Dry and Itchy Skin: Menopause Symptoms

Overview

During menopause, skin drying is very common due to hormone decline and loss. The skin's inability to produce essential oils also results in the itchy, tight feeling on the skin of your body and face. Regularly exfoliating, incorporating high fatty acids into your daily diet and taking warm, instead of hot, showers are simple and effective ways to ease the dry, itching feeling.

Our Skin

Before getting to the details of this quite annoying menopause symptom, let’s review brief, what exactly our skin is, and how it can be affected by the menopausal changes in our body. Skin is the largest organ in our body, and one of the most important. There are three main layers in our skin.

Epidermis - is the top or outer layer. It does not have any blood vessels in it. It basically consists of dead skin cells and it is designed to protect the delicate living cells of the deeper layers.

Epidermis needs to stay constantly moisturized to protect the deeper layers; that is why natural oils are produced. When the natural oil is stripped from the outer layer of skin, the moisture quickly evaporates leaving the skin dry and itchy.

The dead skin cells replenish themselves periodically. When we are young, this outer layer replaces itself very often, giving us fresh, healthy looking skin. When we age, the process of exfoliation (the top cells wear away, new cells grow beneath to replace them, and so on) is much slower, and the skin begins to look more tired and worn.

Dermis - is the second layer. This layer has blood vessels, which provide blood to that upper Epidermis layer. The Dermis is a permanent layer of skin, it does not replenish itself and it cannot be reached by cosmetics. It contains the elastin and collagen, forming the structure of the skin. This layer stays elastic or gets saggy, causing wrinkles or firmness in your skin's look.

Hypodermis - is the lower layer. This layer contains main blood vessels, sweat glands and hair follicles.

Dry Skin and Menopause

Loss of estrogen, brought about by menopause, is the primary cause of skin sensitivity during this life phase as estrogen is responsible for stimulating of production of skin-smoothing collagen and oils. That's why, as menopause approaches and estrogen production diminishes, dry, itchy skin becomes very common, says Elizabeth Tanzi, MD, co-director of the Washington Institute of Dermatologic Laser Surgery.

That reduction of estrogen, and the changing ratios of hormones in your body don't just slow down your body's oil production, they also reduce your body's ability to retain moisture.

While a parched t-zone or flakey elbows may be the first places you notice the changes, "it really is a whole-body phenomenon," says Tanzi, with dry skin appearing just about anywhere, from the oil-gland-dense face, back, and chest, to elbows, legs, genitals -- even nails.

In addition to the chief symptom of dryness and itchiness, skin changes in menopause can also produce the following symptoms:

• Small bumps on the skin.
• Red or irritated skin.
• Skin rush.
• Abnormal touch sensations.

The changes to your skin can start as early as perimenopause, and they're permanent, Tanzi says. Fortunately, easing the itch and combating the dry skin associated with menopause is largely in your hands.

Other Causes of Dry and Itchy Skin during Menopause

While hormonal changes are the most common cause of itchy skin around the time of menopause, other medical conditions can be responsible for itchy skin. While these are rare causes, they are important to be aware of, particularly in cases where itchy skin is accompanied by other unexplained symptoms.

Among the most probable causes are:

• Hypothyroidism
• Fungal Infection
• Diabetes
• Skin cancer
• Vitamin Deficiencies
• Herpes
• Drug side effects
• Drug abuse or withdrawal
  

Women concerned about the causes of itchy skin and those who experience other worrisome symptoms are advised to speak with a qualified dermatologist or other medical professional. Fortunately, itchy skin in menopause can often be successfully managed with self care and natural treatments.

Treatment of Dry and Itchy Skin

Treating itchy skin in menopause often requires a number of self care techniques. Most doctors advise against invasive and risky medical or hormonal treatments for itchy skin during menopause. However, many experts recommend that women combine lifestyle changes with natural treatments, which are often safe and effective in providing itchy skin relief.

