Menopause and collagen loss: why does my skin sag?

Skin sagging during menopause is caused by rapid collagen loss during this period- as much as 30% during first 5 years and 2% for the next 20 years. Yes, there a tough time coming at you but if we were you, we’d focus on the “next 20 years” part!

During Perimenopause and Menopause your skin starts to lose its elasticity and can feel slightly drier and thinner. Our Neovadiol Perimenopause range is designed to take you from Perimenopause all the way through Menopause and has a Day Cream, SPF and Night Cream to ensure your skincare is acting on your menopausal skin symptoms throughout the day.

We then have our Neovadiol Rose Platinium which is designed for Post-Menopausal skin. This is designed to nourish the skin and contains rosy pigments to help the cream blend into the skin tone.

As collagen degrades, skin loses firmness, and jowls and fine lines start to appear. You may notice that dynamic smile and frown lines become permanent, your nose tip drops, the eye area hollows and pores become larger.

All these clinical changes in post-menopausal women are associated with cutaneous aging of all 3 layers of skin on the face (epidermis, dermis and hypodermis). Atrophy, dryness and fat pads slackening are the main signs of this, not very funky, but an absolutely normal process.

Atrophy corresponds to the massive reduction in the thickness of skin tissue. Everything that leads to this reduction can also alter communication and nutrient exchanges between the epidermis and the dermis, making it hard for your skin to keep its mechanical properties.

So you may also notice progressive degradation of the naturally occurring hyaluronic acid in the dermis, skin dryness and roughness due to decreased sebum secretion, a loss of elasticity, and a decreased ability to maintain moisture, which may also lead to loss of firmness.

In conclusion, your face may look different, a little tired maybe and it can alter your self-confidence. So let’s prevent that or at least slow it down the best we can by:

• giving up smoking and reducing alcohol intake
• choosing a proper daily skincare tailored for pre- and post-menopausal skin and regular sun protection with high SPF that is water resistant.
• adopting a healthy, well-balanced diet
• practicing regular exercises

Key elements to remember

The reason why the skin sag during menopause is mostly due to a very quick collagen loss that consequently provokes other changes.

The good news is, there are still plenty of things you can do about it including:

• adopting a skin-care routine that you can stick to on a daily-basis and
• switching to a well-balanced diet.