageing vs intrinsic skin ageing. Extrinsic is external factors (UV for example), while intrinsic is ruled by your own biology. Bottom line is, that oestrogen levels affect skin hydration, collagen production, the thickness of your skin and production of natural hyaluronic acid. So, when oestrogens go, so do all those skin benefits. It’s no wonder the beauty market has its eyes on 50+, warned off HRT and suddenly depleted of all those internal factors that help to keep skin looking younger.

It’s not so long ago that our life expectancy wasn’t much past 50, so ageing back then – you were lucky to encounter wrinkles! However, it’s little wonder that we’re ageing ‘better’ than our mums did because they didn’t have access to HRT. I’m not so sure any more that we can thank potent beauty formulas for as much as we think, and going forward, if indeed HRT is safe for the majority with no health risks no matter how long you take it, we’re going to have some very glowy and bouncy 80 year olds in the not too distant future. Bring them on!

Of course, genetics plays a part, and external factors, but having all your oestrogen back is a significant thing (not only for skin and hair, obviously) but I don’t think I have seen any brand studies that divide HRT vs non HRT and we need to be asking for those with replete hormones vs those with depleted hormones. I think it has to make a difference.

 

Discover more from British Beauty Blogger

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Posted

in

by

Jane Cunningham

Tags:

Have your say

8 responses to “Beauty+: Creme De La HRT”

  1. Liz

    Very interesting stuff for those of us approaching 50. Feels like just yesterday that I got my first period, and now I guess I need to prepare for them ending. I’ve joked to friends that I’m waiting for someone to hand me a little book with hand-drawn ladies in their nighties with a euphemistic title about the next stage of my womanhood – like I got in the early 1980s at menarche. Where is my little book, dammit? Who do we talk to about the impending change?

    And good for you for validating that wanting to have great skin 50+ isn’t frivolous. Let’s be vibrant and carry on being our best selves through menopause and beyond!

    Lots of love, Liz, aged 47 and a half xx

    Reply
  2. Cali

    Thanks for posting this, as someone rapidly approaching the menopause and having only heard good things about HRT from my Mum, I’m pleased that the knee-jerk pendulum has swung back and that hopefully HRT will be available to me if I need it. I’ll volunteer to be glowy and bouncy at any age!

    I do want to clarify about average life expectancy’s, as it’s a common misunderstanding. The average life expectancy back in 1900 was likely less than 50 but that was mostly due to a horrifying child & infant mortality rate of up to 20%. If you made it out of childhood without succumbing to one of the myriad common diseases that could kill like respiratory infections, gastroenteritis, smallpox, diphtheria and measles then you were actually pretty likely to live to a reasonable age. To illustrate, a newborn in 1900 had an average life expectancy of about 48, but if you made it to 10 years old you were likely to live to well over 60. My 3 times Great Grandmother, born in 1810 lived to the very ripe old age of 104. I don’t think she was too worried about her wrinkles though, she was interviewed for her 100th birthday and believed that not being too thin contributed to her longevity!

    Reply
    1. Jane

      Wow, that’s a very admirable age! Stories/research change all the time – it’s not a green light to make merry with HRT but does highlight that more research needs to be done with a much bigger pool of women. There are choices to be made all the way through life – even things like whether you reduce your risk of lung pollution by living in the country and not the city – and most women have to make a personal choice and weigh up all the options themselves.

      Reply
  3. Erica

    I just don’t believe that HRT is safe to take for as long as you want. My mother’s gynae assured her that her low dose was safe to take forever until she got oestragen dependent breast cancer. Obviously this is my own personal story but the thought of HRT for as long as you want, makes my blood run cold.

    Reply
    1. Kate

      My mother also had oestrogen dependent breast cancer. She took the contraceptive pill for most of her fertile life and segued straight from that into HRT. She was very lucky and her cancer was caught by a routine mammogram before it had spread. Personally I will not risk taking hormonal contraception anymore (and my GP was reluctant to prescribe it) and if I were of HRT-taking age I wouldn’t take that either. I just feel the potential risks outweigh the benefits (even if we aren’t 100% sure yet of all the factors involved).

      However, I take Jane’s point about beauty studies discriminating between those who are taking HRT and those who aren’t. But this shouldn’t be different from any other confounding variables that they should be controlling for ..smoking and other health-related behaviours e.g. sun exposure, diet, other medications…It depends how rigorous they are in their research methodology, but if the studies are expected to show anything of any meaning they really should be controlling for all these things!

      Reply
  4. Elise Chapman

    I would read this article first: http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2015/10/20/no-hrt-isnt-harmless-there-are-risks-as-well-as-benefits/
    The research was paid for by Pfizer, who sell HRT, & the study only involved 80 women. But if you want to risk looking younger over possible cancer?

    Reply
  5. Tracy

    I started to take HRT a year ago (I’m 49 1/2) and have never felt better. My skin is amazing, hair shiny & strong, & generally feel tip top. There is NO WAY I’ll be coming off it

    Reply
    1. Jane

      I hear you!

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Discover more from British Beauty Blogger

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading