Ok, so my main concern with taking Accutane is how my skin is going to turn out after I am done. When my face is clear I have very nice skin, it is very smooth, has natural glow, and can almost look flawless. My face is very oily, but that usually does not bother me as long as I do not have acne. I am mainly considering Accutane for my back, chest, and shoulders. I think my acne in these regions is mild to moderately severe. I have tried many topical prescription medications as well as antibiotics, but nothing seems to help much. Anyways, I do not want to sacrifice my beautiful facial skin to clear the rest of my body. Of course I am aware of all of the drying side effects while taking acne. I am curious to know if people who take Accutane are likely to end up with dry, dull looking skin. Also, I have heard that Accutane can cause premature aging. Is this true? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Had the derm consultation yesterday and he pretty much just took a quick look over my upper body and then told me he would be prescribing it. I thought I might have to try and persuade him..I was literally in there for 10 minutes..

I'm only on a low dose though 20mg for 6 weeks and then I go back and get assessed and he might up the dosage.

Have to say I'm pleased but quite nervous.

Any advice?

I'm on Day 82 of a five month regimen. My face is completely clear, however, it is becoming increasingly red and i would like to limit that if possible. I purchased Eucerin's Redness Relief products:

1. The Cleanser
2. The Daytime Moisturizer
3. Night-time Moisturizing Cream

Do I need to use another moisturizer with the Eucerin products? The product claims to moisturize, but I want to be sure before I use them.

Its my engagement party in a month from now...

I am worried I'll be too dried up ... and i'll be too tired.. or still sick with this cold.. or that i will have a nose bleed.. or in a bad mood ...

I have been very tired, and i have a sore throat and a cough... most probably due to accutane..

I don't know what are the best things to do to make it a pleasurable experience.. how to be up and energetic through the night... what kind of make up to wear if i'm too dried up..

I am even thinking of the possibility of taking a break.. a week or 10 days.. from accutane.. but it's just a thought , I think my doctor won't let me ... But has anyone stopped for a week or two?

I am a bit stressed..
THanks
Amy

I just want some pep talk from people who have been through Accutane... I'm on day 126 and still getting deep cysts that take weeks to go away. The papulopustular stuff is almost gone though.

Anyone had it like this? When can I expect to clear up completely? I'm 70 kgs, on 60 mg a day (though I cheat with an extra pill every few days) and I always eat my pills with fatty meals (split up on 2 dosages per day).

So, I went on Accutane during my Freshman Year. I had some moderate acne, and my derm recommended that I go on accutane (around 75 % of people on Accutane have moderate acne)... it is only supposed to be prescribed for those with severe acne!
My Side Effects
1. Anxiety/Depression (still experiencing)
2. Dry skin/Chapped Lips (still experiencing)
3. Thinned hair/ Dry scalp and flakes (still experiencing)
4. Ingrown toenails (they absolutely suck, and yes, I started getting them while I was on accutane and I still have them... after two surgeries....
5. Possible stunted growth (took accutane when I was fifteen... I'm a 5'8" guy and haven't grown an inch since my freshman year. My dad is 6'3", my mom is 5"6).
6. Root canal-- dentist said accutane could've caused it... i had perfect teath before accutane, and I've had five cavities discovered after taking accutane...
7. Rectal bleeding (experienced late in treatment, never went away. Looks like early signs of IBD.)
Let me sum it up for you- Accutane is a chemotherapy agent-- it therefore reduces cell proliferation and increases the rate of cell death... it cannot determine the "good cells" and the "bad cells", it simply targets the rapidly dividing cells (skin cells, osteocytes, etc.)... this is why you get such bad, flaky skin.... not just because of the fact that your sebaseous glands are simoultaneously being shrunk. Don't take the drug, if Roche pulled it off the market, it is obviously pretty damn bad for you.

well for me I've always had tons of blackheads just on my nose, so going on accutane I read all these boards and people said they would work themselves out..and they did! but now, in my forth month I suddenly have them all over my cheeks!!!! I've never ever had them on my cheeks and now I'm wondering if they're going to go away since I'm only going to be on accutane for 5 months!?!

