The Truth About HRT and Chemical Peels

But it doesn't change anything. These are our natural hormones. There is; this is not gonna make you more sensitive to the acid; it's not gonna change your peel experience.

 If you're putting the estradiol creams, it doesn't matter if it's, well, they're all prescription, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

So you're just treating it like a moisturizer.

We're trying to normalize ourselves. That's not going to do anything. That's like drinking water every day is not gonna, you know.

You're replacing something that your body already had…

That you’re losing it. 

Yeah, but now you're losing it.

Hey, let's talk HRT and peels.

Hormone replacement therapy. And yeah, we have, like, one question from somebody, but it's one question among hundreds.

Yes.

People are always so concerned. Like, “Is this going to affect my peel? You know, doing something to my skin.” And I just want to say, “no, it's not.” You know, when we're born, we have all of our hormones. You know, you have estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, right? We have all of those in our bodies, and they're all at, like, appropriate levels. And then as we age, women specifically, obviously men's go down a little bit too, but women, obviously, we are losing our estrogen at huge rates. Our progesterone and testosterone go down. And a lot of people don't know this, but our testosterone is actually like, everybody thinks like testosterone is the men's hormone and estrogen is the women's hormone. It's not true. We actually have way more testosterone naturally than we do estrogen. It's like four or five times the amount is our natural. So we have testosterone too. It's like a 10th of what men have, but it's way higher than our estrogen. It's just, I thought that was interesting and funny. So a lot of people are, you know, they're either, you could be taking a pill, they could have a pellet, you could be using like a vaginal insert, you could be using a face cream that has your estradiol or whatever. There are so many things. Yeah, patch. I have my patch on, right? Hello. Patch cream. I got it all.

I got a patch. You got a patch?

No.

No patch for Darren.

No patch for Darren. He's good with his estrogen, thanks.

No patch for Darren.

But it doesn't change anything. These are our natural hormones. There is, this is not gonna make you more sensitive to the acid. It's not gonna change your peel experience. If you're putting the estradiol creams on, it doesn't matter if it's, well, they're all prescription, but it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter.

So you're just treating it like a moisturizer.

We're trying to normalize ourselves.

Yes.

That's not going to do anything. That's like drinking water every day. It's not gonna, you know.

You're replacing something that your body already had, but now you're losing it. So you're supplementing your estrogen with estradiol cream, a patch, or something similar.

And you know, you don't always have to buy a facial cream. Like, I know I have a facial cream with estradiol in it, because why not, right? And anything I can put on to help, I will. But you don't even have to buy a facial one. You can use any of the ones that are, you know, compounded. Let's say there's some that you put on your arm. I've done those before. There are internal ones. I've done those, but you can use any of those on your face.

Wow. That's interesting.

It is.

The one question I would have then maybe is like, so you're using an estrogen replacement on your face. Could there be a reaction to the product, like delivery, like having, like if you did the peel too soon, close to that application?

I suppose.

Is this something you put on every day?

Yeah, every day.

Okay.

Every day, just like a normal cream. I mean, I don't know. Obviously, there are plenty of different brands. They're all prescription, right?

Right.

I don't know what their base is. I have tried multiples, and I have never had it burn or anything. These are very inert ingredients. This is the plainest of plain cream. It's just a cream delivery system.

Got it.

I highly, highly doubt anything in there is going to be harmful or, you know, work poorly with any, certainly not with any of our products. I can tell you that for a fact, because I've used it with all of our products.

So it's not like you have to stop your Estradiol cream so many days before a peel or, you know. But I mean, you wouldn't want to use it right after a peel, because it won't penetrate.

Like if your skin is peeling, maybe just, it's not like it's a miracle. And as you know, they don't even, there's not even proof that it's really working, working. There are, you know, studies showing it's happening and people want it. So it's there. Okay. But it's not like anything's going to stop working for those seven to 10 days. If you stop it for seven to 10 days, just because, you know, you don't want to waste your cream, that's fine.

Right.

