If someone is worried about melasma, how can they use topical estrogen more safely?
If melasma is on your mind, there are a few simple ways to use topical estrogen more safely without giving up its benefits.
Dr. Ellen Gendler explains that melasma triggered by topical estrogen is uncommon, and when it does show up, it’s usually in people who’ve had melasma before. Estrogen can stimulate pigment cells, but the levels in low dose topical estriol, like what we use here at Alloy, stay on the surface of the skin and don’t act the way high systemic estrogen in pregnancy or birth control pills does.
If someone is cautious, Dr. Gendler suggests keeping things targeted rather than applying it everywhere on the face. Melasma rarely shows up under the eyes or on the neck, so those are often safe places to start. You can try a small area for a few weeks and expand from there. And if you notice darkening, you can stop using it on that area and manage the melasma the same way you normally would.
There’s a great moment in our webinar where she talks through this in detail. You can watch that chapter here:Melasma and topical estrogen
If you’re considering trying estriol on your skin, our prescription M4 Face Cream Rx was created with this exact concern in mind and has been tested without showing increased pigmentation. You can read more about it here: M4 Face Cream Rx
And whatever approach you take, daily sunscreen is still one of the best protections against melasma in general.
This answer was created using the following resources: