One of the most common skin problem of women after pregnancy is stretch marks. More than 60% of the pregnant women develop them. Stretch marks appear as narrow streaks or lines on the surface of the skin.
Stretch marks are harmless, but cosmetically not acceptable by most of the women. In this post we would discuss about stretch marks, how do these develop, how to prevent and treat them.
How do stretch marks develop?
Stretch marks develop when your body tissues grow faster as compared to your skin. This results in sudden stretching of skin. The elastic fibres of dermis layer of skin break at places, then heal forming scars in deeper layers of skin that appear as stretch marks.
Common causes that cause stretch marks are:
- pregnancy
- weight gain
- growth spurts during puberty
Rare cause includes disease of endocrine gland, genetic disorder or long term use of steroids.
What are the common sites of stretch marks?
Most common sites of stretch marks include belly, breasts, thighs, buttocks and upper arms. These are usually the common sites of weight gain.
Stretch marks are often red or purple to start with, before gradually fading to a silvery-white colour. They usually appear as long thin lines running perpendicular to the maximum lines of tension on skin.
How to prevent stretch marks?
There is no effective way to prevent stretch marks. But the risk of stretch marks can be reduced by:
- Taking care of your skin during pregnancy. The overstretched skin of belly,thighs or breasts should be kept well hydrated by applying moisturizer creams or lotions.
- There might be constant itching or irritation on over-stretched skin, avoid scratching and consult your dermatologist to alleviate it.
What are the treatment available for stretch marks?
Some stretch marks tend to fade and become faint silvery steaks with time, while others appear dark and more showy.
There are numerous treatment options in form of topical medicines or procedures that claim to reduce appearance of stretch marks.
Various drugs used in treatment of stretch marks:
- Creams containing cocoa butter, wheat germ oil, lanolin, onion extract and hyaluronic acid are being used for treatment of stretch marks. All these ingredients are only partially effective in fading the marks.
- Another option is creams or lotion containing retinoids. It speeds up cell turnover, stimulates new collagen growth and reduces the appearance of stretch marks. But it can not be used by pregnant or breastfeeding females.
Various procedures used for treatment of stretch marks:
- Laser therapy: Different types of lasers are used to treat stretch marks. Most common are pulsed dye laser and fractional non ablative laser. Non ablative Fractional laser is US-FDA(Food and Drug Administration) approved treatment modality for stretch marks. The energy from laser causes small thermal wounds in deeper layers of skin that stimulates collagen remodelling and improves appearance of scars. Pulsed dye laser treatment is to be used in early stages while stretch marks are more vascular (appearing red or purple in colour). The energy from the laser is absorbed by the blood vessels, leading to their collapse. The red or purple colour then either disappears completely or turns white. Laser therapy can’t completely remove stretch marks, but it may help them to fade and make them less noticeable.
- Bipolar radio frequency technique: This delivers targeted heat to the dermis beneath the surface of the stretch marks. It stimulates body’s natural healing response and collagen production. Collagen production increases over time and with number of sittings, reducing the appearance of stretch mark.
- Dermaroller technique is a cheaper alternative to fractional lasers for the treatment of stretch marks.
- Microdermabrasion and chemical peels remove the skin’s topmost layer, prompting the growth of new, more-elastic skin. These may help to reduce the appearance of stretch marks.
- Cosmetic surgery for stretch marks is expensive and rarely recommended. Tummy tuck or abdominoplasty operation removes excess fat and skin from your abdomen, and also gets rid of stretch marks below your belly button. As like other surgeries, this operation also carries a number of associated risks and can cause considerable scarring.
When should the treatment of stretch marks begin?
The best time to treat the stretch marks is while they’re are just beginning and are vascular, appearing reddish or purplish in colour. Older whitish marks respond poorly to the treatment.
How much effective are the treatments?
Though there are number of treatment options, but there is only a little clinical evidence about the efficacy of these treatments. There is, at maximum, a moderate response even with the best of the treatment available currently. So it’s better to be realistic about the outcome. That is, these treatments can only reduce the appearance of scar partially. So before opting for treatment, one should just weigh cost versus benefits of treatment.
Moreover, the outcome of treatment also depends on age of scar. As already discussed, stretch marks should be treated while they are red or purple in colour, as these marks respond better than old whitish marks.
Stretch marks are harmless and most of them gradually fade with time. To address cosmetic needs, a number of treatments are already available in market and some are still evolving. But the real issue is efficacy of current treatments.
Hope this article gives you an idea about treatment of stretch marks and helps you to decide before spending a chunk of money for their treatment after being swayed by flashy boastful advertisements.
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Dr Monika Misra
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