When is the Best Time to Start Collagen Banking?

Could starting your skincare routine in your 40s be more effective than in your 20s? Join us for an eye-opening conversation with Dr. Stefanie Williams, a no-nonsense dermatologist, as she challenges the conventional wisdom of early collagen banking. Dr. Williams dismantles the myth of starting collagen banking in your 20s, advocating instead for initiating this preventative skincare strategy during the perimenopausal years. She explains how this timing is crucial for preparing your skin for the hormonal upheavals of menopause, ensuring you maintain a youthful complexion as you age.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Dermatologist debriefs. Join no-nonsense dermatologist Dr Stephanie Williams as she debunks myths and shares her professional insights, separating facts from fiction in just a few minutes the question what is the best age to start collagen banking?

Speaker 2: 0:25

So before I answer that, let's talk about what collagen banking actually is. The concept of collagen banking originally gained popularity as a preventative measure for people as young as in their 20s who are aiming to stimulate collagen production before signs of aging even appear. So collagen banking is a little bit like a savings account for our skin, where collagen production is thought to be stimulated to increase levels for future usage. And while I think that the general concept of collagen banking is a good one, I do disagree with a starting age of the 20s or so. There's really no need for collagen banking when you're in your 20s and it simply won't be there. When you enter perimenopause and when you really need those increased levels, there just won't be anything left, basically, and you don't want to do collagen banking for the next I don't know 30, 40 years or so. So for me, it makes much more sense to do collagen banking in the perimenopausal period of a woman's life, and that's because women are expected to lose around 30% of their skin's collagen content in the first five years or so after menopause. So that's a huge decline and we really have to mitigate that as much as we can. So with this in mind, it's essential for the skin to not enter the menopause with already depleted levels of collagen, but with an as high level as possible, and that's why I think it makes sense to bank as much collagen as possible in the years leading up to menopause, to enter this phase of rollercoaster hormonal changes, with the detrimental effects on our skin, with the highest collagen levels possible. With the highest collagen levels possible. And before we go into the details of collagen banking, you might wonder what does perimenopause actually practically mean? So a quick recap menopause is obviously when our menstrual cycle stops, and perimenopause simply means a few years around that time point. So, while every body is obviously different, on average women go into menopause around the age years of age. So, taking that into consideration, the ideal time to start investing into collagen banking, in my professional opinion as a dermatologist, is in your 40s, and that's what I call collagen banking for grown-ups. So what does collagen banking for grown-ups do? It prepares the skin for the upheavals of menopause to come. Essentially, by actively stimulating collagen production prior to expected periods of accelerated decline, ie the menopause, we build up reserves that help mitigate those hormonal effects of menopausal turmoil. That means we will be starting menopause with a higher level of collagen and hopefully we will sail through menopause as best as we can, at least with regards to our skin.

Speaker 2: 4:30

The aim of collagen banking is really to change the skin's trajectory, and that's a really exciting concept to me. And it does work if it's done correctly. And I've seen before and after images of Udello patients, where we looked at a patient before she joined Udello and then 10 years later, and we can see, to our surprise, see that her skin 10 years later looks better and younger compared to when she started. So that's really something quite exciting that we can do that these days changing the skin's trajectory, and I'm proud to say that Tetler magazine named the Udello Collagen Conservation Master Plan the Beauty and Grooming Winner 2025. However, we have to be aware of false promises.

Speaker 2: 5:28

So perimenopausal collagen banking is a long-term strategy. It's not an overnight miracle. This is really important to remember so for best results. Important to remember so for best results. Ideally, we want to plan ahead a decade, so that means starting to think about perimenopausal collagen banking when you turn 40. So this is really an approach of prevention via active planning rather than reactive correction, which is, of course, always second best In a world of instant gratification, as it seems, collagen banking is a quite counterintuitive concept that will need a lot of education, and I'm hoping that me talking about this here will contribute to this, because planning and prevention is so much better than correction, and at Udello we really champion collagen banking for grown-ups.

Speaker 2: 6:30

So we created a personalized collagen conservation plan, and that's different for every patient for every patient, and it features advanced regenerative treatments that work in concert, plus skin care and supplementation to support those in clinic treatments, because if you plan ahead and prepare your skin for menopause before it happens, the chances of sailing through it, as I mentioned, without even noticing it, on your skin at least, will be so much higher. And another huge advantage of collagen banking around menopause is that this concept is completely natural looking, or the outcome, rather, is completely natural looking, so there's a zero chance of ending up looking overdone. In summary, collagen banking for grown-ups gets a big thumbs up from me, and the best time to start this is around 10 years prior to expected menopause. I hope this makes sense and I will speak to you again soon. Bye-bye.