Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions
Clear skin and aging beautifully conversations, trainings and challenges by Dr. Stacey Shillington ND.
Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions
Progesterone's Role in Clearing Acne After 35
Ever wondered why your skin suddenly started breaking out after 35? The culprit might be hiding in your hormones. As progesterone levels naturally begin to decline in your mid-30s, your skin becomes vulnerable to the unopposed action of androgens – the hormones directly responsible for triggering acne flares.
But here's the revelation that changes everything: this hormonal decline isn't inevitable. Your body isn't designed to malfunction! As a naturopathic doctor who spent years battling my own stubborn acne, I've discovered that declining progesterone signals deeper imbalances that need attention. When we address the root causes – oxidative stress, chronic infections, poor detoxification, insulin dysregulation, and mitochondrial dysfunction – we can restore your body's natural ability to ovulate optimally and produce the progesterone you need for clear, glowing skin.
The perimenopausal decade (roughly 35-45) represents a critical window of opportunity. By solving these underlying issues now rather than masking symptoms with quick fixes or bioidentical hormones, you're not just clearing your skin – you're setting yourself up for vibrant health for decades to come. I navigated my entire perimenopausal journey without a single blemish, and at 51, I feel better than I did in my 30s. This transformation is possible for you too.
Ready to understand what's really happening with your hormones and skin? Watch my free Clear Skin After 35 Masterclass where I dive deeper into the testing and protocols that have helped thousands of women heal from the inside out. Your body knows how to heal – sometimes it just needs the right support to remember.
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Welcome to Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions, where we heal your acne from the inside out. Hello, beauties, and welcome to Naturopathic Beauty's Clear Skin Sessions. I'm Dr Stacey Shillington. I'm a naturopathic doctor. For the past 20 years, I've been helping women clear their acne from the inside out. This podcast is designed for you, to help you on your clear skin journey, so you do not have to go what I went through, which was probably about seven or eight years of debilitating acne that changed my personality, that made me go from being outgoing and confident to wanting to hide away from the world until my skin cleared. It was painful, but it did lead me to become a naturopathic doctor. It did lead me to help thousands of women around the world.
Speaker 1:This podcast is specifically for you if you're over the age of 35 and if your skin has started to get worse, or if acne has just popped up out of nowhere. This podcast is about progesterone levels, because that's what's happening when you reach the age of 35, your progesterone levels start to shift. We're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about why it's happening and what you can do to circumvent it. First of all, I want to tell you a little bit about me and my philosophy to healing. So I am a root cause doctor. In naturopathic medicine school, we're always taught to ask why? So if your gut is not working properly, why? I want to dig down deep and I want to understand, almost on a cellular level, what's not working properly so I can fix it, so that you can regain optimal health. And this goes for every symptom that I come across as a doctor. So if your skin is breaking out, why is your skin breaking out? What is going on? To me, it's not enough to give you a medication. It's not enough to slap a cream on and just band-aid the situation temporarily. I want to deeply understand what is going on in your body. I want to balance that imbalance so that you can live your life as vital as possible, so that your skin can be clear and glowing and you don't have to think about your acne coming back. That is my philosophy.
Speaker 1:And when women start to enter perimenopause, when they start to experience symptoms and we're going to talk about these symptoms in a minute my first approach is not to slap on some bioidentical hormones. Bioidentical hormones are amazing tools when used appropriately, but my first response is to ask why? Why are hormone levels not balanced? And what can we do to naturally repair the body? Because if we just all of a sudden start taking hormones without doing further investigation, we're missing some really important things. Maybe we're missing some chronic infections, maybe we're missing toxic accumulation, maybe we're missing mold or parasites, and when we just leave those underlying imbalances in place and just slap on a band-aid, we're setting the body up for chronic disease and we're not actually solving the issues that are causing acne. So you're still going to be struggling with acne. Symptoms may improve, but there's still going to be underlying health symptoms that are holding you back from truly experiencing clear skin and truly having optimal health and optimal vitality and living your life at that high level that I know you want to live, and that's those are the patients that I work with. I work with patients who want to live at that optimal high level place where their health is better than they could ever imagine. That's where I'm going with my patients. So I just wanted to give you a little background into my philosophy of healing, because I am just so obsessed with understanding exactly what is going on. That's why I do the testing that I do. That's why I work with the types of patients that I work with.
