Hormonal Acne was bothering me so much in this picture from the 90’s I refused to smile for my mom. My mom was frustrated because I should have been happy and smiling for photos while making gingerbread houses, but instead I wanted to cry if not scream about my painful, embarrassing, hormonal acne. My mom actually had no idea what I was going through emotionally. At the time, I was horrified that my family would see how bad my acne had become when I returned home from college.
If I only knew then what I know now about Hormonal Acne ...
As a result of what I have learned about Hormonal Acne since the 90’s as a Naturopathic Doctor working in Holistic Dermatology for seventeen years, I have put this hormonal acne information together to help prevent acne from causing permanent scars and impacting other women’s mental health.
Let me walk you through my six step natural system of how I manage hormonal acne naturally as a Naturopathic Doctor so that women do not have to suffer in silent frustration with their hormonal acne. We will thoroughly discuss hormones, nutrition, and all my favorite natural treatments for hormonal acne and how they impact the skin.
BUT FIRST….BACK TO THE 90’s…
Back in the 90’s my mom was always mad I would not smile for pictures. What my mom did not understand while she was trying to take my picture, was that I was not mad at her, I was mad at my acne!
You see, I had spent a DISTRAUGHT hour applying Grand Canyon like layers of concealer foundation and powder to cover my acne in her downstairs bathroom to no avail.
We had family visiting and I knew there would be family photos of us making gingerbread houses and I was horrified by my skin. I was mortified and ashamed of my appearance.
I was especially upset by the large red cystic acne bumps on my cheeks, chin and jaw that were so large and inflamed I could not cover them up. So technically my acne does not look horrible in the picture, but without makeup there was almost no healthy skin, and instead I had varying acne lesions healing and forming in different states covering my skin.
What you see in the picture my mom took are all the large cystic acne bumps that could not be covered by makeup. So I understand as a doctor that acne is not just a Dermatology condition but also a painful Psychological condition as teens and young adults are already stressed, anxious, depressed, and insecure enough without having acne!
DID YOU KNOW ACNE CAN CAUSE DEPRESSION AND ANXIETY?
As a women’s health doctor I want to share with you the simple natural steps I used to clear my own hormonal acne as well as countless patients' complexions over the past seventeen years I have worked as a Women’s Health and Hormone Naturopathic Doctor with a specialty and passion for Holistic Dermatology. I don’t want anyone to feel how I once did…anxious, sad, helpless, hopeless, and depressed.
Instead, I want women to feel confident with their complexions and not rely on makeup unless of course they want to wear it. Make-up should be optional!
Now that I know what I know about hormonal acne and am off the “Hormonal Acne Struggle Bus,” I don’t want any other women to have to suffer with their hormonal acne. So let’s go through my simple natural six step system to achieve that clear confident complexion you deserve!
Today we will be discussing how I cleared my Hormonal Acne in Six Simple Natural Steps!
I will explain each step in more detail later but here is what we need to do for hormonal acne:
We will also discuss at the end how to track your period to understand if there is a hormonal pattern to your acne or not.
WHY ARE YOU PASSIONATE ABOUT TREATING HORMONAL ACNE?
Before I address each natural step necessary to clear hormonal acne, let me share with you why I developed this Holistic Dermatology process in the first place. Just like most acne patients, my personal acne story begins in conventional Dermatology. For many years I went to half a dozen different Dermatologists seeking answers for my acne.
For eight years I worked in regular Dermatology for three MD’s, and trust me the docs I worked for were super smart, yet just as frustrated with my severe acne as I was. They tried every trick in the book. I knew their medicine generally worked because I saw 20-30 of their patients improve every day with acne, psoriasis, rosacea, hives, rashes, and eczema, yet my complexion was STUBBORN and continued to just get worse… No matter what we tried, my body rebelled. I will explain why my hormonal acne was made so much worse by certain acne treatments in more detail later, so nobody with hormonal acne is living in the dark and feeling hopeless. Its critical women understand what is going on with their skin!
FIRST LET’S REVIEW EVERYTHING I DID IN DERMATOLOGY THAT DID NOT WORK
First I tried the fruitless task of applying things to my skin to fix my skin. I applied differin gel, retinol combinations, clindamycin, benzoyl peroxide, salicylic acid, azelaic acid, every natural and herbal medicine remedy from the health food store I worked at, and countless topicals to no avail. If you learn nothing else from me, please learn that putting things on our skin does not heal our skin. The body is screaming at us through our skin that something “is not right” and the acne is the messenger for the body. We have to address the internal imbalance occurring with hormonal acne to achieve lasting results.
