As women enter perimenopause, their skin loses its firmness and begins to sag. The term “jowls” refers to the sagging of the skin below the chin or jawline.
Studies show that women lose as much as 30% of their skin’s collagen, a protein that makes up the connective tissue in the body, during the first five years of the menopause transition. Following menopause, women lose about 2% of their collagen each year for the next 20 years.
As collagen levels diminish, the skin loses its firmness and begins to sag. The cheeks and skin surrounding the mouth lose their firmness and tightness as the skin further loses collagen. Once this happens, gravity causes it to sag and drop on either side of the mouth and chin.