Why You’re Breaking Out All of a Sudden

If your skin’s suddenly gone from calm to chaos, you’re not alone. Maybe your usual skincare routine isn’t working anymore. Maybe your breakouts are showing up in new places, like your jawline, chin, or cheeks, and you have no idea why. Maybe it’s been years since you had acne, and now it’s back out of nowhere. This kind of sudden breakout isn’t just frustrating. It’s confusing. 

Here’s the truth: Despite what they may seem, breakouts aren’t random, and they aren’t always about your products or hygiene. Often, your skin is reacting to something deeper happening inside your body. Let’s break down what that could be.

The Most Common Reasons You’re Suddenly Breaking Out

Hormonal Shifts
One of the most common and overlooked causes of sudden acne is hormonal fluctuations. You might notice breakouts:

• Mid-cycle, around ovulation
• Before your period starts
• After coming off the Pill
• When stopping or changing hormonal birth control
• During perimenopause or major life stress

These shifts can lead to excess oil, clogged pores, and inflammation, especially along the jawline and cheeks. But just because you’re a woman with a menstrual cycle, and hormonal fluctuations are a given, that does NOT mean that hormone imbalances are normal, or that you have to accept these breakouts. When your hormones are balanced and stay balanced, your skin should stay clear, regardless of what time it is in your cycle.

The most common hormonal imbalances behind sudden breakouts include:

• High androgens, such as testosterone or DHEA
• Low progesterone, especially after stopping the birth control pill or with irregular cycles
• Poor ovulation
• Blood sugar dysregulation
• High cortisol levels 

Though it’s important to note, that just because these are the most common imbalances, does not mean they are your imbalances. It’s SO important to get clarity on where your hormones are at before playing around with treatment or supplements, otherwise you could be trying to lower a hormone that is already too low or raise a hormone that is already in excess.

Blood Sugar Spikes and Crashes
What you eat and how often you eat directly affects your skin. Skipping meals, snacking on carbs without protein or fat, or relying on caffeine and sugar to get through the day can spike your blood sugar. When that happens, your body produces more insulin, which can drive up androgen levels (eg. testosterone) and increase sebum (aka oil) production in your skin. Translation: more breakouts.

Gut Imbalance
Your gut plays a massive role in skin health. If your digestion is off, your body may not eliminate excess hormones efficiently, leading to a backup that purges through your skin. Signs your gut might be involved include bloating, gas, irregular stools, diarrhoea, constipation, acne flares after antibiotics or illness, or breakouts that worsen with certain foods.

Stress or Poor Sleep
Stress may not seem like a big deal until your skin tells you otherwise. When your body is under stress, it releases cortisol, your main stress hormone. Elevated cortisol affects your blood sugar, suppresses digestion, disrupts ovulation, and raises inflammation - all known acne triggers. If your sleep has been off lately, that will add to your stress load too. Your skin needs deep, consistent rest to repair and regulate. And no, a bubble bath won’t make much of a difference if you’re still rattling off your to do list and worrying about tomorrow. Stress is often conscious and subconscious.

Your Skin Is Talking to You

When you break out suddenly, it’s tempting to treat it like a surface-level problem. But acne is rarely just skin-deep. Your skin is trying to tell you something about what’s happening inside your body, whether that’s hormone imbalance, gut issues, or metabolic stress.

Understanding what’s going on inside your body to cause your breakouts is the key to clearing your skin and keeping it clear!

What to Do Next

If you’re tired of guessing and Googling, and want to finally understand what’s driving your breakouts, I created a free masterclass to walk you through:

• What’s actually causing your skin to break out
  
• How to know if your hormones are involved
  
• The steps to rebalance your hormones and clear your acne naturally

Watch the free masterclass here. It’s packed with information most doctors never explain and is the starting point I recommend to every woman struggling with unpredictable, frustrating breakouts.

Ready to Go Deeper?

If you already know your breakouts are hormonal and you’re ready to stop trial and error and want to finally see results, the Balance Your Hormones program is for you. It’s a step-by-step roadmap to taking control of your healing journey, becoming your own practitioner, and clearing your acne naturally by finding and fixing your personal root causes. Inside, you’ll learn:

• How to identify your hormone imbalances
  
• How to make science-backed, non-restrictive diet & lifestyle changes to support clear, calm skin ongoing
  
• How to balance blood sugar, support your gut, and stop the breakout cycle
  
  

Client Success Story:

"I had tried birth control and acne medicines but nothing worked. I never used to believe that food made much of a difference. And I was missing the root cause of why my acne always came back. My acne is finally improving and it makes me very happy. I'm also more energetic, happy and less stressed. No Bandaid approach anymore! I feel amazing!" - Afrah

Explore the Balance Your Hormones Program today

Mads 🤍