I Told My Post-Menopausal Patients Their Jaw Was a Normal Part of Ageing. I Had Been Telling Them That for Years. I Was Wrong.
At 62, I was quietly holding a smile on every video call because menopause had taken my jaw and I'd run out of answers — for them and for myself.
I'm 62. I went through menopause at 54. I spent years telling patients that what happened to their jaw afterwards was something they'd have to accept. I was telling myself the same thing.
I am 62 years old and for the past two years I have been holding a very slight, permanent smile whenever I am on a video call. Not because I am happy. Because I worked out that it pulls the jaw up just enough that I don't have to look at what's underneath it.
I hadn't told anyone that. I'm a dermatologist. I'm supposed to be the one with the answers.
But I had given up. Completely. Without realising when it happened.
My post-menopausal patients had been saying the same thing to me for years. That they'd tried everything. That they'd accepted it. That they were done spending money on things that didn't work and were just waiting to decide whether surgery was worth it.
I told them that was a reasonable place to land. Normal. Expected after menopause.
I was right about the feeling. I was completely wrong that nothing could address it.
I Told Them It Was Menopause. I Was Right About the Cause. I Was Wrong That It Was Untreatable.
What I was telling patients was technically accurate. When oestrogen falls at menopause, the platysma — the muscle running from the collarbone to the jaw — loses its primary hormonal support. The muscle weakens. The jaw softens and slides. The lower face no longer looks like it matches the rest. This is what happens.
What I wasn't telling them — because I didn't know — is that the muscle loss behind it wasn't untreatable.
I'd been treating the jaw as a skin problem for twelve years.
Creams for elasticity. Collagen supplements for structure. Fillers for volume. Threads for lift. Surgery when none of those held.
Every option I recommended addressed what I could see. None of them addressed the muscle layer that oestrogen decline had weakened — the layer I wasn't looking at.
"I'd been telling post-menopausal patients their jaw changes were normal and inevitable. I was right about normal. I was completely wrong about inevitable."
— Dr. Erica AdamsAfter menopause, the platysma and the deeper jaw muscles atrophy because they've lost the hormonal support that maintained their tone. The skin above follows. The jaw slides.
The muscle sits beneath all of them. Every surface treatment is working on the wrong thing.
I knew this abstractly. I'd just never connected it to what I was recommending — or to what I'd quietly accepted about my own face in the mirror every morning since menopause.
Why Everything I'd Been Recommending for Twelve Years Was Treating the Wrong Layer.
I had been wrong about the cause. Not about the treatments — they do what they claim. About what was actually driving the problem they were supposed to fix.
When I looked at twelve years of recommendations through that lens, the same mistake was in every single one.
Creams and serums interact with the dermis — the surface. The platysma sits beneath it. They were never going to reach the muscle oestrogen had weakened.
Fillers restore lost volume. They don't restore lost muscle tone. The jaw slides because the platysma has atrophied — filling the space above that doesn't change what's happening underneath.
Threads mechanically lift the skin. The muscle continues to weaken beneath them. Within a year, most patients are back asking what comes next.
Surgery addresses both layers — skin and underlying tissue. That's why it works. But it's a permanent commitment to a face that will keep changing underneath the incision.
What addresses the muscle layer without surgery is microcurrent — a low-level electrical current that passes through the skin to the muscle beneath, stimulating contraction and rebuilding tone the same way a physiotherapist uses electrical stimulation to rebuild an atrophied muscle after injury. For post-menopausal jaw laxity, this is the mechanism that actually matches the cause.
Combined with red light at 630nm — which supports collagen in the dermis above — you're reaching both layers that a surgical facelift addresses. Without the incision. Without the permanence.
I knew this technology existed. I'd been dismissing the at-home category for twelve years because the devices looked like consumer gadgets and the marketing made them sound like one.
Then I read an independent study I couldn't argue with. And I tested it — on myself, and on a patient who had already decided surgery was probably inevitable.
I Started Using It to Confirm My Scepticism. That Is Not What Happened.
I tested it expecting to find nothing. That is the honest answer — I ran the trial because I had run out of credible reasons not to, not because I believed it would change anything.
I asked a patient — 61, post-menopausal for seven years, had been pricing a facelift, had stopped attending events where she couldn't control how she was photographed — to try the device for five weeks before booking her consultation.
Same clinic. Same lighting. Same angle. Three appointments over five weeks.
Patient documentation. Same clinic, same lighting, same angle. Three appointments over five weeks.
I started using it on myself the same week. Five minutes each morning. I told no one.
No visible change. Expected. I kept going.
Something I noticed in the mirror but wouldn't commit to yet. The jaw angle looked marginally more defined. I documented it clinically and said nothing. I've been wrong about subjective changes before. I needed more than my own eyes.
A colleague I've worked alongside for eleven years stopped me in the clinic corridor. She asked if I'd changed something. She didn't know what. Not younger. Just sharper. She hadn't known I was testing anything.
That was what my patient's husband asked her. Week five. She hadn't told him she was using anything. He just noticed — and didn't know what he was noticing.