BIRTH CONTROL PILLS FOR HORMONAL ACNE?
Next we tried birth control pills that made my existing depression and anxiety SO BAD that I had to stop taking them for the safety of my mental health. My mood was suddenly dark, angry, and scary and I did not feel like myself on the birth control pills. My parents were scared of me and did not know who I had become. I was suddenly super angry and constantly yelling at them and combative. My boyfriend of four years suddenly dumped me and said I had "gone crazy on the pill.” I was mad and angry at everyone and everything on the synthetic hormones. My mental health was far more important than my skin so the birth control pills of course had to go.
BIRTH CONTROL CAN CAUSE DEPRESSION, ANXIETY AND ANGER?
I share this birth control story because as a doctor and mom of a young teen I have realized that a lot of girls and their parents do not understand it is the pill that is destroying their mental health. The pill seems like an innocent enough thing to help with acne. If “hormones cause acne” then we just stop the hormones with the pill…shut all the hormones down and the acne goes away right?
The mental health fall out can be horrendous for many women on synthetic hormones that suppress their natural hormones, even those without pre-existing mental health challenges. I have seen plenty of women develop new health problems such as anxiety, depression, panic attacks, ADHD, hormonal rage, anger, brain fog, insomnia, nausea, headaches, weight gain, trouble concentrating, and OCD while on the pill. So this is not always the best way to treat acne especially in young teen girls that are not fully grown or developed nor mature and capable of dealing with the hormonal moodiness the pill can cause. It is not a good idea to shut your daughter’s natural hormone production down until she is at least 16-18 and/or done growing and developing.
ARE BIRTH CONTROL PILLS BAD FOR HORMONAL ACNE?
While some of my patients are totally 100% fine on birth control, for some women it is absolute mental health poison! Birth control pills are also not a good long term treatment for acne because suppressing female hormones with synthetic hormones causes Osteoporosis, and increases blood clots, heart attack, stroke and breast cancer risk as well.
Furthermore, birth control pills are not “fixing your period” or “fixing your hormones” as many doctor’s describe them. What they are actually doing is stopping your period and causing a mechanical “withdrawal bleed” that is not an actual period when taking those placebo pills that do not contain synthetic hormones. Synthetic hormones are not balancing natural hormones, they are blocking them.
DOES BIRTH CONTROL HELP HORMONAL ACNE?
Yes, I do see women having improved hormonal acne with birth control, however most of them seek me out as a Naturopathic Doctor because the birth control actually made their skin worse, since acne is a side effect of birth control, and they then did not know what to do so googled for a Hormone Doctor.
Personally, my acne of course got much worse on the birth control pills. They also made me moody, broody, angry, bloated, and overweight.
STEROID INJECTIONS FOR HORMONAL ACNE?
One day while on the birth control pill I had such a HUGE acne boil on my chin it could not be covered with makeup. The Dermatologist was SO HORRIFIED by the large acne cyst I had on my chin she actually tried injecting steroids straight into the boil which resulted in worse scarring than if we had just left it alone. I still have acne scars to this day. So if I can help any woman prevent permanent scarring on their beautiful faces….that makes me very happy as a hormone doctor!
DO ANTIBIOTICS HELP HORMONAL ACNE?
Next up for me to try were antibiotics. The doxycycline and minocycline seemed to clear my skin somewhat, but caused constant upset stomach from killing off all the good bacteria in my gut aka “probiotics” and I was dealing with constant stomach aches, constipation and bloating, heartburn, IBS, diarrhea, and more sudden weight gain. Now I was 30 pounds overweight between the pill and the antibiotics.
ARE ANTIBIOTICS GOOD FOR THE SKIN?
Taking antibiotics for several months caused me to develop eczema AND psoriasis. The antibiotics made the skin on the rest of my body really inflamed, my gut was a mess, so the antibiotics had to go too. Especially because they only cleared up my skin half of the way and not all of the way. Now I had multiple topicals for my acne and two different creams to apply to my eczema and psoriasis. My skin was an epic mess and suddenly had been a full time job to manage between all the different products! Does acne really need to be this complicated?
