Hi everyone,

I'm a 22 year old female with on going acne on my cheeks/ chin for over a year now after coming off the birth control pill, prior to taking the pill I had angry red acne located mostly on my forehead which really destroyed my self-esteem. After reading through these forums and understanding a lot more about the relationship between food and general health I decided about a year ago to cut out gluten ( although cheated occasionally with pizza), dairy and refined sugar. Although this has definitely calmed my skin down I still get spots and not to mention the lovely cystic ones that appear every so often and never truly go away as even when they go down I can feel them lurking under my skin waiting to be set off again. My problem is that I don't know whether they appear due to a food allergy or just appear at a certain type of month due to hormone fluctuations. I've gone through phases of being convinced it must be due to a certain food i.e. eggs or avocados etc but then I can't be completely sure as sometimes when I eat them I don't get cysts. I believe I have gut problems but not sure whether it's a histamine issue ( I get very badly watery, itchy eyes) or a FODMAP problem and it's just all becoming very stressful, the thought of potentially have to avoid foods such a tomatoes for example would just not be ideal at all. I understand that things can take time to improve with diet, however I'm finding it extremely difficult to understand what my body is trying to tell me at the moment. All the useful links and detailed explanations have been so so useful but also extremely overwhelming. I really enjoy and love eating healthily and will always continue to do so but as a female should I also but trying to identify a serious hormonal imbalance? I realise this stuff has probably been said and asked about a million times before but does anyone have any advice for someone that has already cut out the big culprits like gluten, dairy and sugar or can relate in anyway? I'm currently supplementing with zinc and milk thistle and sometimes magnesium although I don't think I need the magnesium as I sleep very well. I was thinking maybe Vitamin D would be a good idea? I've just wasted so much money this past year on pills, I want to get it right.. Thanks in advance for anyone's advice.