Aquaderm Sales Presentation

Adult Acne Is Treatable

WebMD Feature

By Gina Shaw

Reviewed By Brunilda Nazario, MD

Have you ever looked in the mirror and declared, "I should not have wrinkles and pimples on the same face!" If so, you're not alone. Acne: it isn't just for teenagers. In fact, many people are plagued by adult acne into their 30s, 40s, and even 50s.

According to a survey done by dermatologists at the University of Alabama-Birmingham:

In their 20s, 50.9% of women and 42.5% of men in their 20s reported experiencing adult acne

In their 30s, 35.2% of women and 20.1% of men reported adult acne

In their 40s, 26.3% of women and 12% of men reported experiencing acne

Even in their 50s, 15.3% of women and 7.3% of men reported experiencing acne

You may have noticed something about those numbers: they're much higher in women than in men. That is probably because at any age, acne is hormonally related, and the fluctuations of a woman's cycle can trigger breakouts.

How does adult acne differ from teen acne?

Adult acne differs markedly from the pimples of your teen years, both in how it appears and how it's treated.

"In teens, you'll mostly see hundreds or thousands of tiny bumps, blackheads, or whiteheads on the skin of the face, especially the forehead, along with occasional cysts on the chest and back," says Amy Derick, MD, a fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology, who practices in Great Barrington, Ill. "That's because teens' skin tends to be a little stickier and they're more likely than adults to get clogged pores."

In adults, acne

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