HOW TO KNOW IF ACNE IS HORMONAL
A hallmark sign that patients have hormonal acne to me as a Hormone Doctor is when I ask them what medications they have tried that did not help for their acne and those unhelpful ones are usually antibiotics. We will go over how to know if you have hormonal acne in more detail later, however this is a very important hormonal acne treatment to inform your doctor that failed when working with a Holistic Dermatologist or really any Dermatologist.
The Dermatologist was certain that my acne was “hormonal” yet ran no labs on me and gave me a testosterone blocking diuretic commonly used for hormonal acne, spironolactone. My skin began to clear as my hair suddenly began to fall out at a rapid rate. Half my hair was suddenly gone and my ponytail was the diameter of a pencil. I was terrified I was going to be bald!
The doctor said it was a “temporary shedding” and normal for some patients to go through but because my grandma had Female Pattern Hair Loss ... I was literally terrified to continue the medication and began to have nightmares that I would be bald, fat and have acne. So I stopped the spironolactone for fear of further hair loss. My hair began to grow back but my acne continued to worsen.
Now I was overweight, bloated, balding, dumped by my boyfriend, moody, terrifying to my parents, and covered with scars and painful cystic acne boils all over my chin and jawline! My mental health was suffering right along with my skin. I share this story so that nobody else has to suffer these Dermatology horrors. Also, if you are a parent reading this, you can actually understand what your child is dealing with mentally, yet may not have the communication skills to explain to you, or fears sounding vain and may be too ashamed to state how they actually feel about their acne. Instead, a normal teenage response is to lash out at parents in anger when really they are just angry about their acne treatments failing.
IS HORMONAL ACNE HOPELESS TO TREAT?
I too was once left hopeless and humiliated. Everything I tried for my acne made it worse and caused a new symptom I never had before.
My family had always raised me not to act prideful, but we were also expected to take pride in our appearance and look presentable. I had never experienced so many things adversely impacting my appearance at once. My self esteem and confidence were shattered. The look of horror on my parents' faces when I returned from college and they saw my skin without makeup told me everything I needed to know. I felt even more ashamed, I just wanted to hide. Once my parents saw how bad my skin was without makeup they promised me they would do whatever it took to get it better. I became so depressed over how BAD I looked that my mom actually sent me to an Aesthetician, counselor AND a Psychiatrist. The Psychiatrist put me on antidepressants and yet again I continued to gain weight without improvement to my mood. I continued spinning my wheels and going nowhere on the “Hormonal Acne Struggle Bus”
MY FINAL DERMATOLOGY TREATMENT FOR HORMONAL ACNE
Meanwhile in Dermatology land, the only medicine the Dermatologist had left to offer me was Accutane which can be harmful to the liver, harmful to female hormones, destructive to thyroid function, and cause depression and suicidal thoughts.
As he reviewed the side effects I immediately knew my mood could not handle it. My mood was already SO BAD from my acne I feared making it worse after the birth control pill debacle. I was scared of doing harm to my liver, and was determined to find a natural solution to my hormonal acne after essentially “Flunking Out” of regular MD Dermatology.
The very place I worked at the time had failed me! Three of the best Dermatologists could not help me! I knew it was not my docs fault. They were fantastic doctors. The best of the best. There was just something peculiar about my form of acne, and we were not getting to the "Root Cause" of it.
HOW WILL I TREAT MY HORMONAL ACNE NOW?
I was so frustrated with my unusual hormonal acne that I vowed to do the research to figure out how to manage these hormonal breakouts that were clearly the most severe right before my period would start. The spironolactone hormone blocking medicine helped me understand at least that much… there was something hormonal causing my acne!
In order to solve the hormonal acne puzzle, I needed to understand the connection between Hormones and Dermatology that was the missing puzzle piece at the time…and now I know in hindsight that Dermatologists are not Hormone Doctors and rarely run labs on patients. They are not taught how to test hormones and hormones are simply too complicated for most doctors to test women in the correct phase of her cycle for hormonal acne. When I receive hormone lab reports from other doctors they are rarely comprehensive and never conducted in the right window to understand hormonal acne. Usually I receive two tests for a "hormone panel" from a woman’s OBgyn or Family Doctor when my first hormonal acne hormone panel is five pages long!
DERMATOLOGISTS ARE NOT TRAINED TO TEST AND TREAT HORMONE IMBALANCE
This is where Dermatology fails hormonal acne patients because they lack the training to test and interpret hormone labs. It's not the dermatologist's fault! They just are not trained to do this and hormones are super complicated, especially female hormones.