So in the past I tried clindamycin 1%, Doxycycline generic, and RAM .1%(still on this 11th week).

Attached are pics of my current situation.

I felt that RAM has improved my acne a bit but as you can see there is still a lot. Also, it's hard to see under that light but under regular white or yellow light... those big dark spots are like vibrant red. I mean are PIH really suppose to be that red? Idk, but thats my current situation for my skin. Whatever crap you see in the pic and those big large red spots.

I asked my general college doctor and he recommended accutane immediately and said I am on the severe level and I talked to my new derm last week and he said give it another week and so this weekend I am going to see him again. He recommended accutane as well. What do you guys think? Accutane for this? or just stick with retin-a and possible use some methods for the red marks? Thanks guys!

Edit: I forgot to add those big red patches are quick smooth, there used to be acne there, now it toned down but skin is still a bit uneven there

Hi all --

I'm on my sixth day -- I bought cetaphil antibacterial bar yesterday to use on my face. Is this a good idea? I liked the bar because if foams, and I like the feeling of foam better than cetaphil cleanser that goes on with no foam at all. I still need a good moisturizer. Thoughts?

Stephanie

Im likely to be done my course in the next few weeks (5 months) and im just wondering HOW sensitive your skin is to the sun once done. Prior to accutane I burned quite easily...Come summer when the hot sun is out and the weather is hot, should I stay out of the sun as much as possible??? Obviously im going to have to use sunscreen and a hat, but im a very active person, love the outdoors, and own a pool so its going to be terrible if im going to have to stay inside like a hermit considering thats what ive been doing the past 5 months.

Hey there,

i will be on my last month of accutane soon (took 20mg a day for about 8months).
And Im thinking about to lower the dosis to 10mg a day for the last month so that my body can get used to live without the accutane?

What do you think?

Thank you for help!

I'm on accutane at the moment and it's working great! But I need some advice concerning kissing. Because my lips are very dry I have to apply a lot of lip balm. There's this girl I would really like to kiss but I'm scared my lips will feel to dry, or that they might have some lip balm on them.
Thanks!

I started Accutane a little less than a month ago and the last week or so I am experiencing a VERY flakey scalp and I am really hoping that someone has an idea of how to stop this. I have tried using my head and shoulders but that doesn't seem to be doing much.
I know that it's a side effect of getting rid of my acne and I should just suck it up, but it is getting out of control. I mean they are everywhere, some big flake and a lot of little flakes. I've seriously considered dying my hair a light color so that they aren't as visible ( but my work shirts are black.

Anyone have any input of products or anything else? This really sucks. Thanks in advance.

Hello everybody
I've been reading about it , and seems it's common that people on accutane would get a cold first week... It's most probably accutane because the cough and the sore throat is very new to me I wouldn't get it ... and it's been 4 days and it won't go away or won't develop into a full cold!

Anyone else ? What to do about it ?
Today is the fifth day, and I am still tired but I think I am adjusting to that..

I have had just a spot of blood when I have bowel movements since on tane, but this morning, I had a lot more blood. It was bright red. Someone said once if it is dark red that's a problem. I am scared...but I am not sure if I should stop the pill because this is the first time I saw that amount. I don't want to stop treatment, but don't want to screw myself up. Should I see if it happens for 2 more days? Anyone else experience this?

Hello


I've been on Accutane for about 6 months and I still have acne, but I have really many scars too, and most of them are from my last breakout. Can I use Retin A on them while I'm on Accutane?

I'm sorry if someone had already made a similar post, I didn't find one.

Thanks.

if you get a head cold and are sneezing a lot, would you lay off the accutane for a few days until the cold starts to clear up?

Has anyone failed with accutane? A lot of people i know personally who have used it had really severe cystic acne, and it vanished after their treatment. I have mild to moderate and i feel like it just made mine worse.....
Does accutane generally work better with severe acne? Also, if anyone else has experienced this, what did you do afterwards? I feel like some of the topicals I used worked a lot better and I'm thinking about trying out Dan's Regimen. I don't know what else do it. I feel like I'm running out of options.
It's just discouraging. I thought by this time I'd be acne free. And now i just have more acne....
Darn!

