2 replies to this topic

[kcr]

so, I'll try not to be too long winded here. I'm 34, female, have had acne since like age 10, 5th grade. Switched back and forth between moderately bad and very bad all through school. Cleared up pretty well to mild/occasionally moderate on its own around age 18, then after age 20 I would be clear for months, even years with just mild acne and then, boom, out of the blue I'd have a giant breakout of cystic acne, painful and persistent, mostly on my chin, jawline and lower cheeks. Then it would clear up and leave a few marks behind. I tried a few different prescription meds as I never had insurance and only went when I could pay a little out of pocket. My acne has always responded okay to anything I've tried. There's never been anything that flat out didn't work at all, but also nothing that cleared me up completely.

Finally at age 23 in the midst of a huge cystic breakout I went to a derm and he got me on free Accutane as long as they could study me. Even that first round left me with a few zits here and there. Two years later when I was working full time I did another round and was also on Ortho tricyclen. From then on I had only the remaining marks from old acne and a pimple or two every month around my period.

Last year I decided to take the risk and get off the pill. I stopped taking it in April and in December my skin was no worse than before. I didn't have a breakout when coming off it, and I didn't really break out worse after being off it for months, maybe one extra zit a month.

But I've always had more facial hair than anyone I know, and it was always soft and blonde with a few coarse, black hairs here and there that I'd pluck, but I was starting to lots more of them, and so I researched spiro and went back to the derm, where he offered it to me before I could even bring it up. All I had to do was say I get zits around my period and I have some embarrassing facial hairs. He wrote me a script.

4 months of spiro hadn't really made a difference in my skin except that it did eliminate a tiny bit of facial hair, so I added the pill back in and did see improvement in that I didn't get so mcuh as a tiny bump during my period. But then I started to see hair thinning, and I figured it was the pill so I stopped it again and just took the spiro. I didn't break out when I elimated the pill and just took spiro on its own, but I may be one of the tiny percentage of people who actually get androgenic alopecia as a result of spiro (which I didn't even know was possible till my hair started thinning and my derm told me I'd have to get off spiro. He's weaning me off because he doesn't know if stopping cold turkey would cause a bad breakout or not).

Lowering the dosage from 100mg to 50mg brought all the facial hair back, but no pimples at all. Then I went an entire week without any spiro at all and didn't break out. (Now I'm going to take 50mg every other day until I see the derm again in a few weeks).

Is there such a thing as non-hormonal adult acne? Maybe my hormones play less of a role than I thought in my lifetime of horrible skin? Currently my hormones must be in quite an uproar, as I'm experiencing hair loss and no periods at all (due to coming back off the pill) AND I am probably experiencing some kind of hormonal shift from lowering the dose of spiro and using it less often, so I would think this would be the time when hormonal acne would be acting up for me.

Is it possible my acne is in fact not hormonal? Is there any one out there that has ever started spiro when their acne wasn't that bad and then come off spiro and not had a bad breakout? I wonder if where I started taking it and my acne was pretty under control if coming off it would cause a resurgence or if it would just not affect me at all?

[surreal]

I'm 29 yr old Female and for 2 years now I have been experiencing acne issues. Cystic acne on my chin and every once in a while one here or there. Let me first say I defiantly think it could me something other than hormones!! I was on the pill for years, and it just came up....I tried EVERYTHING....all the tetracycline, mino, doxy, Bactim, spiro, no pill, yaz pill, all creams I can think of, and MORE. Sooooo nothing worked!!!, and infact I think the Bactrim made it worse. I just stopped spiro about a week ago, and nothing happened to my skin that was any different. I am going to take Accutane starting Dec 16th, and my derm thinks this is the best option for me, he wanted me to take it a year ago but my insurance would not cover it now it will! Thank god. I am a wreck....29 and acne really sucks, and it is painful. I have a nine year old daughter, and I hate for her to see me so sad about this, I hope she gets different genes that me. ) Good luck!!!! Not sure if that helps at all.

[kcr]

Thanks, and good luck with Accutane, it really changed my life. In fact, I feel guilty whining about how my fairly clear skin gets a blemish here and there because I know how it feels to have very, very bad cystic erruptions all over the face and I should be grateful!

I'd love to hear how you do between now and starting Accutane, if you get any break outs from stopping the spiro.

I'd also love to hear about anyone else who stopped spiro and did not have utterly disasterous results from doing so.

I feel in my gut that my acne must not be hormonal if I was able to get off the pill and not experience a serious breakout. I'm hoping I can just stop the spiro and not have a huge issue. I'm just wondering how other spiro users faired, especially if you weren't entirely sure your acne was hormonal before you got on spiro, or if your skin was in fairly good condition when you got on spiro and then you got off it.