Sex hormones and skin
F. J. Ebling

Synopsis

As well as its more obvious ANATOMICAL and PHYSIOLOGICAL functions the SKIN plays an important part in social communication by vision, touch and smell. The epidermal surface, the activity of the glands and the distribution of the HAIR are particular features of skin which are concerned with sexual communication, and it is thus not surprising that they are profoundly influenced by HORMONES. STEROIDS have been widely used in efforts to improve skin texture; the effect of OESTROGENS is equivocal, but ANDROGENS certainly stimulate epidermal cell division. The SEBACEOUS GLANDS are unequivocally stimulated by androgens and inhibited both by oestrogens and anti-androgenic steroids, though their modes of action are not identical. PITUITARY factors appear to be necessary, at least in the rat, for the response of the sebaceous glands to TESTOSTERONE, and it seems possible they may act upon the conversion of the steroid to its active metabolites. Human body, AXILLARY and pubic hair is similarly androgen dependent. So sebum secretion, the growth of sexual hair, and hirsutism may be inter-related by their link with steroid metabolism within the skin. Is it possible that one function, or at least one by-product, of cutaneous androgen metabolism is the manufacture of pheromones or odours?

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