There are selected tips on how to deal with dry and itchy skin issues during menopause:

• Good diet: Essential fatty acids -- like the omega-3s found in salmon, walnuts, fortified eggs, or algae oils -- help produce your skin's oil barrier, vital in keeping skin hydrated. A diet short of these body-boosting fats can leave skin dry, itchy, and prone to acne. Adequate vitamin B intake is also crucial to skin health.
• Skin protection from Sun: Keep skin healthy with "a broad spectrum sunblock with an SPF of 15 or higher," says Andrea Cambio, MD, FAAD, a board-certified dermatologist practicing in Cape Coral, Fla. Dry skin, wrinkles, moles, and skin cancers can all result from too much sun, so add a sunscreen with UVA and UVB protection to your line of defense. Aim for about an ounce to cover all sun-exposed skin.
• Increase water intake: This will help to hydrate the skin from the inside out. But do not abuse your body by drinking too much of water, and do not fall to the 8x8 popular medical scam. Drink only when you are thirsty, but if are thirsty, do not delay the necessary water intake.
• Avoid hot showers: Because hot water can be harsh and drying, experts advise taking shorter showers using warm water. Also, preserve those natural oils by scrubbing with soap only in the spots you really need it, like your underarms, feet, and groin. Because your legs, back, and arms don't usually get very dirty, skip the soap and stick to a warm-water wash for these areas.
• Use gentle, non-irritating soaps: Scented, antibacterial, or deodorant soaps can be harsh, removing your body's essential oils, leaving skin even more itchy and dry. Instead, reach for an unscented or lightly scented bar.
• Moisturize after showers: Within a few minutes after your warm shower, smooth on your favorite moisturizer. Mineral oil and petroleum jelly are both excellent and inexpensive skin moisturizers. To help moisturizers penetrate the skin, experts also suggest exfoliating -- sloughing off the top layer of dead skin -- with a gentle scrubbing or by using products containing alpha- or beta-hydroxy acids. If you are still dealing with itchy skin and menopause, then you can try castor oil. To give the castor oil a nice, refreshing scent, you can purchase small bottles or vials of things like peppermint or lavender.
• Avoid other irritants: Avoiding smoke, excess sun exposure, stress, and lack of sleep can also help to manage itchy skin.
• Exercise: Exercise, which is important in menopause for heart and bone health, can keep skin healthy as well.  By increasing the amount of nutrients and oxygen that make it to your skin, exercise, like estrogen, can increases collagen, one of the key substances that keeps our skin youthful.

Alternative Medicine

Alternative approaches involve little to no risk and can be an extremely effective way to treat all menopause symptoms, including the skin related problems. This level of approach can involve several different therapies. Herbal supplements are the most prominent, though in addition women may turn to such menopause treatments as acupuncture, biofeedback, massage, aromatherapy, or hypnosis. All of these treatments can be valid and effective, though most women find that herbal supplements are the easiest menopause treatment to follow, as the other menopause treatments require a greater time and monetary commitment. In addition, herbal supplements are the only viable option to treat the hormonal imbalance directly at its source.

In the case of herbal supplements, there are two types of herbs that can be used for treating the 34 menopause symptoms: phytoestrogenic and non-estrogenic herbs.

Phytoestrogenic herbs (e.g. Black Cohosh) contain estrogenic components produced by plants. These herbs, at first, provide a menopause treatment for hormonal imbalance by introducing these plant-based estrogens into the body. However, this menopause treatment adds outside hormones, a womanґs body may become less capable of producing estrogen on its own. This causes a further decrease of body-own hormone levels.          

