Now that I've been on the regimen for 4 months (!) I'm going to stop using Aleve during ovulation to see what happens. In March, my hormonal breakout was lighter than it had been in forever, and just these past two weeks when I'm normally getting some big under the skin ones, I've gotten NOTHING except the random little whitehead, easily popped and goes away in a day.

I will say, Aleve still doesn't work for my headaches, but for pre-menstrual and menstrual back pain, it's almost as good as Midol. I just want to ease up on using it, you know?

We'll see how it turns out for me next month!

hi everyone!

This is my first post and I felt like I should mention a few things I have heard over the years about Aleve and ovulation.

I noticed as I got older I wasn't breaking out during PMS week anymore; it had shifted to a week BEFORE pms week, which I thought was odd ( I noticed another member had the same revelation as I did and it made me feel better!).

Well, I was trying to think of reasons (I was a bio major in university) and I thought maybe it's because when I was younger I had problems with getting my period (from playing a lot of sports), so maybe now my body can actually ovulate so ovulation is now causing my breakouts. I did go on the pill when I was 16 and have been on it ever since (to get my period), but who knows if that actually helps you body ovulate or not...I'm not sure about that one.

Anyways, when I stumbled across this message forum I realized that when I took endocrinology in university (study of hormones) my professor who had done tonnes of research on ovulation said that he found ovulation stopped when administering certain NSAIDS to rats. WELL, I looked up the old powerpoint slides and I found that naproxen sodium (aleve) had a 100% success rate in stopping ovulation. Ibuprofen still allowed ovulation to occur 26% of the time. The doses were very high though. Now I am not going to go into the drugs and the chemistry, but it does make sense so I am on my first day of trying out this program after having used every product under the sun for my acne. So hopefully it will work out. My only worry is that if I am already on birth control which is supposed to suppress ovulation I wonder if this will work in conjunction, but I figure it's worth a shot. I'm hoping that maybe the naproxen somehow reduces different hormone levels in the body and will stop the breakout cycle. Every since I came back home to a cold winter climate my skin has been terrible and I'm even considering going on a second round of Accutane in the fall.

I will post soon to let everyone know my progress! I just thought people might like to hear some scientific evidence to this theory on Aleve.

All the best to everyone!

So, what you're saying is that Aleve stops ovulation?

Admittedly, I could be very confused on this, but wouldn't we not have periods if we're stopping ovulation? Is it just that 1-2 pills a day aren't enough to stop ovulation, but lessen its impact?

I love hearing the scientific side of this, so any further clarification would be appreciated!

the pill delivers hormones to your body- depending on the type of pill, the combination may vary, but all include progesterone. progesterone suppresses the release of other hormones in your body that are responsible for basically telling your ovaries to release an egg. thus, when these hormones are suppressed, your body doesn't release an egg. so yes, the pill stops you from ovulating. so you still get a period because the lining of the inside of the uterus still thickens and prepares for a fertilized egg, not knowing that you havent even produced an egg to begin with. thus, when no fertilized egg appears, the lining is shed, which is your period, since it is useless with no baby inside of you! and the process continues each month..

so the reason why i wasnt sure if being on the pill and aleve would help is because if both are designed to suppress ovulation, and you still get breakouts during that time of the month, then it doesn't make sense that furthering suppressing a process that is already well suppressed would help. i need to look into it more, but maybe the aleve suppresses other hormones that the pill does not (there are many, many hormones and genes activated during ovulation, its quite a complicated process) so that maybe suppressing these hormones as well helps out. to simplify, if say, 3 hormones are needed for ovulation, and the pill suppresses 2/3 of them so that ovulation does not occur, but then you take aleve too and it suppresses that last hormone, maybe that will stop the mid-cycle breakouts. i don't know.

started taking aleve yesterday and all of the little pimples that were starting to form have flattened out, but who knows if thats the aleve or they were just going to go away on their own. im taking two a day and i will for about 4 days or so, and ill see how its going. right now i have bad red marks from my last period because i was stressed during law school exams so im really hoping i wont get breakouts this month to let those spots heal. i also noticed the spots were much less red, even after showering and washing my face than they were earlier in the day before i took aleve, so im hoping this is working!

I'm wondering if the Aleve suppressing hormones isn't what helps the acne, but the anti-inflammatory aspect. It's likey that we're still getting close to the same amount of acne, its just not coming up as much, or as red and what we are getting is going away faster.

That's what happens with me anyway. It's not necessarily preventing the acne, but is just making it heal faster. Or maybe it is preventing it and I'm completely wrong.

