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So after a month of minocycline (which almost completely cleared up my mild/moderate acne), I started using tretinoin cream. I started with 0.025% and I loved how my skin looked after about 3 weeks. After about 5-6 weeks, I thought I'd try bumping it up to 0.05% since I didn't really have any side effects and had heard that you should use as high of a concentration as you can tolerate.
Well, I've been using the 0.05% for about 2.5 weeks now and since about a week ago, my face is NOT happy. I've gotten 3 of those painful, deep ones, a bunch of random red spots, and my pores just look clogged and congested in general.
My question: Did anyone else experience a second IB when upping their strength? I can't decide if I should stick it out or if I should just go back to the lower strength. My doc said that I shouldn't get a second IB so that makes me thing I should go back lower...
I'd believe your doctor. I never had IBs when upping my dosage for tretinoin.
Did you go off the monocycline? That's probably why it got worse. Monocycline is an antibiotic that wipes out all bacteria. It can help you start off on a new treatment with a "clean slate". Unfortuntately, bacteria is naturally occurring and will come back after you get off it.
(By the way, if you are tempted to do anti-biotics long term, that is a bad idea. Over time, it will mess up your gut flora, which messes with your nutritional intake, which will likely worsen your acne. I did antibiotics long term and now I'm on accutane.)
I'd believe your doctor. I never had IBs when upping my dosage for tretinoin.
Did you go off the monocycline? That's probably why it got worse. Monocycline is an antibiotic that wipes out all bacteria. It can help you start off on a new treatment with a "clean slate". Unfortuntately, bacteria is naturally occurring and will come back after you get off it.
(By the way, if you are tempted to do anti-biotics long term, that is a bad idea. Over time, it will mess up your gut flora, which messes with your nutritional intake, which will likely worsen your acne. I did antibiotics long term and now I'm on accutane.)
Thanks for answering! Yes, I did go off of the minocycline, so my month or so of good skin when starting the tretinoin could have just been because the bacteria hadn't built up enough steam yet. :/
My doc also told me that he didn't recommend long term antibiotics, so he put me on spiro instead (just started at 50 mg/day 3 days ago). I guess we will see how it goes.
I should mention that since I stopped the minocycline, I've been using a topical in the mornings (Clindamycin). I started with the solution but the alcohol was too drying in combination with tretinoin so my doc changed to gel at my last appointment too. I'm hoping that the combo (clindamycin, tretinion, and spiro) will do the job as it's hitting all the main factors of acne - clogged pores, bacteria, and hormones. Crossing my fingers.