Brown skin versus Caucasian: Is there a difference at Menopause?

With different amounts of melanin in skins of different shades, do skin needs differ at menopause with skin type? Find out more from Drs Gauri and Abhijit Desai (the MelaninDocs) through their experience of more than a couple of decades in managing the challenges of brown skin. You can choose from watching this video or enjoy reading the transcript below!

Question MenopauseWize:

A large chunk of research globally, from medication to skin care products, is conducted on Caucasians. Is there a change in how the skin is affected by the sun at, let's say, perimenopause or menopause, in particular for women with brown skin?

Answer MelaninDocs:

So yes. You're right when you say a lot of research over the years has always been. The, you know, centric towards the Caucasian skin, but I can surely say with our years of experience of actually dealing with brown skin and patients and not just a single shade of brown, but I can say multiple of Shades of brown, because brown is not a single color when it comes to skin type, it shades of brown. So yes, brown skin definitely reacts differently, it ages differently and it's also because of the pigment melanin. So when it comes to perimenopause or menopause, the skin reacts. It becomes a lot more drier. OK, it becomes thinner because as the estrogen levels go down, the skin becomes a lot thinner. The thinner skin is always more susceptible to the sun. So sun damage is more prevalent. I would say it is more you know at its highest when it comes to sensitive skin. So I think a lot needs to be taken into account when we are trying to protect the skin from the sun, especially in dark skin patients.  

And I think as menopause progresses the amount of melanocytes which are the melanin-producing cells, start reducing but the ones that are present. Are very large and they produce large-sized melanin molecules. So as a result, if you don't use sun protection, then the melanin while it is trying to protect you, you know, kind of gets released in excess amounts and that does not get degraded fast enough. So then you get, you know, this residual melanin in your skin which gives rise to this kind of mottled or patchy pigmentation occurring, you know. So sun protection becomes very important. It is important for ground skin people in general. But around the time of menopause, it becomes all the more important because your skin starts losing its ability faster, you know? That's where people are confused and they come with this thing that my skin is looking dull. Dead lust or less. It's looking patchy. And this explains why it's looking patchy, why it's looking tone-wise.

Question MenopauseWize:

That's because we've got different size melanin cells now and different parts of the face. Is that what happens?

Answer MelaninDocs:

It's not necessarily in different parts of the face. Across the whole body, the cells differ in size and the amount of melanin that they produce. Kind of differs in various parts based on how much sun exposure is taking place because melanin is the pigment that inherently protects you from the sun. The UV rays in the sun are the ones that cause damage, and melanin is the one that is actually trying to protect you. So wherever there are UV rays falling on the skin, the melanin will try and go settle above the level of the nucleus in every individual cell. But then once you're out of the sun, it's not getting degraded or dissipated fast enough. Because it's a very resistant molecule in pigmented people, you know it's not a molecule that gets degraded very fast. So then you're left with this excess melanin now. So that's why you shouldn't take melanin too much for granted. Well, we enjoy it when we tan. 

Question MenopauseWize:

So how brown-skinned people the way they tan as opposed to Caucasians how they tan is very different and tanning clinics are so popular in the West because. You know, they want that certain look, but at the same time when they tan, they look so different from the way we look when we tan.

Answer MelaninDocs:

Correct. And their tan goes down faster. Ours doesn't. Yes, Right, right. I I. Mean faster in Caucasian skin as compared to the brown skin. 

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