Hello everyone,

I would like to share my experience, because I searched a lot on the internet before beginning my Accutane journey in South Korea and found little information in english about this specific subject.

My profile : Woman, 25 years old, 55 kg for 170 cm, with moderate hormonal acne. I'm from France so pardon my imperfect english

Part 1 : Getting on Accutane in South Korea :

I live in Seoul at the moment, and as my acne was getting worse, I decided to see a dermatologist to go on Accutane. I went to a Skin Clinic (Ever Skin Clinic in Itaewon), honestly chosen randomly because it was the closest from home. Clinics here really work on express mode. You don't need to have an appointment, and it only takes a few minutes : I was in the waiting room for 5-10 min and the consultation lasted less than 5 min. I thought it was very convenient (back in France, going to the doctor takes HOURS).
So, first the derm told me to do a lot of skin care treatments (laser, injections etc.). South Korea have the best skin care technology in the world ! I told her that I didn't have the money for that kind of things, and that I wanted Accutane. She said OK. She insisted that to avoid pregnancy, I had to abstain from sex during the treatment and the 2 months after. And that's all really ! I had a prescription for 3 weeks, 10 mg / day which is very low dose (but is usual here).
The dermatologist cost me 30k won, which was the highest fare.

A good thing to know : In South Korea, you have to go the the pharmacy that the doctor assigned you. I did not know that, and as in France you can go to any pharmacy you want, I tried to do the same here and went to a random pharmacy on my way home. As I don™t speak Korean, and pharmacists don™t speak english, it took me a while and a lot of wandering around to understand what I was supposed to do ! The pharmacy you have to go to is written (in Korean) on your prescription.
Anyway. The drug cost me 12,6k won for 21 days.

3 weeks later, I went back to the Skin Clinic. I thought it would cost me less, because it was just for a prescription renewal. But even though the consultation only lasted 1 minute, they charged 30k won and the derm asked me to come back in a month. I asked her to increase the dosage to 20 mg just so I could take it for a longer time without having to come back for a new prescription (I do not advise such practice !).
I went to the same pharmacy and it costed around 36k won for 30 days (60 pills of 10mg). I asked to keep the prescription this time.

1 month after, I decided to try and go to a GP doctor, or "family doctor", instead. I asked to the closest pharmacy were was the doctor, it was just across the street. It was once again extremely easy and quick. I showed the doctor my last prescription, and told her that the Skin Clinic was too expensive. She said OK ! I asked her for a prescription for 4 months and she just gave it to me. The consultation was 15k won, so pretty worth it.
The rest of the treatment (240 capsules of 10mg) costed me 80k won.

So in total, it costed me a little more than 200k won (160‚, 170$) which is kind of expensive, but it could have been less.

In summary : If you want to get Accutane in South Korea, ask for an english speaking GP doctor to the closest pharmacist. Then tell the doctor what you want (it's probably better to have a some kind of recommendation from a dermatologist though). It will be FAR less expensive than to go to a Skin Clinic.

Part 2 : About the low dose treatment, the results and my acne history :

I had mild to moderate acne from age 14 to 19, mostly on my forehead and back. Then I took a 3rd gen birth control pill (Yaz) for 5 years. When I stopped taking it (1 and a half years ago, at age 24), my acne came back x10, mostly on the middle of my cheeks, my chin and around my ears. It also messed up my periods and gave me ovarian cysts. It took 1 year to get better, but then it was still not great.

When I arrived in Seoul, 2 months ago, I had a pretty bad breakout and decided to take advantage of the situation. I was really tired of my skin, it seemed it would never clear again and I wanted to heal from all the scarring from the past year. I knew I could never take Accutane in France because I'd have the obligation to take birth control during the treatment, plus I was really afraid of the side effects from the high dosage that is systematically prescribe there, plus I'd have to get monthly blood tests and basically spend my life at the dermatologist™s office.

The low dose regimen seems to be just as efficient as the high dose, at least for the type of acne I have, and with less side effects. They only prescribe low dosage (10mg or 20mg/d) here in South Korea.

As for now, I™ve been on 10 mg/d for 8 weeks. I'm really happy about it ! Most of my acne dried out in 2 weeks, with a little initial breakout after 3 days. I have no side effects except chapped lips, and my contact lenses do not feel as comfortable as they used to. I seem to always have one big pimple on my face at any time. If I pop it out, it heals very badly (because my skin is drier I guess).

I plan on keeping on 10 mg/d for 6 months (4 months to go), then 10 mg every 2 days.

I™ll update this post in 4 months to tell how it goes !

EDIT 6 months update :

I just finished 6 months with 10 mg/day.

It went GREAT ! After 4 months of treatment, my acne was 100% gone. It does really change your life !

Even though I was on super low dose, I had quite a lot of side effects :

- Lower back pain in the evening (a couple of hours after I took the accutane)
- œStiffness in the morning, it was a little difficult to move but only lasted a few minutes after waking up so, no big deal.
- Skin dryness. All around my mouth. Especially under my nose, and as my nose was always runny and watery (another side effect), my skin was extremely irritated and flaky at this spot. Impossible to conceal. But it™s still better than acne.
- Eye dryness and vaginal dryness (pretty common symptoms I guess)
- Sweat ! That was the most surprising and also the most unpleasant for me. My armpits begun to stink a lot ! It helped a little to use coconut oil on the skin, and of course a lot of deodorant. But I really hope it™s not a permanent thing.

Anyway, it™s true that this treatment is harsh. I don™t want to think about what my side effects would have been like if I was on the classic 80mg/day regimen ! But at the end it™s worth it. My skin had time to heal, the scarring is still there, but not so bad. Overall I™m really glad I made the decision to go on Accutane !

Now I plan on continuing for 4 more months by taking 10mg every 2 days (5mg/day), and then stop the treatment.

I hope my side effect will diminish. I™ll go through the next 4 months, and wait for another few months before coming back and write about the final results ! Hopefully my acne is gone forever

EDIT 3 years update :

Sorry I never came back for the follow-up...

Anyway, my acne is gone and has not come back ever since. I slowly cut down the dose to like 10mg/week after about a year, and then completely stopped.

I have 0 side effect left and my skin is now completely NORMAL and my life has 100% improved

I'm so happy and thankful for this !!!