I'm a 21 year old female, and I've struggled with pretty bad acne for the past 7 years. The past 2 or 3 years I've noticed a pattern where my skin breaks out horribly over the summer, and starts to clear up around November. The last couple of years it cleared up completely by January, but this summer was by far the worst. I only have a few active pimples now, the breakouts started getting better about a month ago. The problem now is that my face is covered in not only red marks like it usually is, but actual acne scars, which I've never had to deal with before.

I've never really been bothered by my acne that much. After I'd tried everything and it still wouldn't go away, I kind of accepted it. It doesn't interfere with my daily life. I have a lot of friends and I still get boyfriends and attention from boys. But now that it is causing permanent damage, I want to figure out how to prevent this from happening before next summer.

I've been on pretty much every major prescription besides Accutane-- that stuff scares me and I do NOT want to go there.

The only major differences I can think of about the summers vs. the rest of my year are:

- I lifeguard in the summer, and so wear more sunscreen. I use the ones specially designed for your face, though.

- In the summer, I live at home with my parents. During the year, I'm at university.

- I don't wear make up in the summer (you'd think that would make my acne better!)

- Don't have AC so I sweat more in the summer.

Does anyone have any ideas about what might cause this?

Thanks,

Abby