The key questions I would like to ask are:
-Does it sound to you like it's the oral contraceptive giving me acne?
- If I stop taking this oral contraceptive in the middle of week 5, will my hormones return to how they were prior to taking it and if so how long does this take?
-Is it possible that I had balanced hormones before, but have unnecessarily messed them up by taking this pill?
Any other advice/experience people can give me is helpful.
(I'm 19, turning 20 in August).
I was on 60mg of roaccutane for around 8 months, from March until October 2015 which worked wonderfully on my back acne and facial acne. Around the beginning of February I noticed I started getting a few pimples when I was approaching my period, though very few (perhaps 2/3) and they very small. I also started getting a few spots on my back again. As I thought it was hormonal, I decided to return to taking Co-cyprindiol (UK version of dianette) as this was the oral contraceptive I was on while taking roaccutane (you are required to take some form to prevent you from getting pregnant while on it.) It is week 5 and so far, on the whole, my spots have become worse. I now have mild, persisent acne, where before I did not have acne at all.
Diary of breakouts:
26th February: more spots than usual emerged. That evening I put on Glam glow supermud clearing treatment facial mask. I woke up the next day to find my skin had broken out, either because it was severely aggravated, or because it had sucked out all the impurities and made everything come to the surface (I wasn't sure).
Then my skin started to calm down around the 3rd - 5th March with the help of my skin care routine, which includes differin (I think).
7th March: I break out again.
Since the 7th, more spots have continued to emerge on parts of my face, while the ones which broke out on the 7th itself are calming down. Since the 7th I have woken up every day to find at least 2 new spots on my face. It seems as though this cycle will continue.Today (12th) I have 16 spots, all ranging in size.
In the last 5 weeks my skin has become oily, something I have never experienced in my life - even prior to roaccutane when I suffered from acne, my skin was dry.Also, for the past 2 weeks I have been having textural issues on my face too, i.e. bumpy skin; where skin isn't smooth, but it is not spots.
The 22nd February was the last time I had clear skin. Since then, overall, it has got worse.
Please advise me;I would really, really, appreciate any contribution that anyone has. 🙁
Hi, not an expert here but I can offer my thoughts!
Any time you start, stop, or switch hormonal contraceptives it's fairly likely to cause some changes in your skin.
In your case yes, it sounds like your breakouts may well be caused by the pill... however I'd suggest it hasn't been long enough yet ( 5 or 6 weeks?) to know if it is going to level out... it may be fine after a while longer.
If you came off the pills, then yes I don't see any reason your hormones wouldn't return to how they were before, although I'd imagine it would again take a while to 'level out'
Don't mean to sound patronising at all (sorry if I do!), but at your age your hormones are still probably changing a bit anyway.
Another option would be to ask your doctor about changing to a different pill if you feel unhappy with this one, you would probably just need to finish this pack and then start the next / different pack without a break. But then your body would probs take a while to adjust to that one too.
Le sigh... being a woman eh?