Speaker 1:So this podcast we are going to talk about progesterone and clear skin after the age of 35. So perimenopausal acne is acne after the age of 35. The main reason why acne is happening is because progesterone levels start to decline. There is a tendency for progesterone levels to start to reduce, but this is not ideal and this does not have to happen. There are reasons why this happens and we can actually reverse this process from happening and that is what I'm going to teach you about in this podcast.
Speaker 1:So there are two stages of perimenopause. There's early menopause, which is between the ages of 35 and 45. And then there's late perimenopause, which is between the ages of 45 and 50. So in early perimenopause this is when progesterone levels typically start to decline. Estrogen levels can be high, they can be low. I see them all over the place. In this stage of life, between the ages of 45 to 50, we're seeing progesterone decline even more, but we're also seeing estrogen decline.
Speaker 1:So between the ages of 35 to 45, there is a lot that we can do to restore hormonal balance within the body and this completely excites me. It completely inspires me, because we can take you from having flaring skin, really experiencing some symptoms that are bringing you down to feeling wonderful and to looking wonderful, and you know I'm one of those women. I've always loved before and after makeovers. They've always really excited me, and this is the ultimate makeover, so I love taking women through this process.
Speaker 1:So let's talk a little bit about what progesterone does. So progesterone is a hormone that every woman just thrives off of, and there's nothing like having your natural progesterone. This is what it does. Number one it balances estrogen. It prevents estrogen dominance from kicking in. When we have estrogen dominance, you experience symptoms like heavy periods, fibroids and mood swings.
Speaker 1:Another thing that progesterone does, which is incredibly important, is it calms the nervous system. Progesterone attaches to GABA receptors in the brain. This reduces anxiety. It improves sleep, it stabilizes mood. So often my patients come to me they're not sleeping, they're feeling stressed, they're feeling anxiety and, yes, this is often due to lower progesterone levels, and I just want to interject here and I want to mention that, even though after 35, it's very common to see declining progesterone levels, I see this all the time. I see this in women that are even younger, especially if pcos is part of the picture, especially if the woman is not ovulating optimally, I'm going to see lower progesterone levels in younger populations as well. So this is by no means exclusive to women over the ages of 35, but it definitely happens to most women over the age of 35 that are experiencing skin issues, and that's what you're here for. So that's what I really want to focus on issues and that's what you're here for. So that's what I really want to focus on. So progesterone also lowers inflammation in the body, so it's going to help prevent skin flares. And progesterone One of the most important things that progesterone does is it opposes the action of androgens.
Speaker 1:Androgens are the hormones that directly cause acne, and when we don't have enough progesterone, androgens are going to act unopposed, and this looks like increased oil production in your pores. It also looks like more clogging and it also looks like ovulation being inhibited, and it also looks like ovulation being inhibited. So this is probably one of the most important actions of progesterone when it comes to acne and when it comes to thinking about clearing the skin. Progesterone is also going to regulate the menstrual cycle. It protects brain function. It supports bone health. It also supports thyroid function. That's another thing that I see very, very commonly in women that are over the age of 35. It's a deficiency in thyroid function and I'm going to do a whole podcast on this itself. But this is really important and this can very much be driven by lower progesterone levels.
Speaker 1:So where do we get progesterone? So progesterone is a consequence of ovulation. So when we ovulate optimally, the follicle that actually ovulates turns into something called the corpus luteum, and the corpus luteum is responsible for progesterone production. So when we ovulate optimally, we have enough progesterone. So the bottom line is that low progesterone levels after the age of 35 are a consequence of poor ovulation. And you may say well, isn't this just how it happens? Don't we just start to have suboptimal levels of ovulation after the age of 35. This does not have to happen. Our bodies are designed to work very beautifully. They're not designed to sputter and you're not designed to have all these uncomfortable symptoms. It's a sign that something is off. Your skin is telling you something is not balanced in my body, something is not working properly, and it's usually ovulation. That's not happening.
