I recently went and had a blood test done to see if there might be an underlying cause as to why I have started to get pretty bad acne and oily skin all of a sudden at the age of 30 (male). BTW...the oily skin happened after I used tretinoin cream. Been over a month of not using it and I'm STILL oily and have blotchy red skin. Everything came back normal except my testosterone levels came back really low.

Everything I've read says that acne and an increase in sebum production occur from higher levels of testosterone. But could the hormonal imbalance that I have be causing me to have oil skin and acne somehow? I don't know if I should start taking testosterone treatments if it's gonna make me break out and the oil worse.

Also....I've read that cortisol that is produced in your body from being stressed can lower you test levels and cause acne. Could my lowered testosterone levels be strictly from being stressed and not getting enough sleep? I'm supp to talk to the doctor tomorrow and see what's up and have a follow up with my derm the next day, but I was hoping maybe somebody had any input. Thanks in advance if anybody can shoot me some info.

Unfortunately low testosterone and acne is a rarer occurrence. It is possible for some men to be low in progesterone, which can also cause acne, though. You may want to look in the Hormonal forum and find posts on progesterone.

Treating hormonal acne in men is more difficult, simply because most men just go on Accutane...when their acne comes back, they go on another round of Accutane or they just live with it. So there isn't as much information for your gender, because most of your gender isn't interested in the hormonal causes of acne.