Why is it so hard to find herbs to help with hormonal acne?

That is the question I kept asking myself when I first stumbled upon herbalism.

After struggling with hormonal acne for 6 years, I was starting to feel hopeless. After trying so many recommendations from strangers on the internet, in person, and experts I thought there was something wrong with me. I was envious of others who could eat whatever they want, just use water for their skincare, and still have perfect skin.

I found out that hormonal acne was caused by a hormonal imbalance. Which after years on hormonal birth control, it made sense. It left me with unhealthy eating habits and nutrient deficiencies.

On my journey of trying everything under the sun to get rid of my acne. From chemical peels, detox teas, to a keto vegan diet. Following any breadcrumb I could find online is how I found herbalism… again. It had woven in and out of my life from childhood. Having Yerba Buena lemonade on a hot day. Or adding cilantro to 90% of our meals growing up.

Stepping into herbalism

If you look up what herbs help with hormonal acne you will get thousands upon thousands of results. With hundreds of different herb recommendations and more recently our searches being summarized by an AI blurb at the beginning (if you haven’t disabled it that is).

That was the first wall I hit when trying to figure out what herb to work with. It wasn’t a lack of information but rather an avalanche of it with no clear direction. I tried a handful like Dandelion root capsules, Red Raspberry leaf and Vitex. They were the ones that came up the most, but I didn’t notice too much of a change in the amount of breakouts I was having. Which at the time I was having a new breakout almost every other day.

This lack of direction and my desperation led me to study herbalism and hormone health for going on 7 years now. On the other side of that, I now understand why looking up what herbs help with hormonal acne doesn’t give you a straight forward answer.

And that’s because there is no one herb that will magically make you have clear skin. Simply because that’s not how our hormones work. To deal with hormonal acne we need to not focus on the acne itself, but on what is causing it in the first place.

Why do we get hormonal acne anyways??

This part was the hardest for me. I had spent so much time focusing on different skincare ingredients, eating only “safe” foods, and maintaining my workout routine of 5x a week. How could I not focus on my acne.

But the reality is that hormonal acne is a symptom of a dysregulation in our hormones, digestion and sometimes even our nervous system. So lets start with the basics.

Eliminatory pathway issues

Our monthly cycle has 2 main phases, the follicular phase which includes our period and the luteal phase. The dominant hormone in the follicular phase is estrogen. As we get closer to ovulation our body produces more estrogen. We need estrogen to reach a certain threshold for ovulation to occur. It’s through ovulation that we then enter the luteal phase and start producing progesterone. The counterbalance to estrogen.

This is what’s known as an ideal cycle. One that is 21–38 days long with minimal discomfort and maybe a breakout or two.

The reason we get hormonal breakouts has to do with estrogen breakdown. Once estrogen has run its course it then has to be processed and eliminated from the body. That’s done through our eliminatory pathway, that’s why daily bowel movements are so important. But when we are chronically constipated or have gut issues our body has to find different routes to get rid of these hormones that are no longer needed. One of those pathways is through our skin, which is also an eliminatory pathway. As you can imagine it’s not a very effective route.

Chronic stress

This is the nervous system component. Cortisol, the stress hormone also has to be processed similarly to estrogen. In excess, it causes inflammation in the digestive track and keeps you in fight or flight mode. This is an issue because your blood flow is kept in your extremities when you’re in fight or flight. You are ready to go off onto the next thing but your digestive system that lives in your core, doesn’t get that attention.

Overtime this can lead to nutrient deficiencies because you're not able to digest food adequately. Adding in that most of us don’t get enough fiber in our diet, and you can see how chronic stress can also lead to constipation and chronic inflammation.

Framework for working with herbs

Understanding how hormonal acne occurs is key to getting rid of it.

Now that we understand that it’s a combination of estrogen metabolism, digestion, and our nervous system. We have areas that we can work with.

Starting off with the more complex one, estrogen metabolism.

The first thing I highly recommend is learning how to chart your cycle. This with give you a way to track what is normal for your own unique cycle. As well as how long your follicular phase is, which is how long estrogen is being produced. Find out more about cycle tracking in my links. You ideally want your follicular phase to be more or less equal to your luteal phase.

The other two categories will help with estrogen metabolism as they deal with processing and getting rid of the estrogen that’s no longer needed,

Digestion

As we are increasing our fiber with things like beans, chia seeds, vegetables, fruit, and flax seeds, we can also be working with herbs to support overall digestion and our liver health. Our liver is in charge of processing everything we come into contact with, externally and internally. Meaning that our hormones also get processed by our liver.

Herbs like Dandelion root, Artichoke leaf, chamomile are all great places to start. If you notice acid reflux or heart burn after meals look into bitters. It’s a combination of herbs that help support digestive juices. Best taken as a tincture before or after meals.

Nervous system

Let’s talk about the stress component. We all know that reducing stress is important. Especially when it comes to our hormonal health. Chronic stress can delay ovulation which means we are spending more time in the follicular phase producing estrogen.

I think this is the area where herbs really shine. They can help us wind down in the moment but also support our resilience to stress long term.

Herbs like passionflower, skullcap and chamomile are great in the moment. Have these towards the end of the day or when you’re feeling too overstimulated.

For more resilience look into milky oat tops, chamomile, skullcap, Tulsi, or Nettle. These help support the nervous system long term as you incorporate lifestyle habits to reduce overall stress.

Be patient

Remember that these things take time. Pick a few herbs and stick with them for 3 cycles to see how they are impacting your hormones. Some people may take less time others more as we all have our own unique biology.

Thank you for reading

Want to learn more about your cycle?

Check out my course on learning how to Map your Cycle