Hi,

You can lower your levels of androgens with food by decreasing the amounts of sugary (high GL) foods and meats, quitting caffeine as well as eating more soy and taking flaxseed daily. This should reduce the oiliness of your skin too.

Would also look at topical niacinamide to reduce sebum production (The Ordinary do a cheap one with zinc).

If you do have high androgens then Diane-35 will work, but be careful about side effects such as depression. You can also only take it for a couple of years for safety reasons and it's worth mentioning that it will be hard to quitsince your skin will go through an adjustment period afterwards. Would consider altering diet first!

this is the exact situation i was in. i went to an endocrinologist and everything. the hair on my face all of a sudden got longer in the beard area of my face but was still blonde, all of a sudden had acne, and i had longer hair on my stomach too. the weird thing was that all of the symptoms i had didn't start till a year after i came off the depo shot, which is weird since i had been on the depo shot for seven years with none of these symptoms. my endo told me that i mostly had a hormonal shift because I'm in my 20s and that it was normal. i also found out that my acne wasn't related to my hormones but that my cycle was making my breakouts worse if that makes sense.

hope this helps you!

On 7/25/2018 at 2:28 PM, Foodforthought said:

Hi,

You can lower your levels of androgens with food by decreasing the amounts of sugary (high GL) foods and meats, quitting caffeine as well as eating more soy and taking flaxseed daily. This should reduce the oiliness of your skin too.

Would also look at topical niacinamide to reduce sebum production (The Ordinary do a cheap one with zinc). 

If you do have high androgens then Diane-35 will work, but be careful about side effects such as depression. You can also only take it for a couple of years for safety reasons and it's worth mentioning that it will be hard to quit since your skin will go through an adjustment period afterwards. Would consider altering diet first!

Foodforthought, thank you so much for your reply! I am a vegetarian (almost a vegan except that I still eat eggs sometimes) for two years but my skin condition hasn't really improved a lot  I also take vitamin B complex and zinc on a daily basis, which also didn't show a positive result. I've tried so many other "remedies" over the past few years and nothing has really worked on my skin so I was thinking to give it a try and see how the pills work on my body. I know there are many side effects of Diane 35 and I was told by my doctor that my acne will most likely come back once I go off the pill...my period has just finished today and I might wait until next month to decide whether go on the pill or not. Thank you again! 

On 7/25/2018 at 5:12 PM, schweppes said:

this is the exact situation i was in. i went to an endocrinologist and everything. the hair on my face all of a sudden got longer in the beard area of my face but was still blonde, all of a sudden had acne, and i had longer hair on my stomach too. the weird thing was that all of the symptoms i had didn't start till a year after i came off the depo shot, which is weird since i had been on the depo shot for seven years with none of these symptoms. my endo told me that i mostly had a hormonal shift because I'm in my 20s and that it was normal. i also found out that my acne wasn't related to my hormones but that my cycle was making my breakouts worse if that makes sense. 

hope this helps you!

Hi schweppes, thank you so much for your response! I am sorry to hear about your symptoms and I hope it's getting better. Are you on the pill now? I am still debating on this and might start taking it next month (my period has just finished and I heard that you need to take it on the first day of your cycle). My cycle has been very regular and it makes me breakout more than usual as well...

I started taking spironolactone because of acne cause by hormones. I did not start breaking out until last year when I turned 34. Ive had relatively clear skin and am breaking out worse then when I was a teen. I opted to try 25mg to see if that would solve it since its mild acne but severe to me. I tried all the natural stuff but since they cant pinpoint exactly what hormone is causing it ???? Nothing worked. Ive had 5 blood tests done. All came back normal

7 hours ago, InspiredPole said:

I started taking spironolactone because of acne cause by hormones. I did not start breaking out until last year when I turned 34. Ive had relatively clear skin and am breaking out worse then when I was a teen. I opted to try 25mg to see if that would solve it since its mild acne but severe to me. I tried all the natural stuff but since they cant pinpoint exactly what hormone is causing it ???? Nothing worked. Ive had 5 blood tests done. All came back normal

Hi InspiredPole, sorry to hear about that and I totally feel you...I have tried numerous natural remedies (TCM, seed cycling, vegan-ish diet, you name it..) and nothing seems to be worked. My blood test result is normal too but I still have those symptoms which fit in high androgen criteria so my doctor recommended me the pill. Are you taking the pill now? Are things getting better?

i probably should have said that I'm not having issues anymore (kind of).

when i was fed up with breaking out i did get on yasmin and was on it for three months. after that three months i got a blood test and some of my hormones were very wonky. It was mainly my SHBG that was extremely elevated and my doctor told me it was from being on the pill. i stopped taking birth control because it wasn't helping my breakouts entirely and it gave me anxiety. i got a few more blood tests after that and it took about 7 months for my SHBG to go back to normal. I'm not really sure what happened after that but the hair doesn't grow longer on my stomach anymore. one day i shaved the hair and then it grew normally again. as for my breakouts, I mostly stopped breaking out when i stopped washing my face. i realized i started to break out when i began to use a facial cleanser and it all went down hill after that. I know this doesn't work for everyone, but i stopped washing my face and it pretty much cleared up. I am 16 days into my version of the cavemen regimen so my face is still a work-in-progress. the only other thing that i changed was that i started working out again. i could be remembering this wrong, but I'm pretty sure working out will lower blood testosterone levels after the initial spike it causes(its been a few years since i took biology). i think for me at least, stress played a big role in the symptoms i was experiencing.

EDIT: sorry, i had a brain fart. i wasn't on yasmin, I was on orthotricyclen.

4 hours ago, summer2018 said:

12 hours ago, InspiredPole said:

I started taking spironolactone because of acne cause by hormones. I did not start breaking out until last year when I turned 34. Ive had relatively clear skin and am breaking out worse then when I was a teen. I opted to try 25mg to see if that would solve it since its mild acne but severe to me. I tried all the natural stuff but since they cant pinpoint exactly what hormone is causing it ???? Nothing worked. Ive had 5 blood tests done. All came back normal

Hi InspiredPole, sorry to hear about that and I totally feel you...I have tried numerous natural remedies (TCM, seed cycling, vegan-ish diet, you name it..) and nothing seems to be worked. My blood test result is normal too but I still have those symptoms which fit in high androgen criteria so my doctor recommended me the pill. Are you taking the pill now? Are things getting better?

I opted to take spironolactone instead of birth control. I asked for a low dose of 25mg to see if that would work for me. The only thing Im worried about is having to take a pill forever. Do hormones just even themselves out?

My hormones all came back in "normal" ranges, but the T was on the high side of normal and E on the low side.
I started using Differin.
I use Dr. Cynthia Bailey's Foaming Acne Cleanser 10% BP in the AM.
At the same time I totally changed my diet to focus on increasing veggies.
I completely eliminated ALL dairy and soy.
I started eating grapefruit at breakfast, 4 or 5 times a week. I also drink spearmint tea. (NOT peppermint, careful!)
I stopped wearing makeup every day.
It took a few months...
I am CLEAR.