i was only on accutane for 2 months, but during those 2 months, my skin purged quite a bit leaving me w./ clean, unclogged pores. The topicals were able to manage my acne for quite some time because I didnt have blockages in all my pores due to my very oily skin. I started the topicals immediately after coming off accutane. They have been able to keep the majority in check

I took Accutane in 2011 and had the same problem. My acne slowly started coming back after a couple months then I was right back where I started. As much as I loved the results of Accutane it isnt a solution for some people. I right now am on month 3 of Differin and starting to clear up. Week 6 is to soon to judge you need to wait it out for at least 3 months to see if its working or not.

My daughter (17 yrs old) completed her first round of accutane in January. Unfortunately her acne is slowly creeping back. It started in March with just a sprinkling of whilteheads on her forhead but became worse and spread to her cheeks. I took her to a new derm (we moved across the country so we had no choice) and he would not prescribe accutane again but rather Retin A Micro topical. We tried to explain that prior to accutane, she tried EVERYTHING...topicals as well as every class of antibiotic and both in various combinations and they DID NOT WORK. It was like he wasn't even listening and couldn't wait to get us out. He absently handed us a 'coupon' (expired...by the way) for the Retin A Micro and sent us away. He said she was not a canditate for accutane.

Sooo.....we sought a second opinion but got the same answer! Granted, the second doctor at least took the time to explain that she just needed to unclog her pores and it wasn't the right "kind" of acne that will respond to accutane. OK. Fine...She will try it. Fast forward 6 weeks and it's getting WORSE. The small clogged pores are going away but they have been replaced by larger, redder and more inflamed zits that are all over. Our biggest fear. It's like I knew deep down that nothing was going to keep it at bay. This is exactly the pattern of development as before.

My question is this...I left the doctors office with the understanding that prescriptions (oral and topical) may work after accutane even if they did not work before. Has anyone had a similar experience? WHY won't they just prescribe the accutane again?! Must she suffer throught MONTHS of repeating every prescription with no results before they will put her back on or is there a chance something else besides accutane will work despite not having worked before?

For a couple glorious months her skin was beautiful and she was so happy and confident. Now she is headed down the same long road.

Advice or input anyone?

Unfortunately you will find that acne is a lot more complicated...

Basically a zit has two components to it: an oil blockage and inflammation.

Accutane treats the oil. It does by giving your body near-toxic doses of vitamin A that force your oil glands to shrink temporarily. However your oil glands slowly grow back. Retin-A is also vitamin A, and does what Accutane does on a very small scale.

Antibiotics (both oral and topical) treat the inflammation. The type of antibiotics they prescribe for acne not only kill bacteria, they force the tissues to un-inflame to a degree, kind of like a cold compress on a burn.

Why won't they give you Accutane again? Because it literally is overdosing you on vitamin A. It is something you generally only put someone through once. None of your docotors want to get sued when her 2nd course puts her in the hospital with back pain and blurred vision. Also because she is relapsing so quickly, it is unlikely that Accutane is going to be a permanent cure for her. Some people take Accutane, and their oil glands grow back so slowly that they never get acne again. For your daughter, clearly this is not the case.

As far as antibiotics, as someone who has been on every antibiotic out there, I can tell you from experience that antibiotics are never a long-term fix. They will decrease inflammation for a while, but your body becomes immune to them.

The most recent research about acne shows that you have to treat it hormonally. Your hormone balance is what causes the overproduction of oil and inflammation in the first place. If you stop the hormones that are controlling the oil/inflammation flow in the deepest layers of the skin, then you stop the acne.

One of my better dermatologists told me once that he realized....that he was under the misconception that many women grew out of their acne. What actually happened is that they became sexually active after high school, and went on a hormonal birth control. Once they found a birth control pill that worked with their body, their acne also cleared up as a side effect. MOST women in their twenties and beyond are on some sort of birth control that artificially regulates their hormones.

As far as birth control and acne goes, I have done extensive amounts of research, so I can answer nearly any questions you have on that topic. If you only have a little acne, almost any birth control will probably be okay. But if your daughter has moderate to severe acne like me, only some of the birth control pills out there are fine-tuned enough to stop the acne cycle.

My daughter (17 yrs old) completed her first round of accutane in January. Unfortunately her acne is slowly creeping back. It started in March with just a sprinkling of whilteheads on her forhead but became worse and spread to her cheeks. I took her to a new derm (we moved across the country so we had no choice) and he would not prescribe accutane again but rather Retin A Micro topical. We tried to explain that prior to accutane, she tried EVERYTHING...topicals as well as every class of antibiotic and both in various combinations and they DID NOT WORK. It was like he wasn't even listening and couldn't wait to get us out. He absently handed us a 'coupon' (expired...by the way) for the Retin A Micro and sent us away. He said she was not a canditate for accutane.

