High estrogen level causes melasma?

 Great question.     Melasma is a very common asquired dyscromia that occurs only in the sun-exposed areas . It is worsened by sun exposure, pregnancy ( where it is called chloasma or the mask of pregnancy), oral contraceptives, and certain anti-epileptic drugs like Dilantiin.   ... more

There are some reasons to believe that any alteration in the progersterone/estrogen ratio can cause or aggravate irregular pigmentation as is seen with melasma and chloasma. Clearly, exogenous forms of estrogen are known to trigger this condition, so it would make sense that endogenously high levels may do the... more