Melasma is a violation of skin pigmentation, which is manifested by a change in skin color in the form of spilled, unlimited spots. The color of the spots can vary from light brown to dark brown. Keep on reading.
Causes of Melasma
Hormonal imbalance is the leading cause of melasma. But even the sun can aggravate and make melasma clearer.
Hormonal Changes Can Cause Melasma
Exactly what the origin of melasma looks like is not completely clear, however. However, it is known that there is a connection between melasma and the hormones estrogen or progesterone.
Pregnancy
If you are a woman, the risk of melasma increases when you are pregnant. This is because there is then an excess of hormones in the body.
It is common for pregnant women not only to get an increased pigmentation on the face but also on the nipples and from the navel down to the genitals. After childbirth and pregnancy, however, these pigment changes usually disappear.
Birth Control Pills
Some birth control pills can cause pigment spots. Pigmentation on the upper lip is very common when you take birth control pills.
The Sun Causes Melasma
The sun can aggravate melasma. The sun also makes the pigmentation darker.
Therefore, you should protect yourself from the sun to prevent and not aggravate melasma. Always have a high sun protection factor on your face.
How to Treat Melasma?
The disease is treated by a dermatologist, a cosmetologist. To identify the causes of melasma, it is also necessary to consult a therapist, gastroenterologist, endocrinologist. Treatment tactics will depend on the causes of the disease.
To correct existing pathologies, systematic drug therapy is prescribed – enterosorbents, hepatoprotectors, antihistamines, corticosteroids, multivitamin complexes, depigmentation.
How Does Melasma Develop?
Pigment, also called melanin, is the brown dye produced by the pigment cells in your skin. In melasma, the pigment system is hypersensitive: too much pigment is produced in the pigment cells. The increased production of hormones in pregnancy causes the pigment cells to produce more pigment and cause pigmentation spots .
Not all pigment cells react equally strongly. This gives your skin a blotchy, uneven brown discoloration. In some women, the pigmentation spots disappear after giving birth, but this is not always the case.Although this condition is nicknamed ‘pregnancy mask’, it does not mean that the condition can only develop during pregnancy.
Excessive exposure to the sun (UV radiation) without sun protection can also be a cause of melasma. Melasma can also be familial or triggered by hormonal fluctuations.Different types of melasmaThere are different forms of melasma.
From a deep (dermal) to a more superficial (epidermal) shape. The superficial pigment is often light brown in color and is easy to treat. The deeper melasma is dark brown in color and is unfortunately much more difficult to treat.
With this form, the pigmentation spots will not disappear completely with a treatment, but it will be lighter in color. The deepest form is gray-blue in color and is located in the second layer of the dermis.
An example of this is Ota’s nevus, which mainly occurs in people of Asian descent.Although the nickname ‘pregnancy mask’ suggests otherwise, melasma can also occur in men. However, we hardly ever see this.
What Diagnostics to Take with Melasma?
To identify the causes of melasma, the dermatologist conducts a physical examination of the patient, a survey and collection of anamnestic data, after which he prescribes additional research methods:
- dermatoscopy;
- siascopy;
- clinical analyzes of blood and urine;
- determination of the level of hormones in the blood;
- coprogram;
- gastroscopy;
- Ultrasound examination of the abdominal organs;
- Ultrasound of the liver;
- Examination of the thyroid gland.
- The consequences of melasma.
What Can You Do Yourself?
Use sun protection daily: with melasma it is best to choose a sunscreen with a mineral UV filter. You always use a mineral sunscreen with powerful antioxidants. The new generation of sunscreen products not only protect the skin against UV light but also against visible light (blue light from smartphones, your computer …)
Only antioxidants protect the skin against visible light and infrared light. UV filters, on the other hand, protect the skin against UVA and UVB rays. That is why a sunscreen based on a mineral UV filter with one or more powerful antioxidants is recommended.
Environ RAD SPF15 is one of them: it contains a large dose of powerful antioxidants and has a broad spectrum, which means that it offers protection against both UVA and UVB radiation.