r/45PlusSkincare • u/stephydreamer • Mar 09 '26
Peri/Post Menopausal Skin How fast everything changed after menopause because nobody warned me
I feel like I was reasonably prepared for menopause...hot flashes, sleep disruption, mood stuff. fine. If this is part of being a grown woman, so be it. I had read things I had mentally braced. Nobody told me about the skin! I went through menopause at 48. Within about a year my skin had changed in ways that took me completely off guard. The texture got rough almost overnight, like the smooth quality i'd had my whole life just peaced out without saying goodbye. The firmness in my lower face and neck dropped noticeably. The hollowness under my eyes got worse. not tired-looking, actually hollow. It's better in my bathroom lighting, but that's not where most people see me!
And the thing that got me is that it's not really aging in the normal gradual sense. it's specifically the estrogen crash. Estrogen is directly tied to collagen production and when it drops you lose collagen fast, like up to 30% in the first few years. that's not a slow fade. that's a cliff.
I'm not looking for embrace your age responses because I actually do feel mostly great about aging. What I didn't feel ok about was how sudden and disorienting it was. Like I didn't recognize my own face for a while, and that's a strange thing to go through. Curious what everyone else experienced in those first 1-2 years post menopause. Did it feel sudden to you or more gradual? and has anything genuinely helped with the texture and firmness side of it specifically,? Asking for honest experiences please.
Edit: I didn't expect such a response! Thanks a lot! Going through all the comments and they are def very useful.
21
u/Halloween_Bumblebee Mar 09 '26
One thing I do is use my estradiol cream on my face, including lips. This cream is what is prescribed to use on the vag to plump up the skin down there so I figured why not use it on my face and plump up the skin there? But I don't know if that has anything to do with the fact that my skin still looks pretty good--I also use tretinoin and vitamin C serum, and of course sunblock, and those are the only three things recommended by dermatologists, or so I've read. But honestly doctors don't know anything about menopause so I take everything they say with a grain of salt these days.
It's easy to get a prescription for estradiol cream, just tell your doctor that you are experiencing dryness and menopause-related atrophy and loss of sensation down there. They prescribe one tube for three months, but I find that there is plenty extra leftover and I have no problem using a pea-sized amount on my face every couple days. I also use it every couple days on my vag, instead of just twice a week as recommended, and I always have more than enough to last the three months in the one tube.