I continued to research treatments for hormonal acne while running low on hope. Finally I regained hope as I learned in Naturopathic school about Dermatology and Hormones!
THE HORMONAL ACNE LIGHT BULB GOES OFF!
It wasn’t until I went to Naturopathic school that the light bulb went off and everything I was dealing with finally made sense! The presentation the doctor put together that day about the interconnection between Dermatology, Hormones, Nutrition, Inflammation, and the Microbiome all clicked. I researched and implemented a hormone balancing nutrition plan and continued to do my own research for the best nutrition for hormonal acne.
Finally I understood why the antibiotics caused so many health problems for me because they killed off all the good bacteria in my gut and made it difficult to digest food properly. This dysbiosis from the antibiotics increases inflammation and inflammation spikes hormone imbalance explaining why I was getting worse and not better like most acne patients.
The rich indulgent foods I was eating to soothe my depression were inflaming my acne as well I realized from my hormonal acne diet research.
I began tracking my period and realizing that the 7 days before my period started was when the acne would flare.
Finally I was getting RESULTS for my type of hormonal acne!
Hallelujah!!
Stay tuned to the end for more information on how to track your period for free to determine if you have hormonal acne. I promise I will go over that in more detail later, as it is super important for every woman to know how to do acne or no acne!
FINALLY RESULTS AND A RESTORATION OF HOPE AND SELF CONFIDENCE!
As I made nutrition and lifestyle changes, my hormonal acne suddenly began to feel less painful and inflamed. The larger cysts began to subside and in a month of these changes I was only dealing with “regular people acne” aka a few spots here and there and my entire face was not covered with acne. My skin was healing and healthy skin was finally returning to the surface!
I no longer felt like a circus freak with super painful lumps and bumps and began to gradually return out into the world bravely without makeup on. I got my gym membership back and started working out every day again without makeup!
Finally I was back to socializing and going to pool parties, swimming, dancing, yoga, pilates, hiking, mountain biking, and camping with friends!
I had stopped doing all of these things for fear people would see my large cystic acne bumps which certainly was not helping my skin, mood or weight!
As I returned to normal activities and continued eating the hormone balancing nutrition I researched to improve my hormones and skin, my skin got its glow back and stopped breaking out. I continued to research about hormonal acne and refused to give up until my acne was completely gone.
HORMONAL ACNE AND EXERCISE: LYMPHATIC DRAINAGE FOR HORMONAL ACNE
The job of the lymphatics is to drain organs, and skin is the largest organ that it needs to drain. With hormonal acne the skin is in a traffic jam of inflammation and struggling to properly drain all the inflammation. Improving lymphatic drainage is imperative for hormonal acne.
That is why inactivity is not good for acne because the skin requires movement from muscles to help drain the lymphatics that detoxify the skin. Muscle movement pumps the lymphatics which drains the skin. So ironically my refusal to participate in any form of exercise that required me not to wear makeup was actually making my acne worse!
Quitting that gym membership was a terrible idea for my acne. But I was too embarrassed to go and have anyone see what my skin looked like without makeup once I began to sweat it off.
Think about your favorite athletes. They all have beautiful glowing skin. Rarely do I see an athlete with acne because their lymphatics are properly drained constantly with exercise!
LACK OF EXERCISE IS BAD FOR ACNE AND MENTAL HEALTH
Research studies actually have concluded that acne impacts teens mental health. This makes me feel very sad as a doctor, especially knowing first hand from my own acne journey what it is like to feel like a social outcast that just wants to hide from people. One of the easiest, best and free treatments for both acne and mental health is exercise!
If you are a parent please check in with your child’s mental health, they most likely are afraid to sound vain about their acne, or may lack the ability to even explain how they feel as I did. Acne causing mental health issues is a well researched mental health trigger negatively affecting teens and young adults.
I did not know that at the time and instead was afraid to speak up to my parents and just sat in shame on the “Hormonal Acne Struggle Bus” feeling hopeless and helpless. Honestly I don't think I was emotionally developed at the time enough to even express in words how the acne was affecting me... or truly connect the dots.
The shame and humiliation severe acne causes to your self esteem is simply incomprehensible unless you have been through it personally. Most people don’t notice acne unless it's happening to them. We tend to obsess about our own acne and not notice other people’s acne.
THE GOOD NEWS is that your beautiful face was not made to be hidden away, so instead I am going to share with you my six simple natural steps I developed from my hormonal acne research process you need to to get that clear confident complexion you deserve!