Speaker 1:We can revive ovulation, especially between the ages of 35 to 45. Your body is designed to continue this process even at this age. And when we revive ovulation, we revive progesterone levels, we revive optimal health. We also revive your skin, and this is how we get clear, glowing skin.
Speaker 1:We avoid the symptoms of perimenopause and we all know the symptoms of perimenopause. If you're over 35, if you have skin issues, if your progesterone levels are declining, you know that your periods start to become irregular, shorter cycles, lining, you know that your periods start to become irregular, shorter cycles. Mood swings, anxiety, depression, sadness, brain fog, memory lapses, hot flashes, night sweats, fatigue, low energy, weight gain around the midsection, bloating, headaches, migraines, of course, the hormonal acne, decreased libido, vaginal dryness and bone density loss begins. Slower metabolism, changes in cholesterol levels these are all the things that we can experience when we start to head into perimenopause. It's incredibly uncomfortable and, no, your body is not meant to experience these imbalances. The body is far too intelligent to go down this path. Naturally, it's not how our bodies were designed.
Speaker 1:So we need to talk about why this is happening, and I know a lot of women when they come to see me, they're like well, can't I just take bioidentical progesterone to take care of these symptoms? So there is a time and there is a place for bioidentical progesterone. It's not always helpful in women with acne. So the first thing I want to say is progesterone levels have to be just right when you have acne. If they're too low, you're going to experience acne. If they're too high, you're going to experience acne.
Speaker 1:So getting the right dose of bioidentical progesterone can be very tricky and you know, for a while in my practice I was really prescribing a lot of bioidentical progesterone because, after looking at labs, I'm like this is what my patients need. It was very difficult to get just the right dose and as patients were on a good dose for a long period of time, their skin just wouldn't maintain. So I quickly discovered that I had to do something much deeper than just give bioidentical progesterone. So I started to work at deeper levels and since I've discovered that's definitely the way to treat the skin, and since I've discovered that's definitely the way to treat the skin, the other thing is that when we take bioidentical progesterone, we just use it as a band-aid treatment.
Speaker 1:We're missing underlying imbalances that are going to make our skin worse and that can also lead to chronic disease. We're missing infections, we're missing mold, we're missing parasites, we're missing toxic accumulation. We're missing so many root causes and by doing that you're not reviving optimal health, you're not reviving ovulation. It's always best to make and use your own natural progesterone as long as you can, because making progesterone is a sign of being healthy. If you're not making enough progesterone, your body's not working in an optimal health state. So, and of course, as a root cause doctor, I want you to make your own progesterone because that's a sign to me that you are optimally healthy. And, yes, most women can get to this place. Of course, there's some women that really have a struggle, and I understand that, and this is a time when bioidentical hormones might be really helpful. But if we can prolong your own natural progesterone production as long as possible, this is the optimal state, okay.
Speaker 1:So what is actually causing this progesterone decline? Why, after the age of 35, do we just think that it's natural not to ovulate optimally? This is not the case and there's a few reasons why why we're not ovulating optimally. The first one is oxidative stress. So the longer we are on this planet, the more oxidative stress we are confronted with, and the longer on the planet, the more our antioxidant reserves, which counteracts oxidative stress. They naturally decline.
Speaker 1:So oxidative stress has been building up for decades and you want to think of it like internal rusting. That's what oxidative stress can kind of be likened from. It comes from environmental toxins, processed foods, a low antioxidant diet, over-exercising, under-eating, poor sleep, emotional stress, mitochondrial decline and inflammation. And the ovaries are incredibly sensitive to oxidative damage. And the oxidative damage impairs the follicles, it reduces the quality of the egg and it makes ovulation harder to achieve.
Speaker 1:And of course, we know when we're not ovulating optimally. We're not making the progesterone we need. So we need to counter the amount of oxidative stress in our bodies to help encourage optimal ovulation and progesterone function. So if we're just slapping on the progesterone cream, we're not necessarily countering the oxidative stress that can lead to so many other health conditions as we move down the road. And of course, when we counter oxidative stress, it shows on our skin. We want to reduce that oxidative stress. We want the skin to glow optimally, we want to clear your skin, and when we just allow oxidative stress to continue, honestly that's when we see a lot of pigmentation occur, we see dullness, we see the acne continuing. Sometimes we see other skin conditions coming up as well, and then of course, we have to talk about chronic stress.
