OQ-03: Do findings from thigh, hip or abdominal skin studies apply to the face?

What we can say today

Researchers do not yet know how far skin findings from the hip, thigh, buttock or belly carry over to the face. Much of the menopause skin research takes samples from body sites that rarely see the sun. At least one study found that the same hormone gave a clear result on hip skin and no significant result on sun damaged skin.

Why it matters

When a headline says that hormones "rebuild collagen", readers tend to picture their face. The study behind it may have measured a small biopsy from the hip. That gap is easy to miss, and it changes what a finding means.

For researchers, covered skin has a real advantage: it lets a study look at hormone effects without years of sun damage mixed in. The cost is that results may not travel to the skin people care about most.

What is known

• A 2008 vehicle controlled biopsy study in Archives of Dermatology, in postmenopausal women with a mean age of 75, found that two weeks of topical estradiol raised collagen in sun-protected hip skin, with no significant change in photoaged skin of the face or forearm. [1]
• A 1997 open, non randomized study in Maturitas enrolled 43 early postmenopausal women, 29 on systemic estrogen with or without a progestin and 14 controls, and found no change in skin collagen or skin thickness after 12 months. [2]
• A 2022 study in Scientific Reports that found ceramide changes after menopause took its samples from buttock skin, not the face. [3]
• A 1987 study in Obstetrics and Gynecology found that skin collagen content and skin thickness declined by about 1 to 2% per year after menopause, in parallel with bone measures. The abstract does not say which body site the skin came from. [4]

Why it is still open

Few studies compare body sites in the same people under the same treatment. The 2008 study is one of the few, and it suggests that sun exposure changes how skin responds. Other studies differ in site, route of hormone, length and measure, so their results are hard to line up. Some, like the 1997 study, are decades old. The 1987 study is a useful example of the problem: it is often used to describe skin change after menopause, but its abstract does not name the skin site, so it cannot tell us on its own whether the finding applies to the face.

What would answer it

A study that takes matched measurements from facial skin and from a covered body site in the same women, before and after the same treatment or over the same stretch of the menopause transition, with sun exposure recorded. Noninvasive facial measures could replace biopsies on the face. The result would show directly whether body site findings predict facial ones.

Sources

1. Rittie, et al. Induction of collagen by estradiol: difference between sun-protected and photodamaged human skin in vivo. Arch Dermatol. 2008. https://doi.org/10.1001/archderm.144.9.1129 PMID 18794456. Verified on 2026-10-12.

2. Haapasaari, et al. Systemic therapy with estrogen or estrogen with progestin has no effect on skin collagen in postmenopausal women. Maturitas. 1997. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0378-5122(97)01128-6 PMID 9255750. Verified on 2026-10-12.

3. Kendall, et al. Menopause induces changes to the stratum corneum ceramide profile, which are prevented by hormone replacement therapy. Sci Rep. 2022. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-26095-0 PMID 36522440. Verified on 2026-10-12. Note: two authors employed by a cosmetics company.

4. Brincat, et al. A study of the decrease of skin collagen content, skin thickness, and bone mass in the postmenopausal woman. Obstet Gynecol. 1987. PMID 3120067 (no DOI). Verified on 2026-10-13.

Related on MenoDerm

• /what-changed/anti-aging-on-the-jar
• /qa/does-one-study-explain-my-skin
• /qa/can-i-use-topical-estrogen-on-my-face
• /methodology#open-questions
• Open questions OQ-01 and OQ-02

Status history

Cite this page

MenoDerm Open Question OQ-03, version 1.0, 13 October 2026, /open-questions/do-thigh-and-hip-skin-studies-apply-to-the-face.