MY SIX STEP NATURAL SYSTEM FOR MANAGING HORMONAL ACNE
#1 ELIMINATE HORMONAL ACNE TRIGGER FOODS: Hormonal acne in my humble Holistic Dermatology opinion of seventeen years, is highly inflamed and highly sensitive skin with multiple food triggers. Rarely do my acne patients have zero food triggers, there is almost always something inflaming their skin along with the hormone imbalance. Inflammation also worsens hormone imbalance so reducing inflammation from trigger foods is a critical step. Removing hormonally triggering chemicals like phthalates and parabens that act as “Xenoestrogens” or fake estrogen is also critical as these can trigger breakouts in hormonally sensitive skin. I recommend very simple clean beauty products with as few of ingredients as possible until individualized testing is completed.
Removing acne trigger foods for hormonal acne is actually super important for all of the different skin conditions I treat such as psoriasis, eczema, dandruff, and rashes.
In my Holistic Dermatology practice I honestly hit a wall with patients when they refuse to test for these food triggers to their skin as the wrong nutrition or fuel for the patient’s skin type is oftentimes the underlying “Root Cause.”
Think about it…the FIRST thing your vet does when your dog has weird skin bumps, a bad rash or itchy skin, is to ask what food they are eating. As soon as you tell them the name of the food they are eating they IMMEDIATELY without hesitation rotate it to something else to see if the main protein or grain in the food was the skin trigger.
Now the most common hormonal acne trigger foods I recommend eliminating for hormonal acne may not be foods you need to eliminate and other foods could also be your triggers which is why IgG Food Sensitivity Testing is also so important. But I do recommend stopping my list of the most common hormonal acne trigger foods I find on my Hormonal Acne “AVOID” category so we can get inflammation to your skin down as fast as possible.
Many trigger foods are just not good for the skin in general and are also not healthy foods.
We must identify and eliminate trigger foods that the skin does not like, as well as test for those that are individualized. Back in the 90’s, I was eating all the WRONG ACNE FOODS that I thought at the time were "healthy foods” because I worked in a health food store for four years and was eating every superfood imaginable. However, my skin did not actually like some of these changes and ironically I was making my hormonal acne even worse with these healthier choices! Avoiding common and individual triggers for hormonal acne is critical for recovery.
#2 OMEGA-3’S: Anti-inflammatory omega-3 rich nutrition works to balance hormones, soften, smooth, and heal skin cells and reduce inflammatory break outs. Some acne patients are sensitive to fish oil though and this can actually cause breakouts so increasing omega-3’s like walnuts, flax, and chia seeds may be a better route to go if you are one of these rare exceptions to the rule!
#3 ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DIET: Acne is an inflammatory condition. We must reduce inflammation in the diet to reduce inflammation on the skin by avoiding inflammatory foods and eating more foods that reduce inflammation.
#4 LYMPHATIC DRAINAGE: Moving lymphatics to detoxify the skin is very important in hormonal acne. Everything is clogged and in a hormonal lymphatic traffic jam. So doing the correct exercises to help move lymphatic drainage will help the skin naturally heal and repair at a faster rate.
Doing too much body building and weight lifting can boost the testosterone and DHEA we are working to block with the Hormonal Acne Diet and I recommend limiting those to what is necessary and sticking with Yoga, Pilates, and Cardio that do not spike these hormones as we demonstrate in my Hormonal Acne Diet program with different classes you can do from home or on your phone.
#5 MANAGE CORTISOL STRESS BREAKOUTS: Reducing cortisol hormone stress surges that trigger breakouts is imperative for acne prevention. By implementing cortisol balancing exercises, meditation, aromatherapy, and yoga we can prevent needless stress breakouts. This is specifically important for women that get high anxiety with their PMS, insomnia, and heart palpitations. Nobody ever taught me this stuff so that is why I want women everywhere acne or not to know how to better manage their stress!
#6 HORMONE BALANCING NUTRITION: This is really what the root of the problem is for most women, and even many men as men get hormonal acne too. By increasing foods that help to balance estrogen, progesterone, insulin, DHEA, and testosterone and avoiding the foods that trigger the imbalance we can control hormonal acne nutritionally! Managing hormonal acne with nutrition will take several months to correct female hormone imbalance and is not going to magically clear up your acne in a few days. But investing in long term solutions and not quick fixes is the way off the “Hormonal Acne Struggle Bus.”
