Stretch Marks Problem In Teenager

The teenage years can be troublesome in so many ways–the fluctuating hormones, mood swings, and the many physiological changes in the body. Stretch marks or striae is one such prominent change that you will notice as you enter the teens.

According to dermatologist in Dwarka, Delhi, children between the ages of 10 and 16 tend to develop colored striae–red or purple in color that fade into a mesh of white slivers. The general observation is that growing girls and obese children are more prone to developing stretch marks than boys as they enter puberty. For girls, stretch marks start appearing as they develop breasts, and hips take form. In boys, it is mostly seen on shoulders and back.

How Do Stretch Marks Occur?

Simply put, stretch marks happen when your body grows faster than your skin can, and your skin’s normal elasticity gets affected. The collagen–the protein structure under the skin–starts to break as you experience a sudden spurt of growth. The regular collagen production process is unable to keep up with the body’s natural growth rate, so the elastic fibers under the skin get stretched, and you develop thin scars on the epidermis or the top layer of your skin.

Other than weight gain and other physiological changes in the body, conditions like Cushing’s syndrome (where body overproduces cortisol) and Marfan syndrome (a condition where the skin loses its natural elasticity) can result in stretch marks. Research shows that your genes play a big role in its severity on the skin. So if your mother had them, it is most likely you will have them, too.

How Do They Look And Feel?

Stretch marks can appear red, purple or brown depending on your natural skin color. These usually fade into silver, white or pale beige stripes on your skin once the growth spurt has stopped, and your skin structure has stabilized. You are most likely to get stretch marks on your breasts, thighs, buttocks as you grow in height and size. For some, especially those putting on weight, the marks can appear on the underside of the arms and calves.

For girls with less elastic skin, the streaks can appear in the wider section of the areas like buttocks or abdomen. These also take a longer time to fade. Other than natural development in muscles, excessive bodybuilding or weightlifting can lead to boys developing stretch marks, mostly on their shoulders, buttocks, and arms.

As your skin starts to stretch, and the scars get formed, you feel them as dents on your skin as you run your fingers over them. If you have a lighter complexion, you are most likely to develop pinkish stretch marks. Darker-skinned girls tend to get scars that are lighter than their skin tone – beige or white colored.

As your body stabilizes once you cross your teens, the colored streaks and dents are meant to fade and smooth out eventually.

Can You Erase Stretch Marks?

Well, you cannot, really. They never go away but how they finally look depends on your skin structure, especially the level of collagen and fibrillin in your skin, genetic history, and the time when you had them. The ones acquired during the teenage years do become barely noticeable and almost fade away since your skin’s natural regeneration process during the growing years is good. However, if the skin gets stretched due to obesity or pregnancy, they may be tougher to deal with. You may end up with indented streaks or deep lines on the skin. 

According to skin specialist in Dwarka, Delhi, there is no definitive treatment for stretch mark removal in Delhi that can completely remove stretch marks. Yes, there are medical procedures like laser stretch mark removal in Delhi that can lighten the streaks and smoothen the skin and almost make the scar invisible.

While weight loss or diet has proven to be ineffective, one way of dealing with striae is to treat it when it is getting formed, before the scarring is complete. Topical application of tretinoin at this stage is found to be effective and the improvement may persist for almost a year after discontinuation of therapy. Other topical treatments include a combination of glycolic acid and tretinoin and glycolic acid and L-ascorbic acid, both found to be effective.