I started on 40mg/day accutane 10 days ago and after this month will be bumping up to 80 mg/day
I'm currently going through what I think is the dreaded "initial breakout". I have about 7 or 8 cysts of varying size and every morning now when i wake up i have about 15 new whiteheads(no joke). The amount of cysts isnt terribly crazy as I usually get that many during flareups but the amount of whiteheads I have never ever had before. All of my acne hurts a toooon more than usual aswell. So I have two questions if anyone has been on accutane on perhaps a similar dosage.
If this is the initial breakout, how long is it likely to last on average (I know it can vary some depending on the person)
and
When I bump up to 80 mg/day next month am I going to have to go through another initial breakout like this one?
Thank you for reading!
I started off at 40, too, and recently bumped up.
The good news is my derm says people who get an initial breakout are the ones who are MORE likely to have it be a "cure" and to not have relapses. The bad news is, it can last a while and sometimes bumping up your dosage will result in another small flareup (but usually nowhere near the real initial breakout).
The length and severity of your IB is often dependent upon what state your skin was in before. I can't find the link now, but I read in an article in a medical journal that they did a study and something like 70% or so initial breakouts are due to the presence of a lot of microcomedomes when starting treatment. So, if you had a lot of microcomedomes (i.e. lots of tiny bumps) yours is probably going to last a while.
You can probably ask your derm, but I had I would say moderate to severe acne with lots and lots of microcomedomes and my derm said I should not expect to be "clear" for another 2.5-3 months, maybe a little longer, when I started. My IB was AWFUL; cystic acne everywhere that cropped up constantly and was much more "agressive" than most acne I've gotten. The worst of it was at the 3-5 week point. Ugh. I was prescribed prednisone for three weeks to get it under control.
When I bumped up, I was mostly clear (maybe one or pimple cropping up every few days) but with lots of scarring and bumping up resulted in getting one pimple a day for a week or so but it's evened out since then.
Hey, thanks for the information. I'm sorry you had to deal with a nasty IB 
I hope you are right about the people who experience them being more likely to have it be a cure, i suppose this is a small price to pay for it to all be gone in the end. Some of the cysts are like the ones that have given me scars in the past that's why i'm a bit worried. From what i can see i don't really have a ton of microcomedomes but where this breakout has been is where i did have them. Hopefully this calms down soon!
Hi matt!! I'm so interested in how things went for you. I'm in the same situation you were a month ago. I am on day 18 and getting better from the worst breakout ever which started on day 13 14 but luckily seems to be getting better.
Your description of your ib is very similar to mine. I got lots of cysts which where so so so painful I couldn't even smile (I got them in my lower cheeks which is my problem area)
I would love to know how everything is going for you. Did you continue breaking out? Have you started to see improvements?
Best wishes 