Speaker 1:So when we have chronic stress and when we have high cortisol, this actually shuts down ovulation. So you want to think about it this way your body is hardwired to prioritize survival over reproduction. So when you are really stressed whether it's from work, kids, whether there's unresolved trauma, or even if you're overworking out or under eating your brain sends a clear signal which says it's not a safe time to ovulate, meaning it's not a great time right now to get pregnant. So let's hold off on that possibility. Let's stop ovulation until stress levels go down. This is because cortisol suppresses communication in the brain that actually triggers ovulation.
Speaker 1:And even if you get a period, it doesn't guarantee that you've ovulated. And even if you get a period, it doesn't guarantee that you've ovulated. So if you're under high, high levels of stress, that is absolutely going to affect your ovulation, that's going to affect the amount of progesterone that you're producing and that's going to affect the quality of your skin. Acne is going to flare and rage when you have chronic stress and I know it's easier to say let's bring down the stress than to actually do it. But this is a skill that's so important to learn. It is going to benefit every single system in your body and, again, we don't just want to slap on the progesterone without addressing chronic stress, and when you address chronic stress, your life actually becomes more fun, it becomes more enjoyable and you want to be able to get to this place where you can enjoy your life actually becomes more fun, it becomes more enjoyable and you want to be able to get to this place where you can enjoy your life because you've worked so hard to achieve all the things you've achieved. At this point you need to learn how to enjoy it, and this is a lesson that I've learned and I should do a whole podcast on that as well. So here's another thing Insulin dysregulation damages ovarian function.
Speaker 1:So when we have low-grade infections, inflammation from gut infections, toxic exposure and oxidative stress this blunts insulin receptor function. It makes it harder for insulin to unlock cells so that they can absorb glucose and this leads to insulin resistance. And when we have high insulin levels, we have high androgen levels. This leads to impaired follicle development, no ovulation, low progesterone and acne is going to rage. So there's underlying situations that are causing these receptors not to respond, and this is another reason why GLP-1 agonists such as Ozempic. They often are overused, without addressing the root causes of why these receptors are not working optimally, and usually there's an underlying reason when we solve infections, we solve parasites. We solve parasites, we solve mold, we get rid of toxicity. All of a sudden, insulin receptors start to function normally and then you start to ovulate normally, you produce progesterone, your skin clears and so many other functions in your body improve as well. So regulating insulin is absolutely crucial to ensure that ovaries are not damaged.
Speaker 1:And then I've already mentioned this, but gut infections and poor detox inhibit ovulation. I do a lot of testing on all my patients the GI mapping test and the out test. Those are my favorite. I can tell you I'm trying to think of times when I've seen a patient that does not have some type of chronic gut infection. It's very rare, incredibly rare. I can't even think of one at this point in time. Most women over the age of 35 that have acne have underlying gut infections that have likely been there for years.
Speaker 1:We're talking about H pylori, candida, we're talking about SIBO, and these infections increase inflammation. They disrupt estrogen clearance, which leads to an estrogen dominance picture. It impairs nutrient absorption. So even though you're eating a perfect diet, you may not be absorbing the nutrients that you need, especially zinc, b6, and magnesium. These are all critical for ovulation and I often, I always see poor detox. If you have skin issues, you are not a great detoxifier. This I can say with absolute certainty. After doing this for 20 years, I have not been able to help a single patient clear their skin without supporting the detox pathways in the body.
Speaker 1:And when you're over the age of 35 and you have not been taking care of your detox pathways, chances are toxic accumulation has occurred within your body and this damages tissues, it damages organs, it increases inflammation and it also increases microbial growth, because a lot of microbes, such as candida, they actually feed off of toxins. And even though candida is something that needs to be removed from the body so that you can achieve optimal health, we also have to ask why candida has thrived in your body, and often it's because there's a toxic accumulation and candida is often like a vacuum cleaner it goes throughout your body and it kind of absorbs a lot of toxins that have been present there for a while. So we need to take a look at all of this and it's all so interesting and it's like putting pieces of a puzzle together so we can figure out exactly what is going on in your body, we can solve these imbalances, we can restore ovulation. We can restore progesterone production, and that is how Not only do we clear your skin, but we also resolve other symptoms of perimenopause that are likely happening.
