Treatment for melasma

I am a 31 year old female and have melasma. How does one treat this skin condition?

 

Melasma results in darkening of skin and thus, all treatments are geared towards lightening your skin. Current treatments for melasma include sunscreens, bleaching creams (e.g. hydroquinone), acne creams (e.g. azelaic acid), topical retinoids (e.g. tretinoin), and facial peels where an acid solution is used to remove outer layers of skin (e.g. glycolic acid peels or the blue peels). Some spas also incorporate a combination approach such as triple-combination cream (hydroquinone, tretinoin, and steroid). Some plastic surgeons also offer a variety of lasers to get rid of your melasma. As to which one is the best treatment is anyone’s guess. 

What you have to understand that in most cases, melasma disappears on its own. So it is impossible to tell if anyone of these remedies really work!  The only two things for sure are that 1) you will certainly be paying big bucks for anyone of these treatments and 2) one of these treatments will probably worsen your skin condition. Best advice- be patient and in most cases melasma disappears or lightens up on its own. It is not a life threatening disorder nor is it a disease that requires treatment. All the people who offer therapy for melasma can best be described as FRAUDS.