Creams for Stretch Marks

Pregnancy

Almost every pregnant woman in the world gets stretch marks. Stretch marks are just tiny depressed streaks in the skin that is caused by tears in the elastic tissue that is just under the skin that helps it stretch. These stretch marks begin as small pink marks and then advance to reddish brown or very dark brown. They do fade but are never completely gone. Most women get stretch marks on their abdomen however; some women also get them on their thighs, hips, breasts or buttocks. Stretch marks are a bit less common with darker skinned women.

It is hard to tell if you will be one of the women that will get stretch marks. If other women in your family got stretch marks then you more than likely will also get them. Some of things that attribute to stretch marks include:

Gaining a lot of weight quickly
Being pregnant with more than one baby
Being pregnant with a large baby
Having excess amniotic fluid

There is not much you can do to prevent getting stretch marks. The best way is to only gain the amount of weight that is recommended by your doctor and gaining the weight slowly instead of gaining most of it during the last trimester.

You can try all the creams on the market however; none has been scientifically proven to prevent stretch marks.

Normally, stretch marks will fade and hardly be noticed within six to twelve months after giving birth. The skin texture will not change but the color of the stretch marks can fade and will be closer in color to your normal skin.

There are a few prescriptions drugs that you can get to reduce the appearance of fresh stretch marks. They must contain Tretinoin which is sometimes called Retin-A. These types of creams will not work on older stretch marks and will not work on darker stretch marks.

There is a French treatment known as Endermologie, which is where a type of machine is used that has rollers. The machine uses the rollers along with soft suction to massage and exfoliate the area where the stretch marks are present. It will not completely fade the stretch marks away.

Laser surgery has also been used in severe cases. Some of the cases have done extremely well, where others did not.

Choosing to use creams or other methods to reduce the signs of stretch marks is a personal decision and each one should be researched to ensure the safety of your skin.