I understand that typically around puberty is when hormones go bonkers and it’s common for faces to break out.
But like, have we just not created those hormones in our body yet until we hit puberty? Or maybe they’re not released until puberty? (And then we breakout on our face until we die)
Or actually I don’t see many elders with acne/pimples either…
So many questions haha, ELI5
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Older people can get acne. I’m in my 30s and get pimples from time to time, though much more rarely than I did in my teens.
As for why it’s more common in teenagers: the amount of oil released into the skin depends on the level of certain hormones (particularly testosterone) in the body. Since that oil clogging up pores is the primary cause of acne, more hormones -> more oil -> more acne.
You do have those hormones in your body throughout your life, but they’re at *much* lower levels in childhood than they are during puberty. They tail off in your early 20s and drop steadily during adult life (with a sharp drop for women at menopause and a gradual downward trend for both sexes).
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