Most of us are familiar with stretch marks: the silvery white scar lines that appear on our skin after a period of rapid growth, pregnancy, or weight gain. If your skin stretched during pregnancy, you might view these as glorious battle scars, but many people feel less than positive about them and welcome suggestions as to how to lessen or remove stretch marks.
Alongside a bundle of mixed advice and gossip concerning stretch marks are the facts: perhaps 90% of pregnancies leave some skin damage, along with normal growth spurts, weight gain, and intentional muscle development. It’s unusual for stretch marks to be an indication of anything more serious, though prolonged use of some medicines, particularly steroids, can have this side effect.
Scars caused by the sudden growth of pregnancy are, of course, most noticeable on the stomach, though both pregnant women and adolescent girls can discover them on their breasts and thighs. Young men tend to develop them on their broadening shoulders and backs.
Stretch marks (or “striae” as they are called by the medical profession) on the surface of the skin are merely the evidence of damage deeper in the tissue. The initial redness of the stretch marks indicates broken vessels in the dermis, and as they heal, so the colour of the scars fades. The texture of the skin may also be changed: smoother, and raised or indented.
Massage, exercise, and the application of various creams are widely discussed and recommended, particularly during pregnancy, as effective preventative measures against stretch marks. Nevertheless, rapid stretching of the skin cannot be avoided in every case, and remedies to remove stretch marks continue to be sought.
A flourishing industry has developed researching the causes and cures of the scarring. Over-the-counter creams to remove stretch marks are available in every price bracket, with cocoa butter and vitamins A and E favoured ingredients. Collagen and tretinoin have been found to be particularly effective in healing the dermis, and therefore producing comparatively dramatic results on new marks.
Finally there are the more drastic alternatives: laser treatment and surgery. Laser therapy can seal the broken blood vessels, speed the contraction of the tissue, or remove the scarred surface skin. In surgery, the damaged skin is removed completely, most commonly in a “tummy tuck” operation.
For most of us, the ideal of flawless skin may never be more than an ideal, but there is evidently much that can be done to improve damaged skin. Much research has been put into stretch mark removal, and there are several effective preparations that you can get over the counter or through the internet that will do a great job of hiding your stretch marks.
