Why is my skin itchy in perimenopause and menopause?

CommonBarrierWorse at night

Skin that itches at night, arms, shins, back, often with nothing visible on it. Some women feel crawling, like a hair that is not there. It is one of the least discussed symptoms of the transition, and one of the most common.

Tonight, in three steps

Wash warm rather than hot, and keep it short
Press an unperfumed cream or oil onto skin that is still damp
Cotton against the skin, and the bedroom cooler than feels normal

Jump to what I would do first

8.6%

of adults in the Rotterdam Study reported chronic itch, with women and those with dry skin at higher odds

Bollemeijer et al., Acta Derm Venereol, 2025

4°C

of skin warming was enough to raise measured itch intensity in healthy volunteers

Riccio et al., Acta Derm Venereol, 2022

2 to 8 years

is how long perimenopause usually runs before the last period, and the itch can start anywhere in it

DermNet, Menopause and the skin

The short answer

Itchy skin in the transition is a barrier story first, a warmth story second, and a short list of things to rule out third.

Your skin itches because falling oestrogen leaves the outer layer with fewer ceramides and less water, and dry skin itches on its own. Warmth makes it louder, which is why it arrives in bed. Rebuild the barrier first, take the heat out, and check iron and thyroid if it will not settle.

The outer few cells of skin hold water in a mortar of lipids, and ceramides are most of that mortar. When researchers compared the stratum corneum of pre-menopausal women, post-menopausal women and post-menopausal women on hormone therapy, the post-menopausal group had fewer ceramides and shorter ones, and the hormone therapy group did not. Blood oestradiol tracked with how much ceramide was there. Oestrogen also supports sebum and hyaluronic acid, so three of the things that keep skin sealed all thin at once.

Dry skin itches by itself, without any allergy in the story. That is why the itch usually sits where skin is thinnest and least oily, on the shins, the forearms, the back and the flanks, and why there is often nothing to see. The absence of a rash is the most common reason women decide they are imagining it, and it is the strongest sign that the barrier, not an allergen, is the problem.

Warmth is the amplifier, and it explains the timing. Heating skin by four degrees was enough to raise measured itch intensity in healthy volunteers. Nocturnal itch has been linked to the daily rhythm of itch mediators together with the evening rise in skin temperature and the change in barrier function overnight. So a hot shower, a warm bed, a flush, a wool jumper and a duvet that is too heavy are all the same lever, pulled at the worst time of day.

The usual causes

fewer ceramidesa hotter shower than you thinkfoaming washes and soapa warm bedwool and syntheticsiron or thyroid sitting underneath

What you need to know

TLDR, if you are in a rush.

Itch with nothing visible on the skin, worse at night, on the shins, arms, back or flanks, is the pattern this page is about. It is one of the most common skin complaints of the transition and one of the least discussed.

The mechanism is the barrier. Oestrogen supports the ceramides, sebum and water that keep skin sealed, and all three fall together. Dry skin itches without needing an allergy or a rash.

Warmth turns the volume up, which is why it starts in bed. A hot shower gives seconds of relief and hours of itch.

The first moves are unglamorous and mostly free: cooler and shorter washing, a plain cream or oil onto damp skin twice a day, cotton, and a cooler bedroom. Give the barrier two to four weeks.

See a GP if it is all over your body, if it has not moved after a month of doing this properly, if there is a new rash, lump or swelling, if your skin or the whites of your eyes look yellow, or if it comes with fatigue, weight change or heavy periods. Itch is also how iron deficiency, thyroid disease, liver and kidney problems and diabetes announce themselves.

Before tonight

Four things to settle before you try anything.

Your water

Most women who say they wash warm are washing hot. Turn it down until it is pleasant rather than lovely, and keep the shower under ten minutes. If your skin is pink when you step out, it was too hot. This single change does more for night itch than any product in the cabinet.

Your window

Skin loses water fastest in the few minutes after washing. Everything you apply in the first three minutes, while the skin is still damp, seals that water in. The same cream on dry skin an hour later does a fraction of the work. Keep a tub where you towel off, not in the bedroom.

The rule

Decide now what you do instead of scratching, because deciding at 2am does not work. Cool the spot: a damp cloth, the back of a cold spoon, a cream kept in the fridge. Nails short and smooth. Pat or tap rather than drag. Scratching feels like relief and buys the next itch.

Your baseline

A week of notes settles what the page cannot. Where it itches, what time, whether anything is visible, and what you did in the hour before. If it is everywhere, unrelenting, or comes with fatigue and weight change, that is not a barrier problem and the notes are what the GP needs.

