FAAD Board Certified Dermatologist
This article is based on an expert interview with Mohiba Tareen, MD, conducted by wikiHow Staff Editors. Mohiba Tareen is a board certified Dermatologist and the founder of Tareen Dermatology located in Roseville, Maplewood and Faribault, Minnesota. Dr. Tareen completed medical school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, where she was inducted into the prestigious Alpha Omega Alpha honor society. While a dermatology resident at Columbia University in New York City, she won the Conrad Stritzler award of the New York Dermatologic Society and was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Tareen then completed a procedural fellowship which focused on dermatologic surgery, laser, and cosmetic dermatology.
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Hormonal acne can be really painful, and sometimes it seems like nothing works to clear it up. The good news is that hormonal acne isn’t invincible. With the right treatment, it’s totally possible to clear up your skin. In this video, dermatologist Mohiba Tareen shares the gold standard for treating hormonal acne so you can get rid of it once and for all.
Key Takeaways
- Hormonal acne is caused by a hormonal imbalance of testosterone reacting with the hair follicles in the skin.
- Spironolactone is a blood pressure medication that can help prevent hormonal acne when taken at lower doses. It makes hair follicles less sensitive to testosterone so acne is less likely to form.
- Topical products can improve the appearance of your skin, but they’re usually not effective at getting rid of hormonal acne.
Video Transcript
So hormonal acne is characterized by this kind of lower facial, one-third of the lower face, very deep, cystic nodules, and they can be quite painful and very resistant for patients. In terms of the treatment for hormonal acne, it really does most of the time have to be systemic because the cause of hormonal acne is a hormonal imbalance of the testosterone reacting with the hair follicles. The gold standard treatment that I actually myself take is a medication called Spironolactone. Spironolactone at much higher doses is used for blood pressure management, but the doses used for hormonal acne help regulate testosterone and the hair follicles and helps make those hair follicles not be as sensitive to the testosterone. So it does not cause a reduction in the hormones, it just helps with that skin sensitivity. The great thing about Spironolactone is that it is not an antibiotic so it's not something that's going to suppress your immune system or cause resistance in the future. And I myself have personally been on a lactone for over 20 years, so it's a very safe, great alternative for patients with deep hormonal acne. Topicals are also beneficial to kind of just make that skin cell look good, make the skin glow, but we really do need oral medications for hormonal acne.
