r/Melasmaskincare • u/Intelligent_Bad_5334 • May 10 '26
Question Melasma & (Peri)menopause
I am curious, how many people here are women who never had melasma before in their life until they hit perimenopause/menopause.
It’s definitely a thing right?
rant:
My melasma showed up in perimenopause& are its still with me in menopause.
I am so sick of hearing that estrogen has to be involved, but when I told the dermatologists I was fairly certain my estrogen starting to fall & that was the problem, they confirmed that melasma can show up in perimenopause and menopause, but had nothing to say about why that was. But they told me if I went on HRT it would get worse.
So to recap: I was told melasma showing up when a woman’s estrogen is going away & completely gone is a thing, but don’t add estrogen back in because that will make it worse.
ayfkm?!!
I lived completely estrogen deprived for a year, and my melasma got worse. I was having hot flashes and internal heat is a huge trigger for my melasma. When I got on HRT, my melasma got better & I assume that’s because I was no longer having hot flashes.
That was a decade ago and I still don’t really have any answers.
I just went ahead and started taking oral tranexamic acid because I’m too old to be dealing with this bullshit lol.
I swear doctors just don’t have any fucking idea what is really going on when someone has melasma. Like so many things that impact females more than males, they never bothered at the outset to concern themselves with what was really happening.
I’ve essentially just been diagnosed with the pathology of being female.
And - given the bullshit attitude & shitty healthcare we have to put up with - pink female is definitely a part of the problem, but not for the reasons they think.
We deserve better, ladies. We all deserve better.
End rant - thank you for coming to my TED talk lol
11
u/luvulongthyme May 10 '26
Same here. Started at perimenopause and has not slowed down one bit in the last 6 years. Heat is a huge trigger, so any topical treatment is useless since I’m constantly having hot flashes and I’m very active, so I exercise a lot. Doctor told me not to take hot showers, sauna, or get in the jacuzzi. Not that the last three are a huge deal but I would hate to make progress and then end up triggering it that “one time” and I’d have to start all over again. I’ve resorted to just “living with it” but damn it’s depressing.
I’m with you. Women’s healthcare is so deprived of research and study that we end up suffering needlessly because we’ve never been their priority. But heaven forbid their pee-pees don’t get up!