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KELLY!
I TOTALLY UNDERSTAND YOU... i've mentioned this in a post before, but seriously, spiro totally messed me up. my acne was just on my cheeks before spiro, and then it started erupting ALL OVER MY FACE ESPECIALLY MY JAWLINE when i got on spiro and then even MORE when i upped to 200 mg.
seriously, i stayed at home ALL THE TIME. i didn't go to classes, i didn't go out, i didn't go to my family's christmas parties, i didn't go ANYWHERE.
i was in pretty bad depression too, bc of my face. i know, it's silly to be depressed because of superficial things when there are so many worse things that could be happening, but I DIDN"T CARE CUZ I SERIOSULY just wanted to rip my face apart (sorry about the graphic psycho-ness, but this is truly how i felt at that moment). i cried soooooo much...
SO... finally i quit spiro. it was ridiculous. i mean, i would stick with it if it even made my acne SOMEWHAT improved, but the way i saw it, it was just getting worse and worse each day... the shape of my face was changing because it was so swollen (because of the flare ups on my face). my jawline was RIDICULOUS.
it's been almost a month since i've quit... i'm very clear. soooo weird, i know, but no new zits no where. i'm confused too, but yeah... maybe i'm allergic to spiro. i think its a pretty dangerous drug if it doesn't fit you, cuz it was just awful for me. anyways, this is not to say that you should quit, as i hear it takes a while before it starts really kicking in. i'm just posting to let you know that you're not alone... i totally understand how you feel, and hope you hang in there.
Gosh,do you really think it could be a reaction to the combo of spiro and CP in dianette?I would go to the doc and ask for a hormone test but i very much doubt that he'd do that and also i'm literally hiding out here at home and i don't want to leave the house looking like this
The hormone test i had will have been useless because with me being on dianette that obviously gave the results of high SBHG and low androgens.But i can't understand why dianette wouldn't still be making my skin clear if they are the results!!!!!!!
I've lowered my spiro dosage today to 150mg so i'll see how that goes.I'll give the spiro until it's third month but if it's till not improving my skin then,then i'd have to stop.If it is a reaction or not combining well with the dianette then the acne would calm down after i'd stopped it,wouldn't it?
Could it be an initial breakout?
Well,it just seems to be even worse now Now the spots are coming in every part of my face;i'd been able to hang onto a couple of nearly clear areas and now the spots are there!!!!!!I'm so,so scared it might just keep getting worse and i didn't think it could get any worse than this!
I'm also really scared about this;what if i'm forced to stop the spiro because it's doing this and when i'm off it,my skin just stays this bad?!What if it causes a permenant change to my hormones in a bad way?!Could it do that?!But then i see it was all right for you,audrey,when you stopped it so hopefully it would be ok.But what if it makes it worse even if i stop it?!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm still hoping it'll work though.I've been having this hell of a breakout for a week but it seems like ages!
I didn't say in the other post;thanks for your support audrey in your post
I'm really not sure i can last much longer!!!!!!
Kelly, spiro (unlike androcur) doesn't contain hormones. It has a mechanism that lowers androgens, but is not a hormone per se, so don't worry about that. You've only been 1 and a half month on it, so it's normal to keep breaking out, not everybody reacts fast to the medication. I've been exactly one month on spiro, I think it is getting better, but yesterday I got a new pimple. Of course I freaked out... But I try not too obsess about it too much. The full results are to be seen at around 4 months. So I have 3 more to go. For questions I recommend you this website:
www.hormonehelpny.com
They have a section for acne and also a section called question of the week where lots of spiro-related questions are answered.
Good luck, hope everything is better now.
I have been to that website,and yeah it's very good.I recommend people on spiro or any hormone drug to have a look there
I know i'm only 6 weeks into it and i do expect to still be breaking out at this point;just i wish i hadn't broken out as bad!!!!!!This breakout is much worse than i normally get off spiro so it's not just the continuing to breakout at the moment that bothers me,it's the breaking out a hell of a lot worse than normal breakouts
Hi Kelly
How long have you been on Diane?
I was on it for almost 3 plus years and it did nothing
but cause more breakouts for me.
It was only when I went off it did I see an improvement in my skin.
I know that sounds weird, but I guess something in the Diane
didn't agree with my acne.
Now...as far a Spiro goes...it has been a wonder for me.
I am just wondering if you end up being on it for the rest of
your life.. .and if it helps on a permanent basis.
I fear what will happen when/if I ever go off it!
