My name is Allie and I've struggled with acne since I was about 8 years old. That sounds crazy, but it's true. I would get white heads and black heads, nothing too severe. When I was about 13 or 14 my acne started to become very severe. Since then I've been in and out of dermatologists and I haven't really gotten anything out of it. My new derm suggested acutane. I'm a little shakey on trying it. Has anyone used it and gotten success? My acne is so painful I cannot lay down on my cheeks. I'm desperate! I attached a picture of my acne currently so you can get a better understanding of what my acne looks like. I do not pick at it. Please help!
that is a tough decision. accutane works very well for many people but also can have some bad side effects. the 2 women i know personally that have taken it have had their acne come back. the 2 men i know that have taken it never had their acne come back. i would say your acne is hormonal but your chin area looks clear. have you had your hormones checked just to be sure? talk to your doc about the hormonal thing and then for now i would try keflex to clear that up and then you can decide what you want to do after that. i take spironolactone which blocks the androgen receptors in the body and it works very well for me but my acne was mostly in the lower part of my face. do you break out all month long or just around your period?
I feel your pain, I suffered with cystic acne for 16 years. It slowly went away with age, at one point I didn't know if it would ever go away, but you just have to keep a positive attitude about it. I'm sure yours will go away with age too. Just keep your head up, you're pretty regardless. I know a little secret on how to temporarily get rid of your acne without having to use acutane, I stayed away from that stuff, I didn't like the side effects of it. If you can get a prescription from your doctor ask for doxycycline or vibramycin 100mg. I'd suggest a 90 day prescription that you take once a year every year or until you don't need to take it anymore. I was cyst free for 3 years, then something came up and I lost my ability to get it for 20 dollars a month so the acne came back but I noticed it wasn't as bad as it was before I started the doxycycline, and completely went away by the time I turned 30. So give it a try if you can, I'm sure it'll help you.
that is a tough decision. accutane works very well for many people but also can have some bad side effects. the 2 women i know personally that have taken it have had their acne come back. the 2 men i know that have taken it never had their acne come back. i would say your acne is hormonal but your chin area looks clear. have you had your hormones checked just to be sure? talk to your doc about the hormonal thing and then for now i would try keflex to clear that up and then you can decide what you want to do after that. i take spironolactone which blocks the androgen receptors in the body and it works very well for me but my acne was mostly in the lower part of my face. do you break out all month long or just around your period?
I'm on birth control to help with the hormones, it's helped a little bit but it's still severe as the picture shows. I do have one HUGE cyst on the other side of my chin, one on the side of my nose, and a bunch around my eyebrows. I have my cysts all month, sadly. ): Around my period it gets worse, I get a few more cysts but I mainly get more whiteheads around that time. It sucks!
I feel your pain, I suffered with cystic acne for 16 years. It slowly went away with age, at one point I didn't know if it would ever go away, but you just have to keep a positive attitude about it. I'm sure yours will go away with age too. Just keep your head up, you're pretty regardless. I know a little secret on how to temporarily get rid of your acne without having to use acutane, I stayed away from that stuff, I didn't like the side effects of it. If you can get a prescription from your doctor ask for doxycycline or vibramycin 100mg. I'd suggest a 90 day prescription that you take once a year every year or until you don't need to take it anymore. I was cyst free for 3 years, then something came up and I lost my ability to get it for 20 dollars a month so the acne came back but I noticed it wasn't as bad as it was before I started the doxycycline, and completely went away by the time I turned 30. So give it a try if you can, I'm sure it'll help you.
Thank you! I'm actually on doxycycline and ziana right now, as a matter of fact! I'm also on birth control. It's helped a little bit, more so with whiteheads and little red bumps than my cysts, which sucks. My cysts are super stubborn!
Cysts are going to hang around a lot longer than most types of acne, there is a lot of bacteria in them. The bad ones can hang around for weeks at a time, but you know that. So, for how long have you been on this regimen? As long as you're seeing results, that's great, keep it up. I would personally use acutane as a last resort, but I have heard and read about success stories from it. Another safe topical treatment you can add to your current regimen is spot treating before bed with a q-tip and iodine, surgeons use iodine to sterilize and clean skin before and after operation. A 12oz bottle will last you years using the spot treatment method and costs 6 bucks or less.
yeah birth control is tricky it works for some and for other it can make their acne worse. how long have you been on it? if you just started i would give it time to kick in and see how that goes and then if not you can always try spiro. birth control always gave me awful acne but spiro works for me thank god. also Keflex is stronger than Doxy so that might get you cleared up a lot faster as well.
On 1/23/2015 at 12:45 PM, lovedearjuliet said:My name is Allie and I've struggled with acne since I was about 8 years old. That sounds crazy, but it's true. I would get white heads and black heads, nothing too severe. When I was about 13 or 14 my acne started to become very severe. Since then I've been in and out of dermatologists and I haven't really gotten anything out of it. My new derm suggested acutane. I'm a little shakey on trying it. Has anyone used it and gotten success? My acne is so painful I cannot lay down on my cheeks. I'm desperate! I attached a picture of my acne currently so you can get a better understanding of what my acne looks like. I do not pick at it. Please help!
Accutane is a scary thing because of the side effects. Some of which may be life long.
Have you tried holistic methods like diet changes? Why don't you give it a try before going on Accutane? One thing you can do is cut out sugar from your diet for 2 weeks and see if it helps your acne