What Causes Excessive Chin Hair During Menopause?

Menopause symptoms usher in many changes in your body. While no longer having monthly periods may come as a welcome change, turning into one of the three little pigs and being able to stroke your chinny chin chin is probably not one of them! Unfortunately, sprouting some extra facial hair is not uncommon, BUT! there are a few options to treat this that could help you to not have to invest in some kind of beard oil. 🙂

During your childbearing years, your ovaries produce large amounts of oestrogen and also a small amount of testosterone. When menopause arrives, your ovaries’ production of estrogen drops massively… like, to next to nothing, but stupidly you continue to produce the small amount of testosterone for several years. So basically, menopause tips the balance between your male and female sex hormone levels. This imbalance means you have an excess of male hormones which can trigger the growth of that unwieldily coarse facial hair.

If you only have a couple of noticeable facial hairs, cutting or removing them with tweezers is the simplest way to deal with it. But if the hair is out of control and causing you to become self conscious, see your GP to discuss other options. They have many options available and might suggest:

  • Using a topical cream called eflornithine (Vaniqa) that slows hair growth.
  • Electrolysis, which destroys hair follicles with an electrical current or heat.
  • Removal of hair with a special laser.

Combining laser treatment with use of eflornithine cream might lead to more complete hair removal, according to the authors of a research study published in the July 2007 issue of the “Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology.”