I'm only 16 years old, and the idea of having children makes me feel horrible about myself.
My dad had terrible cystic acne. It got passed on two my two older siblings ( who are now in their 20s and free of acne after taking accutane) and then to me. Actually, the majority of people in his family have bad acne.
I hate how if I do have children someday, which I want to, they'll have high chances of having acne. It makes me want to cry. I hate how my kids will feel horrible about their appearances, have shattered self-esteems, and have to possibly take a drug as heavy as accutane (i'm all for it, but the side effects suck). I don't want to put anyone through this. I hate that I have these genes. I feel cursed, like it would be better if I was infertile and unable to pass acne on to anyone else.
Yeah, the main reason Idon't want kids is because I don't want to pass on my acne. I don't think I could watch someone go through that. Even worse, I have absolutely no advice I could give them, even though I've been through it. I literally just waited for my skin to clear up.
I suppose there's no guarantee that their acne would be as bad as mine or that they'll react in the same way I did. I'm 30 and had pretty bad acne when I was 13-21 (this is the other reason I don't want kids - I gotpretty screwed up in my formative years and I don't think I'll have that"normal" desire to reproduce) and intermittent breakouts since then.My brother only had mild to moderate acne in his late teens and he wasn't really affected by it. My dad had severe acne when he was 13-16, but then he met my mother when he was 18, got married at 19 and then they had me when he was 22. It obviously didn't have much of a lasting effect on him.
Also my potential kid's mother may come from a family with no history of acne, which would improve theirchances.There's also a chance that medical science would have developed a wonder cure by then. Assuming I have a kid in the next five years, there'll be another ten plus before they start to get acne. A lot can happen in fifteen years.
Still not sure I'd want to take therisk though.
I have horrible skin. However my three girls dont have it nearly as bad. Even though people dont want to discuss diet it has alot to do with it especially in my case. When I was a teenager and in college (in college I started to get HUGE zits) I was eating alot of sugar. Drinking milk. Drinking juice. Looking back I could have saved myself alot of heartache by being more careful about those things. Its only been a year that Ive made a strong effort to have a low sugar consumption. My oldest who is 16, was headed toward bad acne. Now that she watches what she eats her and uses shea butter on her skin every day, her skin is so pretty. My point is, you have knowledge that your Dad probably did not have. Maybe he is my age. When I was a teen, all we knew was Clearisil and the Oxy products. Dry the skin out. Thats all. Even the medicine from the doctor's office only served to dry out my skin. I hope you dont suffer the way way your parents did. When my girls were little I used to cry at times when I looked at their perfect smooth skin thinking of how it would change. People even had the nerve to say, "Their skin is so nice...for now..."
The horror of my acneic genes passing onto my future reason is one of the numerous, personal reasons as to why I'm not going to have children. Given, I have long told everyone even when I was young that I will not be having kids ever, the resolution only strengthened as I grew older.
A lot of people judge me or try to change my mind about it but I feel like at this point of my life, it's absolute. I can't do what I've gone through to my children.
I also made the decision that i would never have children as i would not want them suffering as i have. The world's overpopulated anyway and human beings are slowly destroying the earth so there wont be much left for future generations - sorry for the negativity. The original poster is only 16 though. Maybe in 10, 15 yrs time a miraculous acne cure will be discovered - hey its possible 
You are way too young to be stressing about kids and what may or may not happen to their skin. I know in my case the chronic acne i have is just plain ole bad luck as my brother had it and it cleared up and my mom gets 1 pimple ever so often. Despite 16 years of this, its still going strong and worsening. I don't want to have kids but it has very little to do with acne. Kids are work and time consuming and there is so much in my life happening that to have kids now, would be the most selfish thing i could ever do.
Hopefully you can find some peace between now and the time you are ready for kids. I would recommend you put your time in working on your self esteem because you have to learn to love yourself flaws and all before you can expect to get genuine love back. Also, your acne battle may not be a short one ( as it is in my case) so you want to be able to come to a peace where you can live life to the fullest even with acne.
This is so sad. My son is battling acne and the system as well. His doctors dont take his concerns seriously and he is having a bad time at school. It breaks my heart. I can't help without the doctors help. I recently started the family on Paleo diet Hopingto help with it that way. I wish all of you peace in your struggles.
On Ž12Ž/Ž28Ž/Ž2015Ž Ž1ŽŽ55Ž, Geekgirl13 said:I also made the decision that i would never have children as i would not want them suffering as i have. The world's overpopulated anyway and human beings are slowly destroying the earth so there wont be much left for future generations - sorry for the negativity. The original poster is only 16 though. Maybe in 10, 15 yrs time a miraculous acne cure will be discovered - hey its possible
I hear you. If I ever have the hankering to raise kids, I would rather adopt and take care of children who need just as much love, nurturing and care. But right now, for numerous reasons, I intend to never have kids ever.
You're all very kind and caring people to be here supporting others in the struggle with acne and in my book that makes you all worthy of being great parents in the future! I'm sure you all have a lot of other positive traits, talents and love that are worth passing on in the gene pool 🙂 Take one day at a time and see where your life journey takes you.
