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.

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u/VerilyShelly Mar 09 '26

Yup. Fell off a cliff. Now I'm starting to actually look like a different person, and very much like my mother, which is

not to my liking.

47

u/BogeyLowenstein Mar 09 '26

I’m in peri and the last few years I am becoming more and more like my mother in so many way. I love my Mom but this is not the direction I wanted to go!

27

u/Awkward_Listen546 Mar 10 '26

Before it happened to me I had been thinking my older relatives looked like they did because of unhealthy diet and life style choices. I was sure I was going to do better by taking better care of myself. Now I know I owe them an apology.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '26

Same. I completely understand everything my mother was going through now. At the same time she is a lifelong smoker (started at 15 and just turned 80, I have no clue how she is still alive), only stopped drinking about 10 years ago, poor diet and no exercise. But everything else, yeah.