hello! yeah it sounds like we had the same experience with Keflex. i am still on 100mg of spiro and have been on it since dec 2012. i started at 25mg and then after a week or so went up to 50mg then 75mg then 100mg. i took Keflex 500mg twice per day for about 10 months or so. i'm sure i could have weaned myself off of it way before then but i really wanted to be sure that the spiro was working so a few months before i was done i went down to 1 pill a day for a while then 1 pill every other day and then 1 pill every 3-4 days.

that is great that you are having such great success with Keflex and i would go with what your derm says and stay on the Keflex for a good while and then slowly wean off of it. i think after a bit though i would probably ask the derm about going down to a lower dose though just to be safe. so they have it in a shot version? yeah i never had any side effects with it either thank goodness i think its a real miracle worker. there is a girl i met on this site that told me about how well Keflex worked for her so i have her to thank for telling me about it. it was really my last resort before Accutane.

well keep me updated on things and i wish you continued success with spiro and the Keflex.

Thanks so much! I actually meant the little cortisone shot they give for acne. Please feel free to share more of your experience with spiro! I did the same as you, started off really low and wanted to see how I would react and now after 2 months I am finally at 100 mg. Did you notice clearing after several months? Did you change anything in your diet? I am now avoiding dairy but wonder if in the future I can add it back maybe once in a great while but not too sure about that. I am also avoiding sugary foods as that makes me break out too. My doc said spiro could take a long time to work and I have read that on the boards is the common experience. It is amazing how fast keflex brought the swelling of my infected cyst down. I definitely don't want to go off it any time soon. However, I made sure to buy a probiotic and am taking that now because I have been on other antibiotics in the past for my skin problems and had a bout with IBS and that really sucked. I will definitely keep you updated about my progress though and will bookmark this thread.

Your welcome! Oh yeah I used to get tons of cortisone shots. If you get one just make sure its diluted so you dont get an indent. They suck but at the time it was the only way to get rid of my cysts. I only had 1 cyst back in June of 2013 but besides that my face has been super clear. It was clear as soon as I started the keflex and then when I got off of it. Every so often I get a tiny bump but it goes away pretty darn quickly. I do use witch hazel toner in the morning and evening and then every other night I use my AHA toner to keep my pores clear. What I have found now is that if I do get a clogged pore it doesnt turn into anything like it used to before there is no inflammation in my skin at all. Before I went on Spiro I tried everything over the last 16 years to try and clear my skin. I spent thousands from over the counter stuff and then tried pretty much every prescription product as well as I tried gluten free, dairy free, carb free, alcohol & sugar free as well as I even avoided caffeine. I also got chemical peels, ipls, laser, microdermabrasion and was on 7 different antibiotics. The list goes on and on and on -ha! So anyway whenever I started keflex I just stopped doing all the stupid diet stuff and just went back to how I ate before and have had no issues. I can eat junk food, drink alcohol, caffeine etc. This pill has been a miracle for me and just made me realize that my acne was hormonal all along which is why I believe the pill screwed up my hormones for good. Nobody else in my family has ever had acne let alone cystic acne so it definitely wasn't a genetic thing. One more thing too when I get stressed out now I dont break out either like I used to before spiro

Good idea about the probiotic with the keflex especially since you are taking a high dose of it. I never took one with keflex I did with other antibiotics and was lucky it didnt mess up my system at all. I'm always so amazed I never had a yeast infection or anything. Yeah IBS I hear is hard to deal with so hopefully the meds dont trigger anything. If you ever want to talk more you can message me on this site. I am always here for you. I made it a point to always try and help out other people once I got clear because there were times I felt so alone and like nobody understood me so I dont want anybody else to feel that way. Take care

Thank you again for sharing your experience! I will send you a private message.

It was crazy they just totally went away like 5 days later I woke up and they were gone it was the best thing like in the world. The nodules I had for a few months went away as well. I was at the lowest point in my entire life and that stuff was like a miracle. I never had any antibiotics work that fast ever. Yeah if Doxy isn't working then try Keflex but I think it takes Doxy a few weeks to kick in so give it time. Keflex is stronger so sometimes they are hesitant to offer it up right away. I had to beg my derm for it because I was just about to start Accutane but thank goodness I didn't have to go that route.

Hey guys, thank you all for sharing your experiences. Tracy, the fact that BC pills screwed up your hormones is really scary. When I went on the pill years ago and then off a few months ago, I admit I never really thought about its impact on my skin. The fact is that after I took Accutane, acne stopped being a part of my life (except for the rare cyst which I could easily get drained and injected at the derm's). Even when I started BC, there were no remarkable changes in my skin. it was only the in the beginning of this year, around 6 months after quitting the pill that I started getting cysts again on my chin and forehead (never on my cheeks, thank God!). So I don't know if my hormonal acne had anything to do with being on the pill. Now I'm hesitating if I should have restarted it. I'm halfway through my 2nd pack of Diane so I dont know if I can just quit.

As for the antibiotics, I can't find Keflex here so I think I will stick to Doxy. Been on 300mg a day for more than 2 weeks now so I think that's enough time to see if it works. To be fair, I havent had new breakouts since I got on it. But it didn't exactly shrink my exisiting breakouts (except one zit). For the trio of cysts that I had between my eyebrows, I went to the derm and had them drained. My new derm doesn't believe in cortisone shots so he just opened them with laser and took all the disgusting gunk out. Ugh. He then told me to keep putting black tar on them (ichthammol ointment) to let them drain some more and heal. So I'm really feeling good today. For the first time in weeks, I have no active cysts on my face. The scars from the laser are pretty nasty but I would rather have those than pus-filled bumps! I am really praying that I am out of the woods in terms of the initial breakout.

Speaking of which, my derm is really trying to convince me to go on a 2nd round of Accutane along with Diane. He said Diane 35 is good (I didn't tell him I'm on Spiro too) but that it's a temporary fix. I'm quite confused because I thought Accutane didn't fix hormonal acne. And to be honest, I cannot deal with another initial breakout, and my IB with accutane before was pretty horrible. How much time do you guys think I should give Spiro and Diane before considering Accutane again?

yeah for sure i wish i had never took birth control ever in my life. i dont know why it took me so long to make the connection though - ugh! you can quit now if you want since you are on antiobiotics it should catch most of the acne that would pop up from that. keflex is a generic name for cephalexin which is an antibiotic thats been around for a long time. http://www.drugs.com/cephalexin.html - there are many generic forms of it out there.

if you have had no acne since doxy then its probably already kicked in. every antibiotic i took in the past has never cleared my existing acne like keflex did. its crazy how it worked for me. well thats good the derm drained your cysts. my cysts were the type that were never able to be drained but thats good you didnt need the shots. you wont have to worry about atrophy at least. i bet your skin is looking pretty good now then.

i really dont think accutane will do anything for your hormonal acne. my derm used to always tell me that accutane would shut down all the acne i had on my skin and clear me up while i was on it but that once i got off of it that it would just come back so that is why i was always hesitant to even go down that road. i do agree the diane is a temporary fix and since spiro works so well i dont see why you would need or want to be on the pill as well. i would wait at least 6-9 months before attempting to go on accutane and since you are clear now i wouldnt even bother with it.