By contrast, non-estrogenic herbs, as the name suggests, don't contain any estrogen. These herbs provide the menopause treatment of stimulating a woman’s hormone production by nourishing the pituitary and endocrine glands, causing them to more efficiently produce natural hormones. This menopause treatment ultimately results in balancing not only estrogen, but also progesterone and testosterone. Non-estrogenic herbs (e.g. Macafem) can be considered the safest way to treat all menopause symptoms naturally as the body creates its own hormones and doesn’t require any outside assistance.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/521255-menopause-dry-or-itchy-skin/

http://www.my-menopause-solutions.com/skin-problems.html

http://www.34-menopause-symptoms.com/itchy-skin.htm

http://www.34-menopause-symptoms.com/treatments.htm

http://www.webmd.com/healthy-beauty/features/menopause-dry-skin-hormone-connection

http://www.menopauseatoz.com/itchy-skin-menopause.shtml

Sudden Tears Symptom during Menopause

Why Women Cry More than Men?

Girls and boys cry about the same amount of times until they reach the age of twelve, by the time they are eighteen women cry on average four times more than men. That is about 5.3 cries a month compared to a man's 1.4 times per month according to research by Dr. William Frey who studies tears.

So the old belief is true, women do cry more than men. But scientists still do not know exactly why this is true. One theory is that women cry more than men mostly because of social conditioning. As males are growing up they are urged to excel and become powerful, to never show their emotions, to be tough, independent, demanding, aggressive and good problem-solvers.

Males in our culture often hear things like, don't be a sissy, don't whine like a little girl, be self-sufficient, powerful and dominate others. In comparison to females who are taught to be a lady, express their emotions and value their looks and charm.

Although these ideals and values of society are changing they still do exist. Another thought is that women cry more than men due to the physical and hormonal difference between them.

The hormone prolactin is present in the mammary glands and induces lactation but it is also found in the blood and tear glands. Boys and girls have the same level of this hormone until they are twelve years old. The girl's amount then gradually rises and by the time they are eighteen they have sixty percent more than boys do.

The tear glands in men and women are also anatomically different, as are their tears. According to Frey's research, when men cry 73 percent of the time, tears do not fall down their cheeks. Men may get misty-eyed, but teardrops don't give way. When women cry almost every crying episode involves runaway tears down their cheeks.

Sudden Tears and Menopause

There are no certain reasons which justify the human crying at various emotional occasions. In fact it emotions can never be completely explained on scientific platform. But a few biotechnologists believe that crying under some emotional influence is just because of variation in harmonic levels of body.

If the crying is linked to the human hormones, there is quite understandable, why the menopause period may trigger sudden tears on hormonal level. On emotional level, the sudden tears symptom can be totally explained by the mood swings, we discussed in one of the previous posts.

Therefore, there is no surprise that the menopausal woman may cry over the slightest thing which never would have affected her before, or she may just feel "down" for no reason at all. Buckets of tears may pour out over concerns that earlier would have solicited only a sigh.

It is clear that, as for many other symptoms, you can do so much to fight hormonal changes in your own body, but you can try to take a better grip on your emotions, so the same recommendations we developed for mood swings, will be valid for sudden tears as well. At the other hand, multiple researches show that tears bring significant stress relief, so you might not need to hold them, when you are at the state of high tension and emotional distress.

Crying Communication

While crying may definitely benefit yourself, there are other people around, and your tears affect them emotionally as well.

In a new study from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, researchers discovered that when women cry, men’s testosterone levels drop significantly.

Multiple experiments showed that just the smell of a woman’s tears caused a dip in testosterone and reduced brain activity in areas associated with sexual arousal. The researchers believe it is a clear sign that human tears send chemical signals to the people around them. Now you have scientific explanation of why sometimes woman tears help to resolve intense family conflicts, as man do might not have equal argument to support their point.

Crying at Work

What might be a good idea in a family environment, may be equally bad idea in work environment. Most professional women have fought back tears in the workplace at some point in their careers–many unsuccessfully. A professor of management at the University of California, Davis, Kim Elsbach, Ph.D., has been studying the repercussions of crying in the workplace for over three years. According to her research, women are much more likely to cry at work—and in general—due to their socialization. Because most boys are firmly taught not to cry, holding back has become a reflex, she says. And unfortunately for women, tears at work are almost always perceived with disdain, and the consequences can be harsh.

