Greetings, skin microbiome enthusiasts.
I’ve written about menopause before, but given how important it is, here’s another one!
By 2030, more than 1.2 billion women will be living in some stage of menopause. That means one in six people on the planet will be navigating life in a state of relative estrogen deficiency—often for the final third of their lives. I’ll be one of them.
The good news? We’re finally talking about it. The not-so-good? With more awareness has come way too much noise. Let’s break it down.
From “Let’s Sell” to “Let’s Help”
Lately, I see two big camps:
- The “jump on it and sell” crowd. These are the sudden “experts” who equate having gone through menopause with being qualified to tell everyone how to manage hormones, lose weight, or reverse aging. Experience matters, but it’s not the same as expertise. When that turns into a business model, it can feel overwhelming—at least for me.
- The “let’s see if we can help” side. These are the people who fold menopause into their existing expertise. Fashion designers who now talk about how color affects confidence. Physicians layering holistic approaches into care. Spa owners and estheticians who adapt treatments based on lived experience. And researchers who dedicate their careers to studying menopause, even without having gone through it themselves.
Somewhere between too little information (the old silence) and too much (today’s content overload) lies the space where facts and nuance live. And that’s where I want to focus—especially on what menopause might mean for our skin microbiome.
Menopause & the Skin Microbiome: What We Actually Know
The reality: the research is early, small, and sometimes contradictory.
- 2021 study – “Explainable AI reveals changes in skin microbiome composition linked to phenotypic differences.”
This work suggested that the skin microbiome can even predict menopausal status. It’s fascinating, and it concluded that the leg microbiome, rather than the face, is the predictor, but the sample was small.
- 2024 pilot study – “Menopause and facial skin microbiomes: a pilot study revealing novel insights into their relationship.”
This one feels more relevant to everyday skincare. It found that postmenopausal women had:
- Lower levels of Cutibacterium (oil-loving bacteria tied to sebum production)
- Higher overall bacterial diversity
- still a really small data set
Why does this matter? Estrogen decline reduces sebum production. Less oil means fewer lipophilic bacteria, and that lines up with one of the most common menopause skin complaints: dryness.
That said, both studies were small and cross-sectional. What we really need are long-term studies that follow the same women before, during, and after menopause. Until then, these findings remain educated hypotheses, not hard facts.
Why It Matters for Skincare
If these signals are correct, they help explain why microbiome-supportive routines feel so good for midlife skin: barrier-strengthening, gentle formulations that help the skin help itself.
That’s exactly why I created Fafabiotic. I believe in this hypothesis—but I also know consumer results ≠ clinical proof.
Maybe one day, Fafabiotic will help fund this research—so we can move from “this makes sense” to “this is proven.”
The Road Ahead
Here’s what the field needs next:
- Long-term cohorts: tracking the same women across the transition.
- Site-specific data: especially on the face.
- Functional insights: not just who’s there, but what those microbes are doing.
- Intervention trials: testing whether microbiome-supportive skincare can shift outcomes.
Imagine the day we can say: the alive and active cells in this skincare don’t just feel good—they’re backed by hard science.
Summary
- By 2030, >1.2 billion women will be living in menopause.
- Two studies exist so far on the skin microbiome:
- 2021: showed menopausal status leaves a signal in the microbiome (on the leg).
- 2024: showed postmenopausal faces had less Cutibacterium and more bacterial diversity, pointing to drier skin.
- These are exciting clues—but still preliminary.
- Until stronger research arrives, microbiome-friendly skincare remains a smart hypothesis, not a proven cure.
Until next blog, cheers.