She came in the following day and told me. I went very quiet. Because two days earlier, a colleague had said almost the same thing to me in the corridor.
Neither of them knew about the other. Neither had been prompted. Neither had anything to gain from saying it.
I had spent twelve years telling post-menopausal patients there was no non-surgical answer. I had needed someone else to see it before I believed it myself.
The Data I Should Have Read Years Earlier — and What I Tell Every Post-Menopausal Patient Now.
I reviewed the clinical data before I changed a single recommendation. Independent researchers. Skin measured directly — not self-reported. Thirty days of use.
The technology — red light at 630nm combined with microcurrent EMS — is the same used in professional clinic treatments at $200 to $300 per session.
The device I tested delivers both in five minutes at home. At a fraction of the cost of a single clinic appointment.
That is the Survora Halo. That is what I'd been dismissing while quietly avoiding my own reflection since menopause.
Survora Birthday Sale — Limited Time
It Was Inevitable. I Was Wrong.
The muscle layer oestrogen decline weakened is addressable — without surgery. If you've quietly accepted there's nothing left to try after menopause — or you're pricing a procedure — try this first.
TRY WHAT OTHERS NOTICED BEFORE I DID
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Surgery works because it reaches the muscle and connective tissue beneath the skin. That's why it does what creams can't.
The post-menopausal jaw slides because the platysma has lost oestrogen's support and atrophied. Fillers, threads, and creams sit above that layer. None of them reverse what menopause did to the muscle beneath.
Microcurrent reaches the platysma directly — electrically, not surgically. No incision. No recovery. No permanent commitment to a result that ages underneath it.
Five minutes. The clinical mechanism is identical to what surgery reaches. The procedure is not.
Most at-home device studies are brand-funded and self-reported. I dismiss them routinely. This one was independent. Skin measured directly. Thirty days of use.
I couldn't find a reason to dismiss it. So I stopped dismissing it.
I compared the Halo's specifications against the clinic-grade devices I use in treatment settings.
— 630nm red light, EMS microcurrent. The difference is the clinic overhead, the brand name, and the margin built into every session.
A single clinic microcurrent session runs $250–$500. This ships to your door with a 60-night money-back guarantee.
Surgery is permanent. Filler requires ongoing maintenance. Threads dissolve and can't be repeated indefinitely.
I was recommending all three before I'd exhausted the non-invasive option. And for post-menopausal jaw laxity specifically — where the cause is hormonal muscle atrophy — the non-invasive option addresses the actual mechanism. That was the mistake I kept making — including on myself.
This commits you to five minutes a day and a 60-night trial. Full refund if it doesn't work. The surgical option will still be there if you need it.
I've reviewed hundreds of at-home devices over twelve years. Most go in a drawer inside a month.
This one is still on my counter. My jaw looks more defined than it has since before menopause changed it. I stopped telling myself there was nothing left to do.
"Five weeks in. I hadn't told him I was using anything. He just said I looked different. I'd stopped expecting anyone to say something like that after menopause. Just this, every night. I genuinely did not expect it to work."
"I'd already accepted that surgery was probably next — my jaw had completely gone after menopause. Five weeks in, my daughter called and said I looked different — I hadn't told her I was using anything. My jawline is so much firmer and the sag under my chin is nearly gone. Five minutes a day and I genuinely didn't think this was going to be possible."
"Three weeks in. I hadn't. Just this, every night. I went through menopause four years ago and nothing I tried made a difference — I genuinely did not expect it to work and I'm still a little shocked that it did."
"I've recommended this to all my friends because the results have been incredible. My jowls are practically gone, and the confidence boost is priceless. Five minutes a day and my jawline looks years younger — I didn't think that was possible after menopause without surgery."
I Was Wrong. I'd Like You to Know That Before You Accept That This Is Just How Menopause Left You.
I still use it most mornings. That's the honest limitation — this is not a one-time procedure. It requires consistency. It is not permanent. But neither is the problem, if you're addressing the right layer.
What I can't give back is the years. Post-menopausal women sat in my clinic having already given up, and I told them that was reasonable. I was wrong. Not about the feeling — the feeling was real. About whether anything could change what oestrogen decline had done to the muscle underneath it.
I kept telling patients their jaw changes after menopause were inevitable. I was holding a smile on every video call and telling myself the same thing. That's the part I find hardest to say out loud.
If you're pricing a procedure right now — or you've quietly accepted that this is just how menopause left your face — try sixty nights of this first. The surgical option will still be there if you need it. But you'll know after sixty nights whether you actually do.
Survora Birthday Sale — Limited Time
Menopause Made It Inevitable.
The muscle layer oestrogen weakened is addressable — without surgery. If you've quietly accepted there's nothing left to try after menopause, try this first. Sixty nights. Full refund if it doesn't work.
TRY WHAT OTHERS NOTICED BEFORE I DID
Free activator gel · 60-night guarantee · Free USA shipping
★★★★★4.7 average · 1,000+ reviews · 60,000+ Happy Customers