Sooo.....we sought a second opinion but got the same answer! Granted, the second doctor at least took the time to explain that she just needed to unclog her pores and it wasn't the right "kind" of acne that will respond to accutane. OK. Fine...She will try it. Fast forward 6 weeks and it's getting WORSE. The small clogged pores are going away but they have been replaced by larger, redder and more inflamed zits that are all over. Our biggest fear. It's like I knew deep down that nothing was going to keep it at bay. This is exactly the pattern of development as before.

My question is this...I left the doctors office with the understanding that prescriptions (oral and topical) may work after accutane even if they did not work before. Has anyone had a similar experience? WHY won't they just prescribe the accutane again?! Must she suffer throught MONTHS of repeating every prescription with no results before they will put her back on or is there a chance something else besides accutane will work despite not having worked before?

For a couple glorious months her skin was beautiful and she was so happy and confident. Now she is headed down the same long road.

Advice or input anyone?

Unfortunately you will find that acne is a lot more complicated...

Basically a zit has two components to it: an oil blockage and inflammation.

Accutane treats the oil. It does by giving your body near-toxic doses of vitamin A that force your oil glands to shrink temporarily. However your oil glands slowly grow back. Retin-A is also vitamin A, and does what Accutane does on a very small scale.

Antibiotics (both oral and topical) treat the inflammation. The type of antibiotics they prescribe for acne not only kill bacteria, they force the tissues to un-inflame to a degree, kind of like a cold compress on a burn.

Why won't they give you Accutane again? Because it literally is overdosing you on vitamin A. It is something you generally only put someone through once. None of your docotors want to get sued when her 2nd course puts her in the hospital with back pain and blurred vision. Also because she is relapsing so quickly, it is unlikely that Accutane is going to be a permanent cure for her. Some people take Accutane, and their oil glands grow back so slowly that they never get acne again. For your daughter, clearly this is not the case.

As far as antibiotics, as someone who has been on every antibiotic out there, I can tell you from experience that antibiotics are never a long-term fix. They will decrease inflammation for a while, but your body becomes immune to them.

The most recent research about acne shows that you have to treat it hormonally. Your hormone balance is what causes the overproduction of oil and inflammation in the first place. If you stop the hormones that are controlling the oil/inflammation flow in the deepest layers of the skin, then you stop the acne.

One of my better dermatologists told me once that he realized....that he was under the misconception that many women grew out of their acne. What actually happened is that they became sexually active after high school, and went on a hormonal birth control. Once they found a birth control pill that worked with their body, their acne also cleared up as a side effect. MOST women in their twenties and beyond are on some sort of birth control that artificially regulates their hormones.

As far as birth control and acne goes, I have done extensive amounts of research, so I can answer nearly any questions you have on that topic. If you only have a little acne, almost any birth control will probably be okay. But if your daughter has moderate to severe acne like me, only some of the birth control pills out there are fine-tuned enough to stop the acne cycle.

Thanks so much for your response. As far as the birth control pill option is concerned....Been there, done that (incidently she is NOT yet sexually active. I feel the need to clarity that. LOL) She actually had to go on birth control alamost 2 years ago for other hormonal issues. She has tried various pills including Yaz (still had trouble with piriods) and currently Ortho Tri-Cyclen. I do suspect that because of her hormone issues, that may very well be the culprit although none of the formulas seem to help and some that were supposed to actually made it worse. She has been on 4 or 5 different ones :/

My daughter (17 yrs old) completed her first round of accutane in January. Unfortunately her acne is slowly creeping back. It started in March with just a sprinkling of whilteheads on her forhead but became worse and spread to her cheeks. I took her to a new derm (we moved across the country so we had no choice) and he would not prescribe accutane again but rather Retin A Micro topical. We tried to explain that prior to accutane, she tried EVERYTHING...topicals as well as every class of antibiotic and both in various combinations and they DID NOT WORK. It was like he wasn't even listening and couldn't wait to get us out. He absently handed us a 'coupon' (expired...by the way) for the Retin A Micro and sent us away. He said she was not a canditate for accutane.

Sooo.....we sought a second opinion but got the same answer! Granted, the second doctor at least took the time to explain that she just needed to unclog her pores and it wasn't the right "kind" of acne that will respond to accutane. OK. Fine...She will try it. Fast forward 6 weeks and it's getting WORSE. The small clogged pores are going away but they have been replaced by larger, redder and more inflamed zits that are all over. Our biggest fear. It's like I knew deep down that nothing was going to keep it at bay. This is exactly the pattern of development as before.