When you're done, start up again just like you would with your normal regimen. I just want to stress that. Yeah, it is not going to change anything, damage anything. Please don't worry about it. It's just, that's just part of our lives.

So let's look ahead to the near future of platinum skincare.

Yeah. Now, obviously we can't do anything with estradiol because that's a prescription. It's prescription-only hormones. But there are different kinds of things. Like, like there's like phytoestrogens. There are ingredients you can put out. Like, let's say, like soy, you know, where you would have to ingest a whole bunch of it, but, you know, it can help make estrogen and things in your body. So there are things called phytoestrogens where you put them on your skin or ingest them, and they help your body to make more estrogen. So our face cream we're coming up with will have different types of phytoestrogens in it.

Okay, cool.

So they will be in there. But, you know, besides that, the main focus is, you know, people with menopause skin, which is what, you know, menopause, perimenopause, it's like a 10-year window.

Yes, it is.

When you're going through this, and you're just all up and down. But once-

Which can start in your thirties.

Yeah, mid-thirties.

Yes.

Mid thirties, if you're in your, I think the mean age is, I think it's 51, where they consider that most people have reached menopause or they're at least in perimenopause. And, you know, your skin can be a little drier. And I've noticed that too. Like I've always been very, very oily, acne-prone, all that. It's not that I won't get a pimple if I don't, if I get off my regimen; I totally would. But I am not as oily as I used to be. You know, and I know that has to do with age and 55, right? You know, that happens; I'm not as oily. So our menopause, you know, face cream is definitely going to have many more hydrating ingredients and healing, barrier repair, all that kind of stuff. So it is something I am actively working on, and I've been using a prototype, and I'm just, you know, I'm just trying to, I've like, I like the prototype. The only reason I haven't pulled the trigger yet is that I'm waiting to see if there's like anything else that I want to add to it.

So you can throw in something else besides the kitchen sink.

So I can throw in one more thing.

I love that.

And really drive my…

Chemist and sink.

My chemist and sink.

Yeah, yeah.

He's always like, oh my gosh, more?

I know, I love those conference calls.

Aye, aye, aye. But I am like, there's a lot of great stuff in there. And, but I'm just like waiting for a minute. Cause you know, sometimes I'll do that. I'll like, hey, put it off for a couple of months, and then something else, like chimes. And then I'm like, oh, I want to put that. That's it. That's it. Let's put that in there, and then we're done. You know?

So it's waiting for that moment.

And I'm just kind of like waiting to see if there's just anything else new that comes out that is like really special that I should add into it. But that's it. Other than that, it's like ready. I'm just, just waiting a minute. And I do that a lot of times. I have something ready, wait a minute, and then add something else special in there.

Yeah.

So that's, that's where I'm at with that.

Well, we have something good then coming down the pipeline here at some point.

Yeah.

The moral of this story is if you are on HRT therapy, no need to fret or worry about the layering of your products or doing your chemical peels, and you're just supplementing something.

Works perfectly fine with everything. Yeah. No worries. You are normal.

So this is interesting though. Cause I actually only put TRT in first, to, like, Gemini, to see what it would say.

Oh sure.

And one of the things that said for men, if you were on TRT, it was more like you could get…

So TRT meaning testosterone? Got it.

So like.

If you're on this at high doses.

You could be more like inflamed during the transition. So for HRT, it did say there's no reason to avoid it, but it's more once you're first on it that might be the time to let your body adjust and like normalize before you do the peels. That was basically the only thing.

Yeah. You, I mean, it's nice to have it, you know, working and make sure everything's working for you.

Yeah.

For the most part, though, things are how they start us on that- they start you at this super, super low dose that you're just like, please give me more. Then you have to fight them to make it higher and higher and higher. And then the, you know, the top is still like 0.1. I mean, it's like.

Right.

It's like a tretinoin prescription. It's like, can't you give me more?

Right.

But you can't.

But yeah.

The thing about melasma was interesting too.

Yes.

