Birth Control Pills Can Help Acne Treatment – Know How

Posted by Acne October 25th, 2009

Get to know how some birth control pills be effective in acne scars, acne treatment and controlling acne

Many young women who are looking for acne treatment and birth control methods tend to look for birth control pills to kill two birds with a bullet. It might be surprising for some people to know that some birth control pills are very effective in controlling acne and cure considerably in many cases. Birth control pills control the sebum significantly to be produced.

What is acne?

Acne is a chronic skin disorder of the hair follicles and sebaceous glands. This problem can happen to any one, most likely in teenager and young adults. Acne is characterized by pimple, cysts, black heads,cysts, infected abscesses, and (sometimes) scarring. Acne is the result of inflammation of the sebaceous glands and hair follicles of the skin producing pimples and pustules.

Sebaceous glands, known as fatty glands found in hair follicles throughout the body that secrete oil into the hair and surrounding skin and they emit oil, which found on many parts of the body which produce Sebum. When the production of sebum increases, it blocks the sebaceous glands, which makes sebum filling the gland into balloon shape. This is generally called as acne. If the production of sebum decreases so is the acne.

How birth control pills work on acne?

Birth control pills control androgen, androgen are group hormones, also known as male hormones that are responsible for excess sebum production hormones significantly. Androgen hormones’ activity in sebaceous glands either increases or decreases the production of sebum. When androgen hormones level increases in sebaceous glands, its produces more sebum which appears in the form of acne. This activity is most likely observed in teenagers and young adults specially between the ages of 12 and 24, when they experience many physical changes in their body.

However, it must be noted that there are mainly two types of birth control pills available. One is Progestin Only Pill (POP) and other is Combination Pill,having progestin and estrogen hormones,. These combination birth control pills make from different combination level of progestin and estrogen hormones. The estrogens may be in the form of ethinyl etradiol. In fact, this is the ethinyl etradiol that controls the level of androgen hormones in the sebaceous glands.

In 1997, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved low-dose birth control pill Ortho Tri-cyclen to be used for acne treatment. It controls the production of androgen hormones in sebaceous glands and because of that it reduces acne to appear significantly.

Despite the fact that birth control pills work very effectively on acne treatment, it is certainly not advisable for sexually inactive and teenagers to use them as the medium of acne treatment unless they consult their physician or doctor first.

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