In her research, Elsbach discovered that there are few situations where crying is “acceptable.” The worst offenses, she found, are crying in a public meeting or because of work stress, like a looming deadline or coworker disagreement, because it is considered disruptive and weak. Crying in a private performance evaluation is also considered unprofessional and often manipulative.

There are some useful tips on how you can control your tears at work:

1. Anticipate situations when possible. Not all situations that bring tears to our eyes are the same. Some emotionally charged encounters can be anticipated. In these instances it is extremely useful to spend time rehearsing various responses with someone else. Be prepared. Use what you know about the person and situation to construct likely scenarios. And practice. If you can hear yourself responding to what you fear most, you will lessen your anxiety and defuse your fear while developing confidence that you can respond effectively.
2. Increase your self-awareness. Women often cry without really knowing why. We cry when, actually, we are angry. Devote some energy and time to identifying your feelings more accurately. The more able you are to distinguish one feeling from another, the more you will feel able to control tears. You will find yourself less overwhelmed by feelings and thereby less likely to cry. If, as you examine your feelings, anger is what you are avoiding, work at becoming more assertive, so you more accurately and appropriately express your anger. When you feel that sensation of crying start to build, take a deep breath and immediately ask yourself, "What exactly is angering me? What do I need to do to resolve the situation?" Re-focus on the problem. This can help calm you down.
3. Cultivate a sense of optimism—things generally work out. Women often cry when they feel overwhelmed with work, unrecognized, or anxious and fearful about their performance. If this is you, remember, crying will not make a dent in what is really wrong. Make a list of the actual and perceived issues and problems creating your feelings. Seek out others such as a mentor, outside friend, business coach or networking group. Use them to assist with gaining a broader perspective that includes a healthy dose of optimistic alternatives. Few things in the workplace are life and death issues. Back up and give yourself some perspective.
4. Compartmentalize. If you well up frequently or easily cry at the office, your personal life may be intruding on your business life. Although somewhat artificial, it is important to create and then maintain a boundary between your personal and professional worlds. Being at work can be a great diversion. Think of work as a rest stop from the personal issues. Give yourself permission to focus on something other than your personal life. Away from the office, seek support and help from friends, family, religious leaders, a psychotherapist, family counselor, or the employee assistance program. Don’t forget that it took time for the problem to develop; it will take time to solve. Have in your repertoire a practice that helps you calm down when you need to. A good one to cultivate is mindfulness. By focusing on your breathing and utilizing relaxation techniques, you can slow down reactions, gain control and think more clearly. A complimentary strategy is focusing on content instead of the criticism, or redirecting your thoughts. For example, comment on how you can get the reports in more quickly rather than on the remark about “You’re too slow.” Or focus on how the negotiations are proceeding, instead of on your boss's question about, “Why haven’t you booked the business?" Finally, you might say to a colleague, “Matt, at the moment I’m not as concerned with your interpretation as I am with this scheduling problem."
5. Acknowledge your feelings or excuse yourself. If you find yourself starting to cry when you don’t want to, say, “As you can see, I feel strongly about this. Let’s focus on how we might get along better through this tough time.” Or, if you’re feeling you can’t gain control—say, “As you can see I feel strongly about this. I’d like to take a time out and talk about it again later. I appreciate your understanding.” Then leave and book another appointment at a later time.

Sources and Additional Information:

http://www.sacredheartspectrum.com/2.17079/the-crying-game-why-women-cry-more-than-men-1.2441251

http://www.minniepauz.com/menopause-symptom-sudden-tears.html

http://blogs.forbes.com/jennagoudreau/2011/01/11/crying-at-work-a-womans-burden-study-men-sex-testosterone-tears-arousal/

http://www.womensmedia.com/work/193-there-is-no-crying-in-business.html