My question is this...I left the doctors office with the understanding that prescriptions (oral and topical) may work after accutane even if they did not work before. Has anyone had a similar experience? WHY won't they just prescribe the accutane again?! Must she suffer throught MONTHS of repeating every prescription with no results before they will put her back on or is there a chance something else besides accutane will work despite not having worked before?

For a couple glorious months her skin was beautiful and she was so happy and confident. Now she is headed down the same long road.

Advice or input anyone?

Unfortunately you will find that acne is a lot more complicated...

Basically a zit has two components to it: an oil blockage and inflammation.

Accutane treats the oil. It does by giving your body near-toxic doses of vitamin A that force your oil glands to shrink temporarily. However your oil glands slowly grow back. Retin-A is also vitamin A, and does what Accutane does on a very small scale.

Antibiotics (both oral and topical) treat the inflammation. The type of antibiotics they prescribe for acne not only kill bacteria, they force the tissues to un-inflame to a degree, kind of like a cold compress on a burn.

Why won't they give you Accutane again? Because it literally is overdosing you on vitamin A. It is something you generally only put someone through once. None of your docotors want to get sued when her 2nd course puts her in the hospital with back pain and blurred vision. Also because she is relapsing so quickly, it is unlikely that Accutane is going to be a permanent cure for her. Some people take Accutane, and their oil glands grow back so slowly that they never get acne again. For your daughter, clearly this is not the case.

As far as antibiotics, as someone who has been on every antibiotic out there, I can tell you from experience that antibiotics are never a long-term fix. They will decrease inflammation for a while, but your body becomes immune to them.

The most recent research about acne shows that you have to treat it hormonally. Your hormone balance is what causes the overproduction of oil and inflammation in the first place. If you stop the hormones that are controlling the oil/inflammation flow in the deepest layers of the skin, then you stop the acne.

One of my better dermatologists told me once that he realized....that he was under the misconception that many women grew out of their acne. What actually happened is that they became sexually active after high school, and went on a hormonal birth control. Once they found a birth control pill that worked with their body, their acne also cleared up as a side effect. MOST women in their twenties and beyond are on some sort of birth control that artificially regulates their hormones.

As far as birth control and acne goes, I have done extensive amounts of research, so I can answer nearly any questions you have on that topic. If you only have a little acne, almost any birth control will probably be okay. But if your daughter has moderate to severe acne like me, only some of the birth control pills out there are fine-tuned enough to stop the acne cycle.

Thanks so much for your response. As far as the birth control pill option is concerned....Been there, done that (incidently she is NOT yet sexually active. I feel the need to clarity that. LOL) She actually had to go on birth control alamost 2 years ago for other hormonal issues. She has tried various pills including Yaz (still had trouble with piriods) and currently Ortho Tri-Cyclen. I do suspect that because of her hormone issues, that may very well be the culprit although none of the formulas seem to help and some that were supposed to actually made it worse. She has been on 4 or 5 different ones :/

It's hard to say how effective they actually are unless she was on each pill for at least a year (many people get side effects and quit at the 4-5 month mark or earlier). With Yaz especially, you will have period problems for months before your body sorts out its new hormonal balance. And yes, it may seem like the acne is getting worse. It's unfortunate that people don't understand the patience you have to have to sort out hormonal issues. People give up after a few months. We need to be thinking long-term here, a few months isn't enough time to see if something works or not.

Even so, I'm not saying that birth control is the end-all be-all for hormonal acne. Many women on these forums have to specifically take a DHT inhibitor in addition to the birth control. DHT is the type of testosterone that is linked to acne production again and again.

For me personally, the specific hormonal treatment I went through took 8 months to go from severe acne to "no lesions on the face" (I still had clogged pores, red marks, and scars). 2 years later I am just getting to the point where the red marks and clogged pores are disappearing as well. Seems like a long time, but after acne all through my teenage years and well into adulthood, you start to realize that 8 months is not that long.

There is also a lot you can do as far as diet to control hormonal triggers. Medical literature has finally hit a point where it is no longer teaching new doctors that "diet doesn't affect acne." Diet most certainly does, as the food you eat is one of the most direct ways you influence your hormones. Dairy in particular because dairy is naturally loaded with growth hormones (gotta help those baby calves grow to maturity). Sugar and refined carbs because of the bad insulin/hormonal response they induce.