Oh, and thanks for the clarification. I didn't realize the uterus would still prepare a lining if no egg were released, which was rather stupid of me. It all makes sense, I just hadn't connected the dots. I swear, I'm not a moron

I suppose this is a pretty good PSA that our sex education isn't working properly, at least where I'm from.

Ugh, I'm soooo sick of pimples. I don't think I'll ever shake this disease. Makes me look forward to menopause...

So I tried the Aleve thing. Noticed that my pimples were a lot smaller and less red, which also made me less inclined to want to pick or pop them so that may have helped too.

I did notice that i got a lot less acne, but I'm just not sure if it is the aleve. It was my first cycle after my law school exams so I was definitely a lot less stressed, and I decided to try something else at the same time. I know you are supposed to only change one thing in your routine at a time, but my skin was bad and I wanted it clear!

I think this is what did the trick, because I've had another cycle since then, and I seriously did not have one...single...breakout during pms week or during ovulation! (ok maybe like something teeny tiny that only I could see looking close in a mirror).

After taking Accutane, my skin was a lot less oily (I would say normal, in fact), and my breakouts weren't nearly as bad, so I kept thinking it cant be excessive oil thats the big cause of my acne, maybe its bacteria? I never had much success with antibiotics, but I thought "maybe i need to sterilize everything I use on my face before I use it', so I did, with rubbing alcohol. I have 70% at home, but I went away to our vacation home for two weeks and all we had was 90% (strong, yes, but my skin tolerated it). So before and after using all of my makeup tools (I don't wear much makeup, but still) I thoroughly wiped them with rubbing alcohol. I usually clean them every few days and keep them standing up in a glass to keep them from picking up germs in a drawer or something, but this seemed to really help. I also wiped my face every morining and night (and when i started probably two times more during the day, like before I worked out and randomly when I was procrastinating on things I didn't want to be doing ) with the 70% or 90% rubbing alcohol. I made sure to do it everywhere, even where I don't have acne because I have a tendency to only want to treat the skin that has a current breakout, which doesn't prevent breakouts.

Yes my skin got a bit dry, but I have a great non-greasy moisturizer that fixed that. The only breakouts I have had since then (I have been doing this for about 6 weeks now) are a result of me seeing a tiny clogged poor and irritating it and making it look like a pimple. Luckily in my vacation home the counter is wide so the mirror is too far away to really analyze my skin so I didnt bother it at all then. I've read so many times on this website 'rubbing alcohol is a horrible idea', but my skin seems to love it! I'ts not dry and irritated, its CLEAR. Amazing- I haven't been able to say that in probably over a year! I'm not going to stop doing this so long as it still works. I still put on bp at night just as an extra fight against acne. I'm hoping this isn't only working because it's summer (and I tend to get acne skin in winter), so when winter rolls around again I'm going to cross my fingers. Maybe the whole time it was just that I have too much bacteria on my skin and that was the main problem. It's such a cheap and easy process (rubbing alcohol is $1 for a giant bottle at the store), its great. I'm loving this.

Very interesting. My skin ranges from 95% to 98% clear, but a week before my period, I always get one really annoying zit in a conspicuous place--on my chin or on my cheek. I think I'll give it a shot in a week. Wonderful tip. Thanks!!

that does make a lot of sense. my breakouts consist of 1 or 2 big nasty zits. As far as the stomach upset, be sure to take it with food. It's basically the same as Ibuprofen as far as the anti-inflammatory properties go. (I was a Pharmacy Technician for 5 years) Also, if you're not taking fish oil, people, START TAKING IT. I had horrible acne until i discovered fish oil and I have not had a block buster breakout in a year and a half.

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Blue Dove, I just want to say that I love your default pic! So adorable!

i'm due for my period on 6/15 so i took my first aleve tonight. i'll keep you all updated.

Is it still working for you? Is it safe to take though? Or can it be dangerous?

I tried this, it didn't work for me, it actually made mine worse. Not saying it doesn't work for some people, but doesn't seem to be for everyone.

can i get this from the uk

Is it good. Where can you get hold of that.

I only read the comments on the first page - my only caution for taking Aleve regularly is my elderly friend took Aleve every day and it shut her kidneys down. She went into renal failure and had to be placed on dialysis.

This is very interesting and useful since I am on my period right now I should try this. I ALWAYS ALWAYS get pretty good size pimples when I am getting or on it or about to get off my period. And I hate it. I feel like it's a big red sign saying, " Look at me I am on my period and it shows with all my acne!" LOL Thanks for this little yet important information.

Everything in here was interesting information. I do have the same thing with lil breakouts around my time on my nose & chin. I will try the aleve . I get other pimples as well around my time but kinda weird spot on my leg? Anyway I will give this a try thanks