MY HORMONAL ACNE DIET PROGRAM SOLUTION
Since I researched so many different moving parts and pieces to controlling hormonal acne naturally, I have put everything together into a simple Holistic Dermatology Mind/Body/Spirit program of recipes, meal plans, exercises, yoga, aromatherapy, and meditation videos all designed to work synergisticaly to help regain that clear confident complexion you deserve.
My nutritionist has made time saving easy meal prep recipes with handy grocery shopping lists that actually teach you how to meal prep and make multiple portions of your healthy Hormonal Acne Diet recipes. There is also an easy cheat sheet guide Hormonal Acne guide foods to eat and foods to avoid.
You can get everything you need to improve your skin right here: Hormonal Acne Diet
Worst case scenario you learn some new healthy recipes, learn to manage stress, and get fit!
Best case scenario your skin clears up beautifully like I see in my Holistic Dermatology practice all the time...which is why I want women everywhere to know all about this….AND you learn to manage stress, prevent disease...and get fit!
HOW LONG UNTIL I SEE RESULTS WITH YOUR HORMONAL ACNE DIET PROGRAM?
Most of my patients see their skin improving within weeks and after the three months it takes to “remodel” the female hormone system are generally to a place of maintenance and no longer suffering with hormonal acne unless they deviate too far from my Hormonal Acne Diet program. Most of my patients after three months just need to follow the program about 80%. For severe acne it may take longer than three months but I would say 1-3 months is the most common timeline my patients report.
WHY DOES IT TAKE PATIENCE TO TREAT HORMONAL ACNE?
We need to be patient when correcting hormone imbalance. While many of my Holistic Dermatology patients with eczema and psoriasis clear up in weeks this is going to take more time for lasting results.
Keep in mind the eggs in your ovaries being made right now with imbalanced female hormones will not be released until 3 months from now. So these eggs have not undergone any hormone balancing nutritional treatment yet and we will need to go through a few cycles of releasing these “bad eggs” each month to achieve lasting results. Although my skin began to dramatically improve in just a month and the worst and largest cystic boils were at least gone. So it is best to watch for steady gradual improvement and understand this is a long term lasting solution that is actually making you healthier, and is not a quick fix.
DOES EVERYONE IMPROVE ON YOUR HORMONAL ACNE DIET PROGRAM?
95% of my patients get my Holistic Dermatology information and are super excited to start eating better, exercising and managing stress. These are the tools they have been longing for and I see these patients improving immediately with their acne in weeks to months.
The only patients that don't improve or have “flunked out” of my Naturopathic program simply refused to stop eating fast food, refused to do the exercises, and refused to follow my nutrition program.
So basically My Hormonal Acne Diet program does not work if you don’t follow it. It's that simple.
This is why I took the time to put it into a program to help save women time and money and replicate what I do as a Hormone Doctor so I can help as many women with their skin as possible!
Since I have seen my Hormonal Acne Diet program work so well for so many women I decided to make it into a cost saving Mind/Body/Spirit program since most women with hormonal acne are already struggling college students and don’t have thousands of dollars for a Holistic Dermatologist, Naturopathic Doctor, Hormone Doctor, Nutritionist, Personal Trainer, and Yoga instructor. Hiring all those experts for your hormonal acne could cost several thousand dollars!
To make things easier, I have every class you need all put together into one simple cost saving program! To hire all these different experts and specialists would cost women thousands of dollars….a fraction of the cost of my Hormonal Acne Program.
Plus all the work is already researched, done and organized into time tested meal plans and recipes I have used for my own acne. I have poured my twenty five years or research, experience and work into creating a simple program to help women treat and manage their hormonal acne naturally! The most common types of Hormonal Acne I see in my Holistic Dermatology practice are cleared by this program. Occasionally some women have very uncommon hormone imbalance that I unearth that requires a different approach, but that is rare and happens in my practice maybe 1-2 times per year.
So with “Girl Math” you are saving several thousand dollars getting a bunch of different experts to treat your Hormonal Acne all together in one simple cost effective program!
Plus you are getting recipes that make you feel awesome, energetic and lean, exercises and stress management tools I was never taught until I went to Naturopathic school.
My program is the HEALTHY way to go about clearing acne by implementing nutritious foods for the skin, reducing inflammation, and properly managing stress.
Nutrition should be the first place we start for hormonal acne and not the last resort. Improving nutrition and learning to manage stress is much better for women in the long run than relying on medications that do not cure acne.
