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[SpecialAgent]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new here, but I've been a lurker for a long time. I've had acne since I was 11, with extremely oily skin, all over, not just the t-zone. Long story short, the only times I've been clear were a brief time in high school when retin-a worked for me, and post-Accutane in 1999.

At the time I went on Accutane, I had pretty moderate acne, with a lot of inflamed whiteheads and some cysts.

My Derm at the time told me that Accutane should keep me clear until I became pregnant, and this was totally true. 3 years later, I became pregnant and my skin went to hell. Post-pregnancy, I used ProActiv with great success, until I get pregnant a second time. After that pregnancy, I just kind of dealt with the acne with BP brought from this site. It worked for a while. When my daughter was 18 months old and finally weaned, I went to the derm. He prescribed Benzaclin, Retin-a and minocin. The antibiotics caused one lengthy yeast infection, and despite being true to the rest of his program, my skin never cleared up. He didn't want to put me on Accutane because he didn't think my skin was bad enough.

Fast forward two years later, the BP doesn't work, and I've been using Philosophy's acne kit for the last 4 months. my skin is worse than ever. It's about the same level it was pre-Accutane. Three large cysts, a lot of inflamed whiteheads and some smaller flatter whiteheads. Without makeup, my skin looks a mess. Hell, even with makeup, my skin looks a mess.

I have booked an appointment with this same guy for two weeks from now. I really want to get on Accutane, but I'm afraid he's going to hedge again. My skin is worse now than it was when I saw him first though.

I think I'll be devastated if he wants to try yet another topical, especially since I had such crappy luck with retin-a and benzaclin. I've done Differin in the past, Retin-A micro, etc etc.

I've booked another appointment with another derm for the beginning of March, just in case.

Looking at some of the before and after photos of some Accutane users, my face really looks like some of the less-serious before shots.

Anyway, did any of you have a doctor that didn't want to go the Accutane route?

I really hope he, as a doctor, understands that it's also for treatment-resistant acne, not just serious nodular acne.