Parent Time

You’ve finally found your saviour wrinkle cream and are valiantly fighting smile lines morning and night. A week later, your skin erupts in a road map of pimples. What gives? You’ve got two kids and a sizable mortgage — aren’t you too old for breakouts? In a word: Nope.

Physiologically speaking, a zit is a zit is a zit, whether you’re 18 or 38. Pores anchor hairs and when the follicle gets clogged with dead skin cells, bacteria or sebum (oil), infection can set in. In Canada, up to 50 percent of women over 35 are dealing with breakouts, which means you’re not alone.

What’s your cause? Factors such as diet, genetics, medications and pollution all take a toll on your skin. The biggest culprit? Hormones, whether kick-started by PMS, premenopause, pregnancy or breastfeeding. Then there’s stress. Good old anxiety spikes cortisol hormone levels. Over time, those extra hormones weaken our immune system and boost oil production in our skin (hello shine and pimples).

A grown-up problem Living with acne as a working adult can be debilitating. “In many cases, adults are more psychologically affected by their acne than teenagers,” says Jaggi Rao, dermatology residency program director at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. “We have been conditioned to think that if acne happens in adults, there must be something dramatically wrong with us.”

Rhoda Rizkalla, a gregarious Vancouver publicist, had severe acne that started when she was in her 20s. “My cheeks and forehead were blistered with pimples,” says the 43-year-old. “It was so awful. I couldn’t look someone in the eye to have a conversation. I would avoid social activities. And the more I stressed about it, the worse it seemed to get.”

Originally published in Today's Parent, March 2010