So, if you are like me and want to avoid useless creams that don’t work, trendy topicals that don’t work or don't provide lasting solutions, creams that dry, irritate and worsen your skin... If you want to avoid potentially feeling fat and crazy on birth control pills, if you want to avoid taking potentially dangerous antibiotics that upset your stomach, and if you want to avoid going down that toxic Accutane road that can cause permanent liver damage and suicide….then let’s get started!
Simply visit my Hormonal Acne Diet program to get your Holistic Dermatology Mind/Body/Spirit program to achieve that confident clear complexion you deserve!
That next pool party invitation is right around the corner…so let’s get started now!
I promise you can thank me later when you are feeling fit and confident in your bathing suit without relying on any makeup!
Join Me Here: Hormonal Acne Diet Program
Dr. Nicole Sundene
(480) 837-0900
P.S. CAN YOU HELP ME WITH MY HORMONAL ACNE IF I AM NOT IN ARIZONA?
The #1 question we get from women is can I help them with their hormonal acne testing if they are not in Arizona. Yes! If you need my help testing hormones for hormonal acne, simply visit my SCHEDULE page. Hormone testing can be conducted via telemedicine for women in all 50 states.
We are contracted with Labcorp and Sonora Quest so check in your Google maps, because as long as you have one of those labs near you, I can help you! The hormone labs are covered per the patient's insurance plan. Should you need prescription drugs which rarely occur with my patients, I can recommend the hormones, or prescription for your local Obgyn or Dermatologist to prescribe. Most out of state doctors find it a relief to work with me when they have not been able to resolve their patients' acne.
P.S.S.
HOW DO I KNOW IF I HAVE HORMONAL ACNE?
One of the most common acne questions I am asked as a Hormone Doctor that specializes in Holistic Dermatology, is how to know if acne is hormonal. Aside from testing hormones as I recommend to do, a simple free way to know if your acne is hormonal is to download a period tracker app to your phone and begin to track your acne breakouts along with your period. I like the free one with the pink flower. If your skin is breaking out between days 21-28 of your cycle with day 1 being the first day that you bleed then you most likely have hormonal acne. Or if your acne is worse while on your period then we know your skin is not happy from the hormone changes and is hormonally sensitive.
Generally what is happening with your acne and your menstrual cycle, is that around day 14 you ovulate hormones that are generally in balance with each other until the progesterone burns off faster than the estrogen and you are left with “Estrogen Dominance.” Progesterone is calming to the skin and gives it that pretty glow and goes low causing women to feel like they look worse before they bleed. Testosterone and DHEA also can remain high at this time and the lack of progesterone to balance them out is what causes skin to become more oily and more prone to have bacteria adhere to the pores and thus cause acne.
This is exactly why you need to pick up your Hormonal Acne Diet program ASAP!
P.S.S.S
WHAT IS THE BEST TREATMENT FOR HORMONAL ACNE?
Nutritional changes are what the body is calling for when it sends acne to your face. Without changing nutrition topical and medications are totally useless for hormonal acne in my opinion after trying many different methods over seventeen years in my Holistic Dermatology practice.
If you have not already enrolled in my Hormonal Acne Diet program to improve your skin on a Mind/Body/Spirit level then JOIN ME HERE and let’s get started working towards that confident clear complexion you deserve!
Dr. Sundene is a Naturopathic Doctor in Scottsdale, Arizona, and is considered a Female Hormone Expert in Women's Health and Bioidentical Hormones. She specializes in Holistic Women's Health for Menopause, Thyroid, Hashimotos, PMS, Perimenopause, Autoimmune, Postpartum, Chronic Fatigue, Depression, Anxiety, Food Allergies, Digestion, Dermatology , Acne, Psoriasis, Eczema and Adrenal Hormonal Conditions. In 1999 she began working for a Hormone Doctor prior to starting Naturopathic Medical School. With over 22 years of experience in both Prescription and Natural women's health and hormones she presents to women the best integrated health solutions for their Chronic Disease. She has been an Herbalist for over 27 years and enjoys teaching women how to use herbs to balance their hormones, nutrition and optimize their health. Dr. Sundene relies on blood testing for her hormone metrics. The hormone testing is covered per the patient's insurance plan and conducted at certain points in the woman's menstrual cycle. To learn more about Hormone Testing for Women Visit: Bioidentical Hormones. Follow Dr. Sundene on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook for more tips on Women's Health, Female Hormones and Naturopathy!