Searching moments

When women go looking for this.

It is ten at night and the shins have started

The most common version. Nothing visible, both legs, always in the evening. Skin has warmed under the duvet and the barrier is at its most permeable point of the day. The washing and damp-skin moves below are aimed exactly at this.

Crawling, like a hair that is not there

The sensation has a name, formication, and women describe it far more often than the literature discusses it. Treat it as itch and work the same barrier moves. If it is constant, spreading, or comes with numbness or pins and needles, that is a GP conversation rather than a skincare one.

It started after the shower

Hot water strips the lipids you are trying to keep and then leaves the skin to dry in the air. The relief while you are under it is real and it is brief. Cooler, shorter, and cream onto damp skin closes the gap.

The antihistamine did nothing

Change the shower before you change the skincare

Warm rather than hot, under ten minutes, once a day. Use a soap-free wash only where you need it, which is the armpits, the groin and the feet, and let water do the rest. Perfumed soaps, foaming washes and long baths all strip the lipids that are already in short supply. Pat dry instead of rubbing, and leave the skin slightly damp.

Some women notice in three or four nights

Cream or oil onto damp skin, within three minutes, twice a day

Unperfumed and thick beats thin and expensive. A cream in a tub, an ointment on the shins, or an oil pressed on while the skin is still wet. Morning and evening, and generously: most women use about a quarter of what actually works. Fragrance is the most common irritant in a product marketed for sensitive skin, so read the end of the ingredient list.

Two to four weeks for the barrier to rebuild

Take the heat out of the night

A cooler bedroom, cotton or bamboo against the skin rather than wool or synthetics, and a lighter duvet than feels right in the moment. If flushes are part of your night, they are also part of your itch. This is the move that most directly answers why the itch is worse in bed than it ever is at noon.

The same night, in most cases

Give yourself something to do instead of scratching

Nails short, filed smooth. A cold damp cloth, a cold pack wrapped in a tea towel, or a plain cream kept in the fridge for the bad patches. Pat or tap the skin. A cooling menthol cream from the pharmacy is worth asking about. Scratching damages the barrier you are trying to rebuild, so the itch comes back harder and the marks last for weeks.

Immediate relief, and it protects the four weeks of work

If a month of this has not moved it, ask for blood tests

The standard first workup for persistent itch is a full blood count with differential, liver and kidney function, thyroid function and a diabetes screen. Ask for ferritin by name, not just haemoglobin: iron can be low enough to itch while a blood count still reads normal. Take your week of notes to the appointment.

Book it at four weeks, not at four months

This month

The habits that change the baseline.

The moves above work this week. These stop it coming back.

Laundry liquid for sensitive skin, and a second rinse

Detergent left in fabric sits against skin for eight hours a night. Fragrance-free, and skip the fabric conditioner on sheets and anything worn next to the skin.

A tub at every sink

The barrier is rebuilt by frequency, not by intensity. Hands, forearms and shins after every wash. A tub you have to fetch is a tub you stop using in week two.

Cotton, silk or bamboo next to the skin

Wool and synthetics both make itch worse, one by irritation and one by trapping heat. This matters most for sleepwear and sheets, where the exposure is longest.

Shorter, cooler, and not twice a day

One shower a day, ten minutes, warm. If you swim or train, rinse and re-cream rather than washing properly a second time.

Watch the heater, not just the weather

Dry indoor heat pulls water out of skin all evening. A cooler room helps the itch twice over, through the air and through the skin temperature.

Sun protection on the areas that show

Sun damage compounds the collagen loss of the transition, and thin, sun-damaged skin on the forearms is itchier skin. Daily on the face, hands and forearms.

Research notes

Source-backed signals for this page.

Each line is a specific figure or finding, with where it came from. Nothing on this page is guessed.

Post-menopausal stratum corneum contained fewer and shorter ceramides than pre-menopausal, a difference not seen in women taking hormone therapy, and serum oestradiol correlated with how much ceramide was present.

Kendall et al., Scientific Reports, 2022

A review of menopause and skin found oestrogen implicated in transepidermal water loss and in dermal collagen, with associations between menopause and both xerosis and pruritus.

Kamp et al., Clin Exp Dermatol, 2022

Heating the skin by four or seven degrees significantly increased itch intensity when itch was provoked by histamine or serotonin in healthy volunteers.

Riccio et al., Acta Derm Venereol, 2022

Nocturnal itch has been linked to the circadian rhythm of itch mediators and to daily changes in skin temperature and barrier function.

