The Truth About Hormones and Your Skin—A Top Endocrinologist and Dermatologist Explain

Dr. Florence Comite (0:01)

The following podcast is a Dear Media production.

Carlene Higgins (0:08)

Welcome to Breaking Beauty, the podcast all about the breakthrough people, products, and moments in beauty.

Jill Dunn (0:14)

We're your hosts, Jill Dunn and Carlene Higgins.

Carlene Higgins (0:22)

Welcome back to Breaking Beauty Podcast, everyone. I'm your co-host, Carlene Higgins, and I'm here with my work wife for life, Jill Dunn.

Jill Dunn (0:30)

Hey, everyone. And of course, we are two longtime magazine beauty editors turned beauty podcasters. We produce more than 450 episodes all about the breakthrough people, products, and moments in beauty. And Carlene, how long have we been waiting to do this episode today?

Carlene Higgins (0:46)

Oh, my gosh. It has been at least three years, I would say. And so the topic I'm just going to tell you right now is about hormones in your skin.

And I very selfishly wanted to cover this topic as I got into perimenopause. And my skin completely freaked out on me. It just started getting flare ups. And I was complaining to all of you about it. And so we were trying to find the perfect person. But I was having trouble finding a dermatologist who knew a lot about perimenopause and a hormone specialist who knew a lot about dermatology. So today we've fixed this problem.

Jill Dunn (1:27)

We have the perfect guests. And they are two incredible twin sisters who represent the ultimate dream team in internal and external health. So we are welcoming Dr. Florence Comite and Dr. Harriet Comite.

Dr. Florence Comite (1:45)

Thank you for having us.

Jill Dunn (1:46)

Of course.

Carlene Higgins (1:46)

Dr. Florence is a Manhattan-based Yale and NIH-trained endocrinologist and founder of the Center for Precision Medicine and Health, where she uses personalized genomic and metabolic data to optimize lifespan and healthspan from the inside out.

Jill Dunn (2:03)

And Dr. Florence is also the author of the New York Times bestselling book, Invincible Defy Your Genetic Destiny To Live Better, Longer. That's actually how you got on my radar because of your book. And this book is all about identifying your unique biomarkers to help develop a personalized framework to sort of decode your current and future health. And we really need those lessons.

Carlene Higgins (2:27)

I know I do.

And we're thrilled to welcome Dr. Harriet Comite as well. She's a Yale-educated, board-certified dermatologist, fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology, and founder of the Advanced Skin Care Laser and Body Contouring Center in Pennsylvania. Dr. Harriet's early clinical research helped advance landmark acne treatments like isotretinoin and benzoyl peroxide therapies. Very cool. Welcome, Dr. Harriet.

Jill Dunn (2:57)

Power duo. So this episode is all about where endocrinology meets dermatology, like Carlene mentioned, and why looking at your hormones and your skin together is the real key to your healthiest skin ever.

Carlene Higgins (3:08)

Just ahead, we're going to find out when it's actually time to get your hormones tested, why your skin suddenly acts up in your 30s or during perimenopause, or whether viral TikTok hacks like taking pepsid and antihistamines for PMS actually has any scientific backing.

Jill Dunn (3:27)

And we're also answering a lot of questions about hormonal acne, which I tend to get. And we're going to be talking about estrogen face creams, GLP-1s, and longevity peptide injections, all these things that are really relevant to the cultural conversation today. So officially welcome.

Right before we got on the mic, we were saying how impressive it is that both of you are incredibly accomplished MDs. And then you had a whole litany of your family tree and how accomplished they all are.

Dr. Florence Comite (3:57)

Supposedly becoming a doctor runs in the family along with criminals. Like, not in our family, but once I was on a plane with folks from Australia, who I guess were channeled to Australia years and years ago, and they said that you can inherit being a criminal and being a doctor. No, wow. That's true or not, I don't know.

Jill Dunn (4:14)

You need to put that to the test.

Dr. Florence Comite (4:15)

I know. Hopefully not at the same time. So far no criminals have shown up. Maybe minor crimes, but yeah. So our brother is a dermatologist. You have a brother, right? Dr. Stephen Comite is actually in Manhattan.

He used to be our younger brother, but now we made a deal when we were younger that he'd become our older brother when we got older, and he's fine with it. Oh, okay, great. I know. I love how that works. And my son's a facial plastic surgeon. Harriet has a daughter who's a dermatologist, and we have a cousin, Aviva Preminger, who is a body plastic surgeon in New York, too.