I'm trying to get to the root cause of my acne so I can try to treat it. This is going to be pretty long and probabbly a little TMI, so sorry in advance

History- My story begins in high school. In high school I pretty much had clear skin with the exception of a few pimples here and then but nothing of concern. I started to get significantly more pimples around sophomore year of college (I'm graduating this year), which would scar. I don't know what caused that first bad breakout because around that time I wasn't extremely stressed or anything. When I went through puberty I had irregular periods but by that time in college my periods were regular so I didn't think it was hormonal. But, I did notice that I would get some big cysts round my period in addition. This continued into junior year of college. I think junior year was when it started to get really bad. I decided to see a dermatologist because of it.

The derm started me on a topical treatment of clindamycin 1%. After a month of that she switched me to a tretonin cream which made me skin extremely dry and flaky so she told me to apply it only at night. After a month of that she started me on 100mg of minocycline once a day. Then she put me on cefadroxil 500mg twice a day. That actually seemed to help and my skin because a little clearer so wee continued it for 2 months and she had me ween off it for a month by taking it once a day.

The acne started back up in the summer of junior year so I went back and she put me on an antibiotic Doxycycline but that didn't help. Nothing else helped so I stopped going to the derm.

I don't know if the location of my pimples would be helpful to know but i usually get pimples on one side of my face at a time. There will be days to a week where I get a pimple on the left side of my face only and then the next day there will be no new pimples on that side but new ones on the right side of my face. Also I get consistent ones (like almost exactly in the same spot) on my cheekbones and in the middle of my cheeks.

I thought it was clearing up recently because there were 2 weeks where I did not get a single new pimple but then I got 3 days before my period I had 3 big whiteheads. I thought it was due to my period but since my period passed I've been getting new pimples everyday again.

Sorry again for the super long post but I just don't know what to do anymore. Is it hormonal acne, could going on birth control help control it? I know its probabbly not my diet because I barely consume dairy (only milk in my coffee) and my sugar intake is normal. Please I would appreciate any help or advice, I'm really struggling at this point.