What is Hyperpigmentation?
Hyperpigmentation is the medical term for the condition in which patches of skin become darker in color than the normal surrounding skin. There are a couple of different varieties:
Melasma appears as brown or gray-brown patches on the face. You're most likely to notice it on the cheeks, forehead, upper lip, and chin. Exposure, pregnancy, birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy all seem to promote melasma.
Postinflammatory hyperpigmentation appears as dark patches that develop from injury to the skin. Sometimes it's caused by skin disorders like acne, eczema and contact dermatitis. Other times, cosmetic procedures or reactions to cosmetics can produce postinflammatory hyperpigmentation.
Your doctor can tell you which type of hyperpigmentation you have and can provide you with options to treat it.
Risk Factors
Hyperpigmentation is more common than you think. No one really knows how many people have it but certain individuals are more prone it.
Darker skin type: According to a recent medical survey, pigment disorders such as hyperpigmentation are the third most common reason that African American patients go to the dermatologist.5 Among patients of Asian descent, up to 40% of women and 20% of men may have melasma.(6) A classification system has been developed that describes risk by skin type.
Sun exposure: They don't call them sun spots for nothing. Among patients with melasma, a combination of skin type and sun exposure may increase risk. People with light brown skin (eg, Asians, some Hispanics and some African Americans) who live in areas with high ultraviolet exposure have the highest prevalence of melasma.7,8 Patients of any skin type who are exposed to ultraviolet radiation may double the amount of pigment in their skin.9
Gender: Women are more likely than men to develop melasma10. And women can blame it all on hormones, associated with pregnancy, birth control pills, and hormone replacement therapy. Melasma may go away after childbirth or after a woman stops taking hormones. Men may also experience melasma, but hormones do not appear to be the cause.11
Skin trauma: Trauma may be due to inflammatory skin disorders such as acne, eczema, and contact dermatitis. Sometimes cosmetic procedures such as chemical peels, laser skin resurfacing, waxing, and electrolysis maybe the cause. Postinflammatory hyperpigmentation occurs at the site of injury, which can appear anywhere on the body. Men and women have the same risk of developing postinflammatory hyperpigmentation.
Other causes of melasma in both men and women include heredity, medications that cause the skin to become more sensitive to solar radiation, nutritional deficiency, and some disorders that affect the endocrine system in the body.