Wrinkly Tummy

Can age cause my tummy to be wrinkly?

Just like with your face, one of the main reasons that your stomach becomes wrinkled is through age. Key structural proteins in the skin, especially collagen and elastin, decline over time, leading to a loss in firmness and elasticity, while the loss of subcutaneous fat, especially in the stomach area, can contribute to wrinkle appearance. How significant this age-related wrinkling is probably has a lot to do with your genes – as some individuals are more prone to developing wrinkles than others. However, if you’ve done a lot of stomach-out sunbathing, you may have accelerated skin ageing through overexposure to the sun’s UV rays, which break down collagen and elastin fibres.

Will my tummy be wrinkly after pregnancy?

The changes that occur to your body during and after pregnancy can be very individual so it’s not guaranteed that everyone will get a wrinkly tummy post-childbirth. However, due to the skin on your stomach stretching to accommodate the expansion of your growing baby, it is possible that your skin will be a little wrinkly. That’s why significant weight fluctuations in general can also lead to skin sagging. How quickly, and how completely, your skin responds and retracts back after pregnancy is also individual. It is likely to depend on factors including any preventive treatments you tried through your trimesters, your diet, exercise and overall lifestyle.

What surgical options are available?

1. Abdominoplasty (tummy tuck): By surgically removal excess skin and fat, while tightening the muscle, you can address significantly wrinkly skin on your skin. The procedure offers dramatic results, but the downtime is significant and as with all surgery, it carries more risks.

What tweakments are on offer to treat a wrinkly tummy?

For stomach wrinkles, your best solution is likely to be a little tweak as it can be a tricky area to treat. But, don’t worry, you don’t necessarily have to have anything surgical nowadays (although this is still an option for considerable skin sagging in the area). Here are some of our favourite options:

1. Laser skin treatments: Laser devices emit concentrated light energy that generates heat within the skin, stimulating collagen production, with a tightening and firming effect over time. Ablative lasers, such as Stellar M22 and UltraClear, remove the skin’s outer layer to resurface and tighten, while non-ablative lasers, including Secret Duo by Cutera and MOXI, heat the underlying layers without removing the surface, stimulating firming and tightening.
2. Peels: Skin peels use acid to dissolve the bonds that are holding old, dead skin cells onto the skin’s surface and a superficial peel, of which there are plenty of options, can help tackle fine lines and mild wrinkling on the body.
3. Radiofrequency: By heating up the deeper layers of the skin to create controlled injury using radiofrequency energy, RF treatments can provide an albeit gradual tightening of loose skin on your stomach. Examples include the BTL Exilis Ultra 360.
4. RF Microneedling: By combining microneedling with RF energy, you can get even more tailored skin texture and firming results for your tummy, again through enhanced collagen production and skin tightening. Try Sylfirm X.
5. HIFEM: Standing for high-intensity focused electro-magnetic technology, body contouring devices, such as EMSCULPT Neo and Stimsure, use electromagnetic contractions to stimulate muscle contractions. This can tighten your skin, smoothing the appearance of wrinkling.
6. Ultrasound: Ultrasound energy is really good at stimulating collagen production, which means it can lift wrinkly skin through gradual skin tightening over time. The best known example is Sofwave.