maybe my acne's not hormonal after all?

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?

unwanted (and unexpected) spiro side effects

I'm currently weaning off spiro (stepping down to avoid a big breakout. So far, so good. Went from 100mg to 50mg three weeks ago, and was just off it completely for 5 straight days, so far not even a pimple).

Anyway, I've been growing my hair out for months and it just got long enough to put up in a little ponytail. When I pulled it back and checked out the back of my head in the mirror I noticed that my hairline at the nape of my neck has long hair growing from it, just down the sides of my neck, not in the middle. You know those little "sideburns" most people have that start at the hair line just below the ears on either side that grow a little further down than the rest of the hair? The hairs actually are growing out of the neck, pretty much, not the head. Well, mine are now growing out of my neck about a half inch lower on one side and almost an inch lower on the other. It looks so weird if I put my hair back.

I'm probably going to have to have it lasered off when I can get enough money to do so. My hairdresser confirmed it is definitely new growth that was never there before and she trimmed it, but it still looks bad. I want to cut all my hair off and get a really cute, short cut, but I can't go lower than like chin length now because of this.
I know spiro is supposed to help women with thinning hair, but has anyone ever experienced new hair growth where they don't actually want it?

hormones are cruel

I'd love it if others could share any experiences with going off bcp or spiro or both so I don't feel alone here

I got off the pill in September and have been weaning off spiro for about 2 weeks.
In fact, I haven't taken any spiro in 3 days just in case...

Several negative pregnancy tests over the past week. I have the most distended, bloated abdomen ever (have to unbutton pants to sit) and haven't had a period in something like 50 days. My hair is thinning like crazy. My once extremely thick hair has gotten so thin you can see my scalp. I have a bunch of coarse hairs growing out of my chin and upper lip and jawline. The only thing that isn't happening yet is any acne.

I got on these hormonal treatments because my hormones caused me such terrible acne my whole life. Then the treatments themselves started causing problems (severe vaginal dryness, etc) to the point where I had to get off, and now coming off them is wreaking havoc. What a mess!

spiro, the pill and your cycle

Just curious for all those using spiro, the pill or both.

I got off the pill last year and my periods were pretty regular. Started spiro in February and my first period after that was over a week late. In the second month my period started just a few days late, and then I started the pill (Yaz), right at the time I upped the spiro dosage to 100mg.

April - Mid May: Was on Yaz for one full pack and one half pack (this pill made me so nauseous and weak I stopped using it in mid pack, which I know if not the best thing to do but I was vommiting almost every morning on it).

July: Even though I stopped the pill mid pack, my period didn't come until it was supposed to, two weeks later. Had a normal period again the next month, but my doc insisted I get back on the pill, so I chose trisprintec, as I had taken it for 10 years in the past and it was good to my skin.

July - Sept: I was on trisprintec for 3 months, during which I had a normal period at the end of the first pack, and at the end of the second pack I went directly into the third pack in order to skip my period because it was the week I was on vacation. At the end of the two continuous packs, I got off the pill (again, due to side effects).

End of Sept: Upon stopping the trisprintec after taking two packs in a row with no break my period was a little late and very short and light.

October: No period at all and no spotting, etc.

November: On Nov 1st, Reduced Spiro dosage from 100mg to 50 mg to start weaning off it. I had one day of extremely light, brownish bleeding exactly a week later, Nov 7th. Nothing since then, just tons of bloating (the gassy kind, not just the water weight kind), but no cramps, no mood swings or other PMS-type symptoms either. I would be thrilled about this if I knew one day it wasn't all going to reverse or something.

I've read that getting off the pill can cause the cycle to stop for a while. Does anyone have any with experience with not getting a period either on the pill or on spiro or both? I thought spiro without the pill would make my periods either heavier or closer together or something, but they seem to have stopped altogether. Any idea when I can expect a regular period again?

side effects from stopping spiro

I'm in the process of weaning off spiro, down from 100 mg to 50mg right now. I'm experiencing serious bloating ever since lowering the dose and wonder if it's related. Can anyone out there who has taken spiro and stopped it share any experience with what happened when you got off it? Did you get bloating or anything like that?
Thanks!