I've been on dianette for over 5 years.It worked fantastically in the beginning,really cleared my skin but then the acne came back afew months later while i was still on it.It didn't make my acne worse though;i don't know how it'd be if i wasn't on it,maybe it still helps to some degree so i wouldn't come off it unless i was going to try another BC pill for my skin.It did cause a massive breakout initially though so hopefully it's the same with spiro and hopefully spiro can clear my skin too
I think women can take spiro long term so you'll probably just keep taking spiro to keep your skin clear.If you have to have a break for your body you always know you can go back on spiro.If you stopped the acne would probably return;but no worries,i think you can probably just stay on it.
I hope my skin clears and it works for me too!!!!!!
It's hard to say really.My chest has cleared up alot and i think my face is slightly better but i wouldn't swear to that yet My chest does seem much better though so i think it's because i lowered the dose.My chest never normally breaks out at all so it was definetely the 200mg that made it do so!!!!!
I'm hoping that it's calming down from the breakout but i'm really not sure yet;it's too early to say.New spots are still coming,and more spots than usual still,but there are many red marks from last week too.My chin and forehead are breaking out more than usual still also;and i know that it's spiro that has caused spots to come on my forehead because they came when i first went up to 150mg and i hardly ever got spots there anymore before spiro.
I'm still really not happy,but i'll see if it's calming down now i've lowered the dosage;hope so
I really don't know how much longer i can handle this!!!!!!! I'm just plodding on day by day,still hiding away.On one hand i feel since i lowered the dosage my skin has gotten a little better but then again this week i now have loads of spots on my forehead and chin and before spiro my forehead had been clear for ages!
Spiro is defientely causing me to breakout worse than before spiro.I'll give it a couple of more weeks until i get into the third month,but if it's not clearing then i'd have to stop.It's hard enough just getting by.I lowered the dosage and it got abit better than last week,so if i stopped the spiro it should get better again.But then i think that obviously spiro is doing something to my hormones.It's causing breakouts and if this is just an initial thing while my hormones are adjusting then it could work the other way and clear my skin once and for all.It's very difficult to know it's just making it worse at the moment though.
I'm supposed to have a date with my childhood sweetheart next week,whom i haven't seen for ages!!!!!If it's still bad,i'll have to cancel;maybe postpone until i've either got off the spiro and it's better;or hopefully when my skin is alot better because the spiro is working!!!!!
I'll expect it to not be good this week and next week but then i'm not sure how much further i could go
Kelly
... have you ever thought it is the Diane that is causing you to break out...
since it never really cleared your face in the first place...
As soon as I went off Diane...my skin cleared.
I am talking, my face, back, arms, chest...totally cleared up!~
(I then went onto another BC-which is the cause of my acne now...
and is a totally different story...)
but when I went of Diane...
my skin was better.
just a thought
Kelly
... have you ever thought it is the Diane that is causing you to break out...
since it never really cleared your face in the first place...
As soon as I went off Diane...my skin cleared.
I am talking, my face, back, arms, chest...totally cleared up!~
(I then went onto another BC-which is the cause of my acne now...
and is a totally different story...)
but when I went of Diane...
my skin was better.
just a thought
Kelly, if you're so worried about what's going on, why don't you go to your doctor? I think a gyno would be better than a derm, maybe you could get your hormones tested. I really hope you get over this soon. About Diane, you have been taking it for quite a while (I think) so maybe that's not the problem. Diane is one of the best birth control pills to control acne.
Oracle, my doctor told me that the minimum efective dose is 100mg. But maybe your derm wants you to start slow. How severe is your acne? I'm at 150mg, 5th week. There is some improvement, my face is way less oily, my breakouts go away faster, but full results are to be seen after 3-6 months. Good luck, keep us posted.
Thanks for the suggestions ladies but it's definetely not dianette causing this.I've been on dianette for over 5 years and in the beginning it did work.It completely cleared my skin after afew months,it really was amazing,but afew months later the acne came back,although never as severe.
I can't speak to my doctor about this because i bought it over the internet.My doctor and derm wouldn't perscribe it and said that they don't know anything about it treating acne so they would be no help.I'm on 150mg now because 200mg was making me breakout even worse!
I'm losing the will to live with this at the moment One minute i think it's better than last week and the next i think it's worse!
I think i'm experiencing afew side-effects of spiro too;today i feel really tired,i've got a banging headache,i feel nauseus and i've got a really nasty taste in my mouth like it's really dry.Bleurgh!!!!!!!
Kelly,
I think, like some of the others have mentioned, that you may be allergic to the Spiro. The severe worsening of your acne coupled with the side effects you are mentioning doesn't sound good at all. I know you want to give it a chance and all, but...my advice would be to stop taking it right away or find a doctor that is knowledgable about Spiro/acne treatment and get in to see him/her right away. My thoughts are with you and I wish you luck.
is buying drugs off the internet safe?
How do you know you are really taking spironolactone?
what if the stuff you had is expired....or heaven forbid the
wrong medicaiton?
