WOMEN’S BODIES: SUNBURN AND OTHER SKIN PROBLEMS DURING PUBERTY
I hope you’ve all got the ‘Sunbaking Dangerous’ message of the past decade. The bronzed Aussie image is ‘out’. Protecting skin from the sun is ‘in’. Yet some people still aim for as deep a suntan as they can get. Why do they take the risk?! Perhaps they can’t think far enough ahead to worry about something that might happen when they are 40 or 50 years old.
A little sunshine is healthy and an important source of vitamin D. But the weekly dose of sun we need is measured in minutes rather than hours. Here some good reasons for avoiding too much sun.
• It helps prevent skin cancer, which Australians get more than any other people.
• It helps preserve skin quality. By standards of beauty in climates like ours, Australians over the age of 30 have the most ‘weather-beaten’ skins – dry, wrinkled and leathery.
• Many Australians have the fair, freckly sort of skin that came from the cold climates of Northern Europe and was never meant to be exposed to our fierce sun. This skin will never tan and becomes damaged earlier than more olive-coloured skins. People with this skin are much more liable to skin cancer, often when they are even in their twenties.
If you do get burnt, a warm bath, calamine lotion and an aspirin will give some relief. There’s nothing you can do to prevent peeling. Sunburn that causes extensive blistering or fever needs medical attention.
Look after your skin. Most of the damage is done during childhood or youth. I know how young people hate it when adults tell them to do this and that for their own good, but if you don’t start protecting your skin when you’re young, you’ll regret it. When I was a child my mother insisted that I wore a shirt under my bathers. I hated this; as soon as I went to study in another town I left it off and tried to tan. The sunburn was terrible; I now have freckles as big as five-cent coins all over my shoulders. Mum was right!
Excessive sweating
The hormonal changes of puberty often lead to bouts of excessive sweating. Also, the sweat glands in the armpits and groin start to produce a different type of sweat, which can become bad smelling if it stays on skin and clothes. Girls often notice I this more just before periods. You need to wash and change daily to avoid body odour. Smelly feet can also be a problem. It helps to wear cotton socks and maybe foot powder inside all closed shoes. These problems usually settle down at the end; of adolescence, though some people always sweat more than others.
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