Special dermatologist system

Hi all, after 4 months of Yasmin (birth control) and Differin I'm finally clear of inflammed acne!

Now, my dermatologist has recommended his personal system for my comedonal acne (whiteheads under the skin) that has the following:

Cleanser: 2% salicylic acid, 5% benzoyl peroxide and tea tree oil

Scrub: 2% salicylic acid and tea tree oil

Cream: 5% benzoyl peroxide and tea tree oil + a bunch of natural extracts

He says I should use all of the above in the morning and then in the evening just use the cleanser and the Differin.

It costs £70 (British pounds) so about $115 (US dollars). I'm confused now, will this help or just dry out my skin a lot? I had been planning on getting some Paula's Choice products to deal with the whiteheads, but it's really important I get rid of them totally because I have some indented scarring that can't be treated until my face is completely clear. But I don't want to unneccessarily spend loads of cash on this if I'm better off with Paula's choice, mixing and matching to see what works best...

Spiro / Yasmin and Cancer

I just read the following on Wikipedia:

"Studies of spironolactone and the related compound potassium canrenoate (which, like spironolactone, metabolizes to canrenone) in rats for one to two year periods show an increase in carcinogenesis in the thyroid gland, testes, liver, breasts, and myelocytic leukocytes. Mammalian cells, depending on the presence of metabolic activation, show mixed results for mutagenicity in vitro.[7] Doses relative to body weight were 10 to 150 mg per kg, which is ten to 500 times higher than normal doses for treating humans. In light of this research, Sandoz has recommended that unnecessary use of spironolactone be avoided."

I looked online and drospirenone, which is a the progestin used in Yasmin, is an "analog" of spiro and in the very very very fine print of a Yaz pamphlet there is something about drospirenone having carcinogenic effects in rats.

But then I've seen another study followed up with long-term spiro patients and "serious illness" didn't occur during an 8 year follow-up period. So maybe there's no point in freaking out. And yet...

I've been on Yasmin for 4 months and my skin is finally clearing up. I don't want to go off of it because my acne is scarring. But I don't want to get cancer either.

Stop hiding!

So I usually go to the same cafe near work for lunch, and over the past few months I've been making friends with one of the guys that works there. He makes me smile

Well for the past few weeks I've had this awful cyst on my cheek. That plus the indented scars I have made me very self-conscious and I stopped going to the cafe. Well today, I decided to bite the bullet and go in there, cyst and all, and the guy noticed that I'd come back and was so sweet! He said it was really nice to see me and he was worried I'd left, and that I should come in and say hi more often. It was such a small thing but helped me remember... my skin problems are nothing. Yeah, I have bad skin, so what. As they say, "The people that matter don't mind and the people that mind don't matter."

Forehead Scars

Okay guys, this is what has me crying over the past few weeks. Over the past 6 months I've been developing scars all over my face, including cheeks, chin, temples and forehead. Most of them aren't horrible, but my forehead looks awful. I've still got active acne so I'm not looking to treat these yet, but any suggestions for the future would be helpful. I don't need them to disappear, just not look quite so...there. But I know forehead scars are hard to treat. Aggggghhhh. The pictures aren't amazing quality but they capture what my forehead looks like, I think.

Anyone have multivitamins cause cysts?

Hi all, just curious, has anyone ever taken a multivitamin and gotten a cyst afterwards, maybe even though you don't normally get cysts?

This happened to me twice, a while ago before I knew much about acne I just figured it'd be good for me so I went to the grocery store and bought the cheapest multivitamin I could find. I took it a few times and this horrible thing... like this weird, mutated zit appeared on my cheek. So I got scared and stopped taking it. A few months later I got curious and tried again and lo and behold, a deep cyst appeared on my other cheek, the kind that sits beneath the skin and doesn't come to a head...

Since then I've learned that many multivitamins contain iodine which can in turn cause acne... no idea if the one I was taking had iodine but I'd suspect so.

Ever since then I've been terrified of supplements, especially since the pimples I think the vitamins caused were terrible and have left scars / discoloration.