Hello, I'm a 20 year old male from the Philippines who started taking 10mg isotret for two weeks and my derm increased the dosage to 20mg in the following weeks. I've already been on the treatment for almost one month and hopefully I'll see results for my mild to moderate acne.

I've suffered from acne during my teenage years, and I've been under topical treatments since. My family doesn't have much so we hadn't really bothered with having an actual dermatologist test for an internal cause for my pimples since my mother had them when she was younger. Around that time, I also started having severe back, chest, and arm acne. It was so severe at that time that I felt so embarrassed to show my skin or even wear muscle shirts because of the acne on my arms. My then-crappy derm just prescribed me with benzoyl peroxide topicals and tetracycline pills for both my breakouts and my body acne. It didn't work and they persisted. Around 2-3 years later, my body acne just started to fade away, But I'm left with occasional body acne and even more occasional face acne that my topicals cannot control. My body is also severely scarred with keratosis pilaris.

Last year, I stumbled upon an over-the-counter treatment that was very well recommended by my peers and some Filipino message boards, which is the Acne SOS (gel formulation with Vitamin E and Clindamycin as Phosphate). My skin began to get better but my breakouts persisted. Around a few months ago, all the stress from college made me break out so badly that my dad decided to take me to another derm. That was how I got prescibed to the isotretinoin treatment.

weeks 1-2

So during the first two weeks on 10mg, I experienced no extreme drying of skin and eyes and the amount if oil has significantly been reduced. I've had a few breakouts but it was controlled through acne facials and ILDs injected by my derm. She also increased the dosage to 20mg by the end of week 2

weeks 3-4

at the end of 4th week, I started breaking out on my forehead and small cysts on my jaw and cheeks. Is this normal? My pimples just started to heal and bumps are already forming under my skin. It's teally alarming and I don't know if this is going to work for me. Also, I've been getting random nosebleeds from the dryness of my nasal area. Also, chapped lips and headaches in the evening.Hopefully things will get better. I'll update every Sunday. Xx