Maybe you were already prone to that; that might, you know, but that's also hormone-related. And most of the people doing this are.

Melasma.

Yeah. So HRT can cause melasma?

The thing is what they have found, which is really unfortunate for us, like people, cause I'm, I'm melasma too. But like, if you're, some people say like estrogen can cause melasma, and like, really, okay. It didn't cause melasma when you had it made by your naturally body, by your body the first time. But what happens is like, you have it, you're fine. And then it just starts to like go down, down, down, down, down. And because you haven't replaced it right here, you have this down window, and then you get back on it. And then it like eases up this big space, which could be years.

Right.

I'm for sure months, years, is when it's the ups and downs of the hormones that stimulate melasma. So the very best thing, and I swear, I like want to share this with the world because I wish I knew, you know, back when I was a teenager or in my twenties, like you should have your levels checked when you're in your twenties, when you're prime, and you know, you have everything that you need to see. Like, what is my natural level? What is it? Because, you know, I've talked to some doctors about this and they're saying like, think of it as you've got like a big giant drum of estrogen, right? When you're young, and she goes, as you, you know, get younger, and now it's just like a big gulp, you know, from 7-Eleven. Then it's like smaller, smaller, smaller, and you've got none. She goes, and then they give you this patch. She goes, "That patch to replace this big drum is like a dropperful." She's like, how's that gonna fix this deficiency? Right, they give us such a small amount. But it's like, if we knew what our levels were to begin with, and as soon as they started falling, we could supplement and just keep it straight. Then we wouldn't have those ups and downs that are causing, like, melasma, which is hormone-related, you know, related. So that's its own melasma category. That's not most people. And that really doesn't affect your ability to use products, do peels, or anything like that.

It's just something that can happen to some people. But like, if I could like tell everybody, just when you're in your twenties, your thirties, like go get your blood test, find out what your levels are and print that out and keep that so that, you know, when you're a little older, when you're in your forties and you notice it start going down, you can get on something. You don't force your doctor to put you on something.

You have to be your own advocate. Because they don't even like to sometimes do the HRT screening when you are in your fifties. Sometimes they'll just put you on the patch, and you know, that was my experience, and they didn't even do the blood work.

Let's hope this was- let me know if you feel better. Let me know if you're having hot flashes, but I don't have them. You know, I never got hot flashes. So people have different symptoms, you know? So like, how do I even know I needed it? I knew I needed it from talking to somebody else going, oh, I wonder if that's my problem.

There are so many people I have talked to since, you know, I started the patch at the beginning of this year. And they, you know, these are women friends of mine who have had hysterectomies that haven't even been schooled on this.

And that's number one. They should have been on something immediately. I don't care if they let you keep your, you know, ovaries. That's still not the same.

It's a really great area.

This isn't medical advice.

This is not medical advice.

But you do have to be your own patient advocate. That's the moral of the story, Darren.

We're having a conversation that women need to have.

Demand that blood work. It doesn't matter if you're in your twenties, thirties, forties, or fifties.

Yeah. But you know, know that all's well in the world. You're fine whether you're on HRT or not. And we will have a cream coming up soon that will help with, like, phytoestrogens, which can just kind of be put on your face. It'll be helpful. And anything that can help us to have, you know, smoother, tighter, healthier skin as we age, as everything, you know, that will be coming out soon.

We're fighting it to the bitter end.

Yeah.

We're aging gracefully.

Yeah. I'm aging gracefully with, you know, but I got my…

Yes. You gotta try it. You gotta hit it with everything. Like you said, the kitchen sink and all.

Well, you got thoughts on this.

Let us know below or, you know, shoot us an email. If we can help you, obviously we're not doctors. We can't help you. This is my opinion. This is Dora's opinion. But if you have questions about HRT and using it with our products, peels, or whatever, just shoot us an email at support@platinumskincare.com, or visit us in our Facebook group, Platinum Skincare Gurus.

Phone number. Give us a call. Yeah, 800-917-3155.

Yeah. We'll talk to you soon.