I am a 20 year old female that desperately wants to go on Accutane. When I first visited my doctor, she told me about the drug immediately, but I was a little apprehensive about the side effects. So instead, I went down the topical and antibiotic route. I took Retin A, but that made my acne worse in my opinion, so I stopped. Then she put me on Doxy and a benzoyl wash and my skin started to clear up, but not completely clear. The anti-biotic was probably still in my system, so my skin wasnt so bad after I stopped taking them. Now after a few months off the anti-biotic, my skin is inflamed with painful cysts and have awful scars. I want to go on Accutane but my parents wont let me. They think the drug is too harmful for my body and I wont have children. I don't have insurance, Im under their name, so I have to ask them to buy me the products. It was embarrassing to ask my dad if I can go on birth control and of course, he said,"NO". According to them, the reason why I keep breaking out is that I swtich my products to often, so my skin doesnt have time to adjust. I don't believe that at all, I usually take the same products for months. I might pay out of pocket for the birth control which is 75 dollars. This is my last resort and I dont know what to do without it. Is it possible for me to go on without insurance?

Day 1

Hello everyone!

I'm new to the forum, I'm soon turning 20 and I weigh 54-56 kgs. I thought it would be a nice idea to know a little more about the medication I will be taking and googling I bumped into this site. After years of failing to keep my skin clear with cleansers, creams, gels, BC and exfoliating creams, I was prescribed a 30 mgrs. dose of Roaccutane for the next 6-7 months.

My dermatologist made sure to make me have blood tests done, hormonal tests, an hepatogram and other tests I can't specifically remember now, before staring with the treatment, to make sure there was nothing else to look at that might be causing the acne.

In a month I'll have to have some more tests done and then every two months, I suppose that's to keep control of my body and its reaction to Roaccutane, which makes me feel a little less uneasy about taking the medication. I've heard a lot of nice things, but I also read about a lot of negative experiences just today in the forum.

I was adviced to take it after either lunch or dinner, I'll be taking my first pills (1 of 20 grs. and 1 of 10 grs.) after dinner today.

Feel free to post in my thread, I appreciate the feeback, I'm a bit nervous!

Was anyone else told not to take Vitamin C when on Accutane? I did some research and didn't find any information on it.

.

Is it true Accutane causes more blushing / flushing?

People have been saying 'YOUR FACE IS GETTING RED' lately..when Im hot, it gets red...when Im embarrased, it gets red..but before , i don't think i really had this problem.

help me out plz :-s

I took accutane for 6 months and ended last April. I just saw a commerical on TV saying Accutane and all the generic brands have been discontinued. It also said if you had suffered from Crohns disease to call this number.

Has accutane really been pulled from the market? This is the 1st time I have seen this commerical.

Hi there!

My son has been off accutane for about 1 year now. So far so good! He was on it 8 months total.
About five months ago he started getting pustuals all over his scalp. They look just like a pimple. You can pop them. They gather at first on his lower neck in his hair and spread all over.
He has been on medication five times. They clear up but the minute he stops the medicine, they return and double!
I have been to the derm over and over. The last time I went she took a biopsy and sent it off and found out they contained yeast! Like a yeast insfection. Turns out I looked it up and it's called Pityrosporum Foliculitis.
Come to find out, Foliculitis can be caused by long term acne treatment!

Has anyone had this? Is there a cure?
Thanks, Kerry

Hi guys,

Visited my dermatologist today and he recommended that i start on Roaccutane once my blood tests come back. Would welcome recommendations on a facewash, moisturizer and SPF while on the course

Thanks!

Hello, I'm currently on a 10 mg course. I was wondering if any members had any experience taking low dose, 10-20 mg for more then 6 months.


I'm considering the idea of extending my course to about 8 months.

Has anyone had any experience taking accutane 10-20 mg for more then 6 months ?


Input very much appreciated.

Thanks

my skin is pretty bad imo im on epiduo and 200 mg doxy but i am having my first derma appt in april and im hoping for the TANE. How difficult is it to be perscribed that. Im male 18 6 feet 5 200