I am a 14 year old girl who's had acne for the past 3 years so I know what it's like to have it from an early age

I think you need to talk to your daughter about how much her acne really affects her. She sounds just like me when you say it prevents her from wearing certain clothes and doing things she likes. If she is anything like me then well, acne feels like it's ruining my teenage years for me. I don't feel like I can enjoy anything when all I can think about is my skin. Sometimes I find it had to look people in the eye because it feels like they're looking at my face I wonder if this sounds familiar to your daughter?

I've tried so many treatments, but after not getting the results I long for, I have decided to try Accutane (I am on a waiting list ). This is only because I my acne affects me so much that I am willing to risk getting the horrible side effects.

Have you tried a form of contraceptive pill? I was on Dianette and this was by far the most effective treatment I've tried but due to the severity of my acne, it didn't clear me up completely. I'd recommend giving it a go before attempting Accutane

Hope this helps My heart goes out to your daughter as I think I know how she feels

Hi. Thanks for your reply. She is very effected by her acne. We have talked about Accutane and she is willing to give it a try and hopefully be done with dealing with acne. Is the birthcontrol not working for you anymore and thats why you decided to do Accutane?? And why are you on a waiting list for accutane?? Do you mean that you are in the 30 day wait period?? And when you do go on accutane will you have to take birth control as well..due to the IPLEDGE program??

If the acne is scarring, then I'd be much more inclined to try Accutane. It's almost guaranteed to work, but it does put a lot of strain on your body.

Accutane for me, was a breeze. The side effects were not even 1% of the effects acne had on me, it ruled my life.

One thing worth trying while you wait, is The Regimen, I had great success with it before taking Accutane.

Hi, we are parents with a 14 yr old daughter who is currently on her 4th month of accutane. We have an older child, age 20, who took accutane in high school (amazing results) so we have been thru this before. We have placed several posts on the site about our experiences. We strongly recommend that you read the following post on this site about taking accutane. I wish we had known about this site when our oldest child took accutane; would have saved her a lot of trial and error. Please read the following post which will give you all the do's and don'ts of taking accutane:

With that being said, you need to educate yourself on how this drug works. For our children, it has been a miracle drug and it is worth the risk of all the possible side effects that you hear about as long as you are informed. Your derm and the ipledge will not give you the "basic" info you need. As for us, we believe it is the cumulative dosage for your child's body weight that is key to taking the drug and having long term remission.

Our 14 yr old has/had the exact same issues with acne as your daughter; face and really bad back acne. She tried everygthing, ointments/anitbiotics/facials literally everything. Sooner or later, it all stopped working. The accutane initial breakout (IB) for months 1-3 were good days and bad days, but as with our first child, as to month 4th, the IB seems to have stopped and her face and particularly her back are clear and looking really good! It is working!

You should do your own research on how accutane works. Our 14 yr old is taking 40mg a day; she is now 53kg and originally was scheduled to take it for 5 months. In consults with her derm we believe adding a 6th month will insure she gets the cumulative dosage for her weight. Our derm has gone with the "norm" which is 120mg/per kg, or 6000 cumulative dosage (120mgx50kg) originally over 5 months. B/c our daughter gained 7lbs and grew almost 1/2" over the last 4 months, going from 50kg to 53kg means she needs a larger cumulative dosage. Educate yourself on how the dosage works relative to weight. see our post about increasing dosage

As to side effects, that first blood test revealed our daughter had mild anemia. other than this, she is very healthy. She took an iron pill everyday and her blood work is now normal. She plays club volleyball which is very intense. We were very worried all of the side effects you read about would prevent her from playing. Not so. we have a post related to accutane and sports, it is at this link

As to side effects, our daughter has dry skin, dry lips, a rash on arms/hands that comes and goes (use 1% cortisone) sore back and really sore knee joints. this is probably b/c of the volleyball. the other side effect for our kids was/has been an inability to stay focused. don't underestimate this and give em a break if they forget the little stuff; the accutane will cause this.

on a final note, when our older daughter stopped playing sports just before completing her accutane, about 16 months after completing her course, she developed migraines and then became depressed. we went to neurologists to find out the cause of the migraines (she never had them and no family history) and depression and nobody could figure it out. Today, we are 100% convinced it was the accutane. We think when she stopped playing sports, she had no way to release her stress from school etc. We think this and the combination of the accutane still in her system caused the migraines/depression. This lasted about 3 months and ended when she started playing sports again. For us, doing everything we could for our 14 yr old to allow her to keep playing vb we think will avoid the issues our older daughter had. We also know to keep a very close eye on our 14 yr old after she completes her course, even years later. As to our 20 yr old, her skin is still flawless; never had another migraine and she has never had any bouts of depression (other than today b/c her boyfriend left for study abroad).

Accutane works, but as with any drug, you need to educate yourself and as a parent, you really have to keep an eye on your daughter, both physically and mentally, and don't add any additional stress to their life; their body is really going thru a lot on accutane; school; peer pressure; we don't need to add to this over the little stuff.

Good luck to you and your daughter.

here is a link about us (oops, our daughter will be 14 in a couple weeks, we wanted to wait until she was 14 but the anitbiotics stopped working and there was nothing else; so she is the same age as your daughter. No birth control at this age, abstinence for ipledge is all that is required)

Hi. Thanks for your reply. She is very effected by her acne. We have talked about Accutane and she is willing to give it a try and hopefully be done with dealing with acne. Is the birthcontrol not working for you anymore and thats why you decided to do Accutane?? And why are you on a waiting list for accutane?? Do you mean that you are in the 30 day wait period?? And when you do go on accutane will you have to take birth control as well..due to the IPLEDGE program??

Birthcontrol never fully cleared up my acne and I am still getting new cysts that are causing scarring. Therefore, although birthcontrol has made a huge difference, it's left me still getting new acne and more scarring so that's why I am going to try Accutane.

I am on a waiting list because here in Britain there are not many dermatologists on the NHS so I have to wait 6-8 weeks to be referred to one as they are in short supply (unless you go private but that isn't an option for me). As I am still waiting for my appointment with my derm I don't know if I'll be put on birthcontrol while I'm on Accutane. I hope not as it's completely unnecessary for me but I'll let you know once I know!

Many birth controls do not help acne. Do not rule out birth control until you have tried at least two of the GOOD kind for acne. See the list below. Good kinds are listed in green. Yaz/Yasmin and Diane 35/Dianette have the highest success rate. Belara is a newcomer that seems to work pretty well. Ortho Tri Cyclen is an old standby, but most find it does not work nearly as well as the others for acne.