Patel et al., Acta Derm Venereol, 2007

In 4,474 adults in the Rotterdam Study, 8.6% reported current chronic itch, with female sex, older age and self-reported dry skin among the factors associated with higher odds.

Bollemeijer et al., Acta Derm Venereol, 2025

The recommended initial workup for chronic itch is a full blood count with differential, liver, kidney and thyroid function testing, and a diabetes screen.

Roh et al., J Am Acad Dermatol, 2022

A cross-sectional study of 200 patients with generalised itch and no rash set out to measure how often iron deficiency sat underneath it, and to relate serum ferritin to the iron measures.

Saini et al., Indian J Dermatol, 2021

A New Zealand clinical reference lists dryness and itch as likely the most common skin complaint of menopause, and names moisturisers, emollients and soap avoidance as the general measures.

DermNet, Menopause and the skin, reviewed 2024

The studies

The research behind the advice.

Not testimonials. The studies that give the moves above their standing, with what was tested and what was found.

01 · Scientific Reports 12, controlled comparison, 2022

Menopause and the skin's ceramides

What was tested: Whether the epidermal changes of menopause show up in the lipids that hold water in the outer layer of skin, and whether hormone therapy changes that.
How: Pre-menopausal women, post-menopausal women and post-menopausal women taking hormone therapy had hormone levels measured, water loss through the skin assessed, and stratum corneum lipids sampled from skin that sun never reaches. Keratinocytes were also treated with oestradiol in the laboratory.
What was found: Post-menopausal skin held fewer ceramides, and shorter ones. The hormone therapy group did not show the change. Oestradiol in the blood tracked with ceramide abundance, and oestradiol raised ceramide production in the cells.
What it means for you: The dryness underneath the itch is not vague ageing. It is a specific, measurable loss in the layer that holds water, tied to oestrogen.

View source

02 · Acta Derm Venereol 102, experimental, 2022

Why warmth makes itch worse

What was tested: Whether mildly heating the skin changes how intensely people feel an itch.
How: Eighteen healthy volunteers had itch provoked by histamine, serotonin or cowhage across three sessions. The area was heated by nothing, by four degrees, or by seven, and itch intensity was recorded for ten minutes.
What was found: Heating significantly raised itch intensity for histamine and serotonin provoked itch.
What it means for you: The hot shower and the warm bed are not neutral. Taking four degrees out of your evening is a real intervention, not a comfort measure.

View source

03 · Acta Derm Venereol 87, review, 2007

Why itch is worse at night

What was tested: What is known about the mechanisms behind night-time itch across skin and systemic disease.
How: A review of the evidence on itch mediators, sleep and the physiology of skin across the day.
What was found: Night itch is linked to the daily rhythm of itch mediators and to daily changes in skin temperature and barrier function, and specific treatments for it are thin.
What it means for you: You are not imagining that it only starts at bedtime, and the levers you have are temperature and the barrier rather than a tablet.

View source

04 · J Dermatolog Treat 28(7), randomised, active-controlled, 2017

Whether a plain cream is enough

What was tested: Whether an over-the-counter 1% colloidal oatmeal cream works as well as a prescription barrier cream.
How: Ninety children with mild to moderate atopic dermatitis were randomised to one cream or the other and scored on eczema severity and on itch over three weeks.
What was found: The over-the-counter cream was non-inferior to the prescription cream, and itch scores improved in both groups.
What it means for you: Tested in children with eczema rather than in women in perimenopause, so read it as a lesson about the class of product: an ordinary barrier cream, used properly, is doing the same work as the expensive one.

View source

Comparison

Is it the transition, or something underneath?

Itch with no rash is also how iron deficiency and thyroid disease announce themselves, and a GP will want them off the table. Side by side on the questions that separate them.

	The transition	Iron or thyroid	A skin condition
What you can see	Usually nothing, or fine dryness and scratch marks you made yourself.	Usually nothing. The skin is a messenger, not the problem.	A rash, scale, wheals or a clear border. Something is there before you scratch it.
Where and when	Shins, forearms, back and flanks. Evenings and in bed. Worse in winter and after a hot shower.	All over, and unrelenting rather than tied to warmth or washing.	Wherever the rash is, and it goes where the rash goes.
What comes with it	Dryness, flushes, changing cycles, sleep that broke first.	Fatigue that sleep does not fix, hair thinning, cold hands, heavy periods, weight change, constipation.	Sometimes nothing else, sometimes a personal or family history of eczema, psoriasis or hives.
What a GP does	Takes the pattern and the cycle history. There is no blood test that proves this one.	Full blood count with differential, ferritin, thyroid function, liver, kidney and a diabetes screen.	Looks at the skin, and refers to a dermatologist if it is unclear or not settling.
What settles it	Cooler washing, cream onto damp skin, cooler nights. Two to four weeks.	Treating the cause. No amount of cream fixes low ferritin.	Treatment aimed at the diagnosis, usually with the same barrier care alongside it.