Speaker 1:And then, of course, there's mitochondrial decline, and your ovarian follicles are powered by mitochondria. Mitochondria are really the energy factories in your cell. As you age, and especially as you experience stress, and especially as toxins accumulate, your mitochondrial function declines, especially in the ovaries. This means your eggs are not maturing properly, ovulation becomes weaker and your progesterone production is going to drop dramatically. So I've gone over all these problems that are associated with poor ovulation the oxidative stress, the insulin dysregulation, the stress, the mitochondrial decline, the infections, the toxic accumulation. So it sounds really grim, but it's actually excellent news, because all of those elements that are preventing you from ovulating properly, that are causing your skin to flare, that are contributing to all these symptoms of perimenopause, we can solve all of these underlying issues, we can reverse them, and it's just a matter of knowing what the body needs and what is making the body inflame and what is making the body imbalanced.
Speaker 1:When we figure this out, when we put together a protocol specifically for you, we increase progesterone, we clear your skin, we reduce and eliminate perimenopausal symptoms and this leads to a lifetime of amazing health. This leads to an incredibly easy menopause and, ultimately, perimenopause is a very important time because this is the time in our lives where we need to get things balanced so that for the rest of your life, for the next 50 years, you're in excellent health. If we don't use these 10 years of perimenopause to really heal the body, to really get all that inflammation and all those imbalances sorted, you're going to be stepping into an era where you're going to start to experience chronic disease. Your menopausal symptoms are going to be extremely uncomfortable. So there's a window in which your health needs to be optimized. And of course, this is coming from me, because I am just so passionate about helping people achieve optimal health, especially when there's skin issues. Because when there's skin issues, it's a sign that there's deep imbalances that need to be solved. We can't ignore skin issues. We can't apply band-aid solutions. We can't rely on skincare or lasers or medications. We have to understand what's going on in the body that's causing your skin to flare, so that we can heal your body and we can ensure that you have excellent health moving forward in your life. So what are the next steps if you're over the age of 35 and your skin is flaring Number one.
Speaker 1:Watch my free Clear Skin After 35 Masterclass, because I go deep into this. I go much deeper into it. I explain what my steps of healing are. I also explain the functional medicine lab testing that I do on my patients, what this testing typically shows me and how I deal with it. So definitely watch this masterclass. It's free. If you're on this journey, this is information that you need to know. The link is in my show notes and you will be invited to book a call with my team. So if you have any questions that specifically pertain to you, if you're wondering if working with me is the right fit for you, then you can book a call with my team and you can talk to them. But the first step is to watch the masterclass to make sure that my philosophy and the way that I work resonates with you, because I want to work with the right people. I want to work with the people that are as passionate as I am about really healing from the root, like I'm talking about amazing optimal health, where you feel like you own the world. Like I'm talking about amazing optimal health where you feel like you own the world Like this is the feeling that I want to help other women achieve, and I do want to share that.
Speaker 1:I was very acne prone. My early thirties were probably the most difficult years of my life because my skin was so inflamed. I ended up healing my body. I went through my entire perimenopausal years, from the age of 38. I'm now 51 without a single blemish. And now, at the age of 51, I feel way better than I felt in my early 30s. Like it's not even comparable how great I feel. I never did take bioidentical progesterone. I'm 51 now. I've yet to take any bioidentical hormones. At this age, bioidentical hormones are definitely more needed than in the earlier years, but I still feel wonderful. So we'll see how my symptoms go. I know there's a ton of research that really supports using bioidentical hormones during menopause and I've definitely looked at it. I'm interested in it. I haven't gone there yet because, like I said, I feel fantastic right now.
Speaker 1:The other thing is you can leave a review If this podcast has, you know, generated an aha moment for you. If you find this podcast helpful, it would be so wonderful if you could leave a review. This is how I reach women that need my work, that need my help, so please leave a podcast review. If you do, I am so happy to gift you the first module of my program for free. So check that out. All the links are in my show notes. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast, and I will be back with a new one very shortly. Have a beautiful day and I'll see you soon.