If you are one of the 80% of women who currently experience some type of acne (so no, you are not the only one!) then you likely have had your fair share of pre-menstrual flare ups.

What do I mean by PMS acne?

I’m talking about acne or breakouts that occur in the two weeks before you get your period. You might break out the day before or ten days before. If you have a regular period then the pre-menstrual phase is the two weeks between ovulation and your bleed. This is known as the luteal phase and it is a whole other ball game when it comes to hormonal acne!

Testosterone driven acne gets a lot of attention but what about when testosterone is in normal levels, you haven’t got PCOS and yet you still get to experience the joy of random breakouts?

They might not be so random! If your breakouts mainly occur every two weeks or so and your skin is calmest (or calming down) when you are on your period, these are cyclical breakouts due to fluctuating hormones like oestrogen and progesterone.

If this is the case for you, then your skin might be best during your period and the week after.

PMS breakouts could be a sign that you are not detoxifying and clearing your sex hormones as well as you could be!

At ovulation, sex hormones like oestrogen surge. After ovulation, the corpus luteum (basically a little clump of cells) forms and starts secreting progesterone. You only get a good whack of progesterone by ovulating. The progesterone produced by ovulating helps to balance out the oestrogen you make. Remember, this is not happening if you are on the pill or other hormonal contraception.

In the week or two before your period, hormones are making their way down, because the drop in oestrogen and progesterone is what triggers the uterine lining to shed = you get a period bleed.

In these two weeks, those hormones have got to go somewhere!

The liver pulls oestrogen out of circulation and starts detoxifying it by breaking it down into lots of little pieces. This is called Phase 1 liver detoxification and it requires enzymes and nutrients like zinc, iron and protein. If you are deficient in iron or zinc, you could be struggling to detoxify your hormones well.

THEN the liver will take those little pieces of broken down hormones (called metabolites) and stick them to other substances in order to make them more water soluble . This is called Phase 2 liver detox. Now that they are more water soluble, they can be carried out of the liver, through the bile and into the gut for excretion from the body through the poo! Phase 2 needs plenty of vitamin B12, folate, protein, sulphur (found in cruciferous vegetables, eggs & meat) antioxidants, magnesium, zinc and B vitamins.

Bile gets released into the intestines and is what helps give the poo a healthy brown colour. This part is phase 3 of the oestrogen detox group project and it is one of the most important yet underestimated!

Why am I telling you all of this?

Because just like a group project, if someone isn’t doing their job, the whole project falls apart. These hormones like oestrogen & testosterone will not be cleared from the body effectively and can accumulate, acting out on your skin!

If you are not:

• Having a daily bowel movement

• Feeling fully satisfied after passing bowel movements

• Having a solid, well formed bowel movement

Or if you have:

• Caramel or clay coloured stools

• Other signs of PMS like tender breasts and mood swings

• IBS or other known gut issues

Then chances are, you are not excreting oestrogen effectively from your body.

If oestrogen is hanging out in your bowel, waiting to be cleared (but it’s not because your constipated or whatever) then it can be re-toxified and re-absorbed through your bowel wall and back into the bloodstream where it goes through your blood to the liver all over again! Now your liver (which might already be a little over worked) has to do its whole job again.

It is like a sewerage pipe (literally) and if one of the pipes are blocked, the wastes you are trying to excrete will be backed up.

The skin is an organ of elimination and detoxification (and a pretty big one!) so if you liver and gut isn’t doing it for you, the lymph and skin will secrete more toxins and wastes through the skin via sweat etc.

Hormones act on the skin to increase sebum & keratin production which blocks the skin, forming a plug. When this becomes infected by bacteria, your skin elicits an immune response to create inflammation, pus, redness and a pimple is formed.

Liver and gut detoxification is especially important in the luteal phase as there are more hormones in circulation at this time! During the period bleed, hormones are generally at their lowest levels during the whole menstrual cycle and your skin might be calmest at this time.

Of course, you may have testosterone driven acne that breaks out all month long, then have a fun PMS flare up on top of your existing acne!

Hormones can be tricksy and a little complex to work out, but here are some super important, unsexy ways to reduce PMS breakouts:

• Drink plenty of filtered water

• Eat roughage fibre from oats, psyllium husk, chia seeds & flaxseed meal

• Take a probiotic like Lactobacillus plantarum 299V

• Avoid alcohol during your luteal phase (cut your liver some slack)

• Eat 1-2 cups a day of cruciferous family vegetables: broccoli, cauli, kale, cabbage etc

• Get any gut issues you have sorted out (bloating, diarrhoea, food intolerances, constipation)

• Try Seed Cycling - Click For Free Guide

Breakouts are a glaringly obvious message from your body that something is a little out of balance. if they are recurrent, it is likely to be something internal!

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