Fit check

Who this page is for, and when to see a GP instead.

This will help if

the itch has no rash under it, and sits on your shins, forearms, back or flanks
it is worse in the evening, in bed, in winter, or after a hot shower
your skin has also turned drier, tighter or duller in the last year or two
you are somewhere between your late thirties and your fifties and other things have shifted too, sleep, cycles, temperature

See a GP instead when

your skin or the whites of your eyes look yellow, your urine has darkened, or your stools have paled: that needs to be looked at promptly
the itch is all over your body, severe, or has not moved after a month of doing the barrier work properly
there is a new rash, lump, swelling or a patch that behaves differently from the rest
it comes with fatigue that sleep does not fix, hair thinning, weight change, heavy periods or feeling cold: ask for a full blood count, ferritin and thyroid function
it comes with night sweats you would call drenching, fevers, or weight loss you did not intend
you are pregnant and itching, particularly on the palms and soles: that needs same-week attention
the skin is broken, weeping, crusted or spreading, which suggests infection rather than dryness

By situation

The same rules, applied to your case.

Only at nightFine all day, unbearable from ten o'clock.

This is the temperature and barrier pattern, and it is the most common one. Cool the room, change what is against your skin, and put the cream on at bedtime rather than only in the morning. Keep a cold cloth or a fridge-cold cream by the bed so the answer to the itch is not your fingernails.

Then

If two weeks of cooler nights and consistent cream have not moved it at all, it is worth the blood tests rather than a third product.

Crawling, with nothing thereLike something moving on the skin, usually the arms, legs or scalp.

Treat it exactly as itch: the barrier work, the cooling, and the same night-time rules. It is a real sensation and it is commonly described in the transition, though it is thinly documented, so nobody should tell you it is imagined.

Then

If it is constant, spreading, or arrives with numbness, tingling or weakness, that is a nerve question for a GP rather than a skincare one.

With hives that come and goRaised welts that appear and fade within hours.

That is a different mechanism from dry-skin itch. Hormonal changes have long been discussed as one of the things that can trigger or worsen chronic hives, and an antihistamine is genuinely useful here in a way it is not for plain dryness.

Then

Photograph a welt when it appears and take that to the GP, because they resolve before appointments. Keep the barrier work going alongside.

On menopausal hormone therapy and still itchingIt helped the flushes and left the skin.

Hormone therapy addresses the supply side, and the ceramide study suggests it prevents part of this change. It does not undo a hot shower, a wool jumper, a stripped barrier or a dry bedroom, which is where the remaining itch usually lives.

Then

Work the washing and the damp-skin routine for a month. If it persists, take it back to the prescriber alongside the blood tests, rather than assuming the prescription failed.

Itchy before or during a periodA week of it, then quiet again.

Worth writing down, because it separates two things. Plain dry-skin itch does not usually track the cycle, so an itch that reliably arrives before bleeding and lifts afterwards points at the hives end of the picture, where a hormonal link genuinely exists: sex hormones modulate mast cell secretion, and cycle phase is described as affecting the severity of some inflammatory conditions. Look for whether anything is visible during the itchy week.

Then

If weals come with it, the rash page is the one to read. If there is still nothing to see, keep to the barrier work and note the dates for a GP.

It started when the weather turnedFine in summer, itchy from the first cold week.

Dry indoor heat and hotter showers arrive together, and both pull water out of a barrier that has less to spare than it did five years ago. The seasonal version is the same problem with a bigger load on it.

Then

Move to the thicker cream for the season rather than the lighter lotion, and treat the heating as part of the routine.

The seven-day plan

One change a day, in the order they matter.

One change a day for a week. Nothing here costs more than a tub of cream, and by day seven you will know whether this is a barrier problem, which this fixes, or something to take to a GP.

Day one

Turn the shower down and set a timer for ten minutes. Buy one plain unperfumed cream in a tub, the biggest one you can find.

Day two

Cream onto damp skin within three minutes of getting out, morning and night. Put the tub where you dry off.