I would try to find a doctor to discuss these issues with you.
He or she would know right away if you were allergic.
side note: thought I would bump up my own medication
to 200mg...just to see if my skin got even better...
it broke out!...very minor...but I did.
gone back to the 100mg and no problems...
more medication is not always better.
kelley...
i'm so sorry to hear that spiro is not working still... reading your posts reminds me of when i was on spiro. does spiro cause depression? cuz i kept crying and crying, sometimes getting furiously angry, my parents totally thought i was going psycho.
anyways, this is what i think... from what i read on the posts, most of the ppl who found success on spiro seem to have SOME kind of upward improvement towards being clear within the first month or so. if they did get the initial breakout, it wasn't as FRIGHTENING as we have experienced it (i.e. MASSIVE breakout on jawline that connects to each other to make a huge big blob of a zit that covers the face). oh and wtf, i NEVER got zits on my forehead, but there were like, 8 cysts there.
i started on 100 mg (cuz my derm prescribed it to me like that) and then i upped to 200mg by myself, which totally pissed them off. the team (of four doctors) lectured me about how dangerous it was to do that, and how it could hurt my kidneys (or was it liver?).
i stopped the whole spiro thing at 6 weeks. i wanted to keep going, but i couldn't take it anymore. i thought i was seriously going through some major depression and was afraid my face would leave some permanent psychological damage.
KELLEY~ i know it's hard... i took pictures every few days of my face while on spiro, cuz i was SO hopeful that it would CURE me. i really thought this would give me clear skin, so i was excited to track my progress (so i could see the before and after). i look back those pics, and day 1 of spiro is seriously SO CLEAR compared to where i ended up.
after a few days after i quit spiro, no more new huge cysts formed. so all that was left was just the healing process to begin.
so, whether you decided to stay on it or quit, i wish you the best and hope you pull through. my honest opinion? quit.... spiro TOTALLY screwed me up... my "day 1 on spiro" picture had a few zits on my cheeks. everything thereafter, just looks plain... HIDEOUS.
now, i'm clearing up... thank goodness. but the sad truth is, acne comes SO quickly- overnight- but takes forever to heal. i'm so tired of fighting against it... plain exhausted. tired of taking meds, tired of lurking in the acne section at drugstores, tired of throwing money at any and every product/doctor/procedure that promises clear skin, tired of researching online on acne, tired of haunting sephora for AHA/BHAs... no more.
once again, this is NOT to discredit what others said about their successes with spiro- the ppl who seemed to benefit from it seemed to have decreased oil production, etc, etc, but i didn't even get that effect. i'm just saying spiro is NOT the solution for ppl who are "allergic" to it, like me, so take it with caution.
I hear what you're all saying but for some reason i just can't bring myself to quit at this stage.I've been taking it for nearly 7 weeks so what's afew more weeks to just see if this does pass?I don't know because everyday is extremely difficult to get through so afew more weeks would be hell if it's still like this;i mean the worse times are getting ready for bed when i have to wash off my make-up and see my face,and also when i wake up in the morning i just feel dread that i have to get through another day like this.There have been many times in the last couple of weeks when i've looked in the mirror and just cried that i'm quitting but then i decide not to because there's still a chance this is just an initial breakout.
I think i'm going to give it at least another 3 weeks.That takes me to week 10 and i'll see what it's like then.There should be some improvement by then if there's going to be,don't you think?Or at least some indication that it's going to get better soon?
I'm not sure that i am allergic because for the first 4 weeks taking it,it wasn't as bad as this.But then again i suppose it wouldn't have really gotten into my system at that point.
I can always quit the spiro in afew weeks if it's no better.It should go back to how it was before the spiro if i quit, shouldn't it?
Audrey;your skin got better when you stopped the spiro didn't it?
So basically if i can last afew more weeks(hell,i know.What am i doing to myself?! ),i'll either stop and my skin should go back to how it was before spiro;or
it could be better because it's working.
Also i do trust that the tablets i'm taking are spiro because Pankins on this board takes exactly the same pills,from the same online pharmacy and her skin has cleared from them.I've discussed how the pills look and smell with her to compare mine with hers and she says that they sound exactly the same.
Also, i don't feel ill today
Acnehater;i read your thread about yasmin clearing you and you said that you had three weeks of hell in the first two months.Did the initial breakout start too clear up as soon as you went into the third month?Also how bad was the initial breakout?
Hi!
I'm on day 15 with Spiro (100mg w/ BC Mircette) and I notice my face is getting very dry. But my chest and back still break out the same. Will this work on all body acne or only effect the skin on the face? I find it odd that the skin on my face is changing, but not the rest.
Thanks,
PoftheU
