How Skin Ages

Aging is influenced by two main forces:

• Intrinsic aging – the natural biological clock: genetics, hormonal shifts, and cellular wear-and-tear.
• Extrinsic aging – everything from sun exposure and pollution to diet, smoking, and stress.

For skin, both types of aging show up as thinning, dryness, wrinkles, slower repair, and reduced elasticity. After menopause, when estrogen levels drop, these changes accelerate. The paper notes that women can lose about 2% of their skin’s collagen every year for up to 15 years after menopause if they’re not using any hormone therapy.

What Speeds Up or Slows Down Skin Aging

The authors group influences into several categories:

Intrinsic (inside the body)

• Hormonal changes, especially falling estrogen levels, reduce the skin’s ability to make collagen and elastin.
• Genetics and natural cellular aging processes also play a role.

Extrinsic (outside the body)

• UV light is the biggest culprit. It damages DNA and triggers enzymes that break down collagen.
• Lifestyle habits—like poor nutrition, alcohol, stress, and lack of sleep—add to the damage.
• Environmental pollution and chronic inflammation further accelerate skin aging.

Microbiome influences

• The skin and gut microbiomes (the body’s friendly bacteria) may influence skin inflammation, hydration, and repair. This is an emerging area of research, but it points to the idea that good gut health supports good skin.

Estrogen’s Role in Skin Health

Estrogen isn’t just a reproductive hormone—it’s a major player in skin structure and repair. It:

• Stimulates fibroblasts (the cells that produce collagen and elastin).
• Increases hyaluronic acid and water retention, improving hydration.
• Enhances blood flow and nutrient delivery to the skin.
• Reduces oxidative stress and inflammation.

When estrogen levels drop, skin loses firmness, smoothness, and thickness. That’s why so many women notice drier, more fragile skin around menopause.

Estrogen works through receptors in the skin—ER-alpha, ER-beta, and G-protein estrogen receptors—which are found in fibroblasts, keratinocytes, and blood vessel cells. Supporting these pathways helps maintain skin structure and moisture.

Check out more on this here:

What It Means for Women in Midlife

For women in perimenopause and beyond:

• Estrogen decline is a major reason for sudden changes in skin texture, dryness, and firmness.
• Protecting skin means addressing both hormone changes and external stressors (sun, diet, stress, and sleep).
• Topical or systemic estrogen—and potentially future SERM-based treatments—may help restore collagen and hydration.
• Supporting the gut and skin microbiomes may provide added anti-aging benefits.
• Early intervention (during perimenopause) helps slow collagen loss before it becomes more dramatic.

Skin aging isn’t just about getting older - it’s about hormones, especially estrogen. After menopause, the loss of estrogen speeds up collagen breakdown and reduces skin hydration and elasticity. Estrogen or estrogen-mimicking compounds like SERMs could help maintain skin health by acting directly on the skin’s estrogen receptors.

In simple terms: protecting your skin means thinking beyond sunscreen - it’s also about supporting the hormones that keep it strong, supple, and radiant.