Day three

Cotton or bamboo sleepwear and sheets tonight, and take the bedroom temperature down. Note what the room feels like when you get in.

Day four

Nails short and smooth. Put a cream or a damp cloth by the bed, and decide now what you do instead of scratching.

Day five

Swap the laundry liquid for a sensitive-skin one and run the sheets through. Drop the fabric conditioner on anything worn against the skin.

Day six

Cut back to soap-free wash only where you need it, and let water do the rest. Look at what else touches you all day, the wool jumper, the tight waistband, the perfumed body spray.

Day seven

Read your notes. Fewer nights, or shorter ones, means keep going for the full four weeks. No change at all means take the notes to the self-audit, then to a GP and ask for a full blood count, ferritin and thyroid function.

Questions

What women ask before they try this.

Yes, and a common one. Dryness and itch are described in clinical references as likely the most common skin complaint of menopause, because oestrogen supports the ceramides, sebum and hyaluronic acid that keep skin sealed. It is not proof on its own. Itch alongside newly dry skin, changing cycles, broken sleep or flushes, in your forties, is a much clearer pattern than itch by itself.

Two things converge. Skin warms in bed, and warming skin raises measured itch intensity. At the same time the daily rhythm of itch mediators and the overnight change in barrier function both work against you. Nothing new happens at bedtime. You are warmer, and you are quiet enough to notice.

No. Itch without a rash is the classic presentation of dry-skin itch, and it is also how several internal causes present. The absence of anything to see is a reason to check ferritin and thyroid function if it persists, not a reason to doubt yourself. If there are bumps, weals or hives to see, that is a different question with a different answer, and the rash page is where it belongs.

Sometimes, and mostly if hives are part of your picture. They act on histamine, and dry-skin itch largely does not run on histamine, which is why so many women take one and feel nothing. A pharmacist can advise, and a cooling menthol cream is often more useful at night. The barrier work matters either way.

A plain, unperfumed, thick cream, used more often than you think. A cream in a tub or an ointment beats a lotion in a pump, and fragrance is the most common irritant in products sold for sensitive skin. In a randomised trial an over-the-counter oatmeal cream matched a prescription barrier cream. How often you use it matters more than what it cost.

It may. In the ceramide study, post-menopausal women taking hormone therapy did not show the loss that the untreated group did, and clinical references note that it can improve the skin effects of menopause. It is a conversation with a GP or a menopause-literate prescriber, and the washing and barrier routine still applies alongside it.

Give the barrier two to four weeks of consistent work, and expect the night-time part to ease sooner than that once the room and the fabric change. If a month of doing it properly has changed nothing, stop buying products and ask for blood tests.

No, and it matters that you know. Vulval itching, burning, redness and dryness belong to genitourinary syndrome of menopause, which an Australian clinical service says affects around one in two women. It is a different mechanism from the dry, itchy skin on this page, it does not answer to body moisturiser, and unlike hot flushes it tends to persist or worsen after menopause rather than settle. It is treatable. Raise it with a GP specifically.

Most often the shins and forearms, which carry the least oil, then the back, and often the scalp. Many women describe the back as the worst because it is the hardest place to moisturise properly and the easiest to neglect. Legs itch most in the evening, when a warmed bed raises itch intensity. Wherever it is, the treatment is the same: generous emollient onto damp skin, twice a day, and a cooler bedroom.

When it is all over your body, severe, or unmoved after a month. When your skin or eyes look yellow, or your urine has darkened. When there is a new rash, lump or swelling. When it arrives with fatigue, weight change, heavy periods or feeling cold. Ask for a full blood count with differential, ferritin, thyroid, liver and kidney function and a diabetes screen.

Keep reading

Related symptoms, and the articles that go with this one.

Sudden drynessWhy has my skin turned dry in perimenopause?Skin that behaved for years turns dry, tight and duller, seemingly overnight. Oestrogen falls, and the skin barrier falls with it.Rashes and rednessWhy am I getting rashes in menopause and perimenopause?Hives that arrive from nowhere. Red, blotchy patches after a shower. Old products, old jewellery, old washing powder, suddenly leaving marks. Rashes get more common in the transition, and there is a reason.Newly reactiveWhy does my skin react to everything in perimenopause?The retinol you used for years now stings. A cleanser leaves you red. Skin that tolerated everything has started to react, and the barrier is the reason.Read nextThe itch that arrives at nightItchy skin with nothing visible on it, worst after lights out, sometimes with a crawling feeling that has a name. The transition explains it.Also readAloe vera, honestlyWhat it genuinely does, what it does not, and why most of the bottles on the shelf are mostly not aloe.

