I would be interested to know about this too. I'm on tetracycline 2000mg a day. But I am pretty bad about taking it regularly, actually. Anyway, my doctor wants me to stay on it for six months, I'm about three months in. I'd ideally like to be able to stop taking it altogether because it is a bit of a hassle scheduling it in to avoid meals.

Anyway, my understanding is that it works on active acne that I have and not in actually preventing new acne from forming (as mine is hormonal in cause). Maybe if yours is hormonal too you won't actually see perfect clarity with it?

I think it varies from person to person. One of my friends has been taking doxycycline 200 mg a day for the past eight years, and has great skin (used to be quite bad). I was on it for a year and a half, and sure enough one day it flat out wouldn't work anymore. I have probably have more resistant bacteria than my friend, or he just grew out of it and was taking the doxy for no real reason.

every antibiotic i was ever on cleared me up completely within 2-3 weeks at the most but i stayed on them at least for 6 months at a clip. you need to have a good regimen though for when you get off the antibiotics so the acne doesnt come though. some sort of aha/bha usually does the trick to keep the pores clear.

I was on Doxycycline 200mg per day since last October and it worked really well. However, I never felt comfortable on it. I always have a lingering feeling that it wasn't permanent, and that turned out to be true. On Wednesday I started Accutane for my mild spots and oily skin.

With that said it did do wonders just never cleared me up 100%, more like around 85%.

Hope this helps.

Thank you all for your responses!

I would be interested to know about this too. I'm on tetracycline 2000mg a day. But I am pretty bad about taking it regularly, actually. Anyway, my doctor wants me to stay on it for six months, I'm about three months in. I'd ideally like to be able to stop taking it altogether because it is a bit of a hassle scheduling it in to avoid meals.

Anyway, my understanding is that it works on active acne that I have and not in actually preventing new acne from forming (as mine is hormonal in cause). Maybe if yours is hormonal too you won't actually see perfect clarity with it?

Yeh I was on Flucloxacillin 2000mg for a bit and it was an absolute pain trying to fit it in around food everyday. Now I'm on Lymecycline it's much easier because you just take one dose a day and it doesn't matter whether you've eaten recently or not.

I think you're probably right about it working on active acne but not on the cause. I've also been on Dianette for nearly 6 months though so I was hoping that would work for me and then I could wean off the antibiotics and just take the Dianette but unfortunately I'm still breaking out.

I think it varies from person to person. One of my friends has been taking doxycycline 200 mg a day for the past eight years, and has great skin (used to be quite bad). I was on it for a year and a half, and sure enough one day it flat out wouldn't work anymore. I have probably have more resistant bacteria than my friend, or he just grew out of it and was taking the doxy for no real reason.

every antibiotic i was ever on cleared me up completely within 2-3 weeks at the most but i stayed on them at least for 6 months at a clip. you need to have a good regimen though for when you get off the antibiotics so the acne doesnt come though. some sort of aha/bha usually does the trick to keep the pores clear.

Thanks for your responses guys but I think I worded my questions quite badly to begin with. My question wasn't about how long I would remain clear on antibiotics once I got clear, I mean how long will my skin keep improving on antibiotics? Basically I'm nearly at my end of my 5th month on them but I am still breaking out and I'm wondering if I've seen all the benefit I'm ever going to get from these antibiotics or whether they will keep improving my skin more if I give them more time? I just want them to clear my skin so badly because my dermatologist won't let me take Accutane and at the moment I still break out and get the odd cysts occasionally as well. I really don't want it to be like this forever!

I was on Doxycycline 200mg per day since last October and it worked really well. However, I never felt comfortable on it. I always have a lingering feeling that it wasn't permanent, and that turned out to be true. On Wednesday I started Accutane for my mild spots and oily skin.

With that said it did do wonders just never cleared me up 100%, more like around 85%.

Hope this helps.

Thanks! This is kind of the issue I have because the Lymecycline has improved my skin immensely over the past 5 or so months but I'm still not clear. I still break out all the time even though the breakouts themselves are nothing compared to what my skin was like before. Annoyingly I also still get cysts sometimes which is something I was really hoping the antibiotics would be able to get rid of for me.

Good luck with your Accutane course! I'm a bit jealous because my dermatologist won't let me take it despite the fact that the antibiotics haven't managed to clear me yet. I hope they can clear me more over the next 3 months but I feel like after all this time I might have seen all the benefit I'm ever going to get from them.

if you have been on antibiotics for that long and you arent clear then they must not be working too well. what do you use for your face wash and do you use a toner? a toner is necessary to get all that makeup off that you are wearing during the day as well as dead skin. once i started using one it helped my face a lot but antibiotics kick in pretty quick so if you arent clear in a month on them then i would look into something else. doxycycline, minocycline and keflex worked the best for me and worked fast all within 2 weeks at the most.