References

Sources used on this page.

Every figure and finding above traces to one of these.

Menopause

Jean Hailes for Women's Health, accessed September 2026.

Genitourinary syndrome of menopause affecting around one in two women, its vulval symptoms of burning, itching, redness and swelling, and that unlike hot flushes these problems can continue or worsen after menopause.

Menopause and the skin

DermNet, New Zealand, reviewed October 2024.

Dryness and itch as likely the most common skin complaint of menopause, oestrogen's role in hydration, ceramides, sebum and hyaluronic acid, the two to eight year length of perimenopause, itch compounded by iron deficiency and hypothyroidism, and moisturisers, emollients and soap avoidance as the general measures.

Menopause induces changes to the stratum corneum ceramide profile, which are prevented by hormone replacement therapy

Kendall et al., Scientific Reports 12, 2022.

Fewer and shorter ceramides in post-menopausal stratum corneum, the absence of that change in the hormone therapy group, and the correlation with serum oestradiol.

Menopause, skin and common dermatoses. Part 2: skin disorders

Kamp et al., Clinical and Experimental Dermatology 47(12), 2022.

Oestrogen's part in water loss through the skin and in dermal collagen, and the association of menopause with xerosis and pruritus.

Mild skin heating evokes warmth hyperknesis selectively for histaminergic and serotoninergic itch in humans

Riccio et al., Acta Dermato-Venereologica 102, 2022.

The four and seven degree heating experiment and the rise in itch intensity.

Nocturnal itch: why do we itch at night?

Patel et al., Acta Dermato-Venereologica 87(4), 2007.

The circadian rhythm of itch mediators, the daily changes in skin temperature and barrier function, and the shortage of specific treatments for night itch.

Chronic pruritus in older adults: prevalence, associations, and pruritus-specific quality of life

Bollemeijer et al., Acta Dermato-Venereologica 105, the Rotterdam Study, 2025.

The 8.6% current prevalence figure and the association with female sex, older age and self-reported dry skin.

Itch: epidemiology, clinical presentation, and diagnostic workup

Roh et al., Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology 86(1), 2022.

The initial blood workup for chronic itch, and the systemic causes it is looking for.

Iron deficiency and pruritus: a cross-sectional analysis to assess its association and relationship

Saini et al., Indian Journal of Dermatology 66(6), 2021.

Iron deficiency examined as an underlying cause of generalised itch, and serum ferritin as the measure to ask for.

Efficacy and safety of an over-the-counter 1% colloidal oatmeal cream in the management of mild to moderate atopic dermatitis in children

Lisante et al., Journal of Dermatological Treatment 28(7), 2017.

The over-the-counter cream matching a prescription barrier cream, read as a lesson about the class of product rather than about menopause.

Sex hormones and urticaria

Kasperska-Zajac et al., Journal of Dermatological Science 52(2), 2008.

The long-discussed link between shifting sex hormones and chronic hives, which is the one place histamine belongs in this page, and sex hormones modulating mast cell secretion with cycle phase affecting the severity of some inflammatory conditions, which is why an itch that tracks the cycle is treated here as a hives question rather than a barrier one.

The effect of menopause on the skin and other connective tissues

Calleja-Agius and Brincat, Gynecological Endocrinology 28(4), 2012.

The correlation between skin collagen loss and oestrogen deficiency, and oestrogen use reducing the likelihood of dry skin after menopause.

Itchy skin

NHS, reviewed 2024.

The self-care list, patting rather than scratching, cool showers, unperfumed emollients, cotton or silk clothing, the pharmacist's role, and when to see a GP.

Written by Davina Hearne, 6 September 2026.

Davina Hearne qualified in 2012 at Wellpark College of Natural Therapies in New Zealand, with three NZQA Level 6 diplomas taken together over three years: Naturopathy, Herbal Medicine and Nutrition.

Davina Hearne is a New Zealand qualified naturopath, herbalist and nutritionist. She is not a medical doctor. This is health education from a qualified non-physician practitioner. It is not medical advice and does not establish a practitioner relationship.

Start tonight

Turn the shower down tonight, and put the cream on before you are dry.

That is the whole method for the first two days, and it is the part most women skip. Add the cooler bedroom and the cotton this week, keep the notes, and read them on day seven. If a month of it has changed nothing, you have earned a specific appointment: a full blood count, ferritin and thyroid function, with a week of notes in your hand.

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