Acne.org Products
I will be 26 at the end of the month and have had acne for more than half of my life now. BP, Tazorac, Bactrim, bla bla bla, I have done them all! The severity of my acne is increasing as I get older into more cysts and nodules which are scarring me. Here is my current regimen:
Morning - Dan's BP all over
Night - Tazorac .1 gel
Diet: Low glycemic load, anti-inflammatory, no dairy, no gluten, no grains, plenty of healthy fats like coconut oil, no sugar, grass fed meat, veggies, minimal fruits.
Exercise: NONE; If I start exercising or lifting weights again, I get nodules on my upper neck and jaw area. Not fair.
Even doing ALL of that, I still am not clear and am not happy with my face. Cysts still break through. I also hate that routine and want to just stop worrying about my face. I am thinking that I have hormonal acne (is there honestly any acne that isn't hormonal?)
I don't see hormonal acne talked about much for guys but from what I did find, the protocol worries me. I have a nice head of hair (all of my friends are bald and clear and honestly I think i'd prefer going bald over having acne) but I don't want to be bald and have acne. I am also worried about the sexual side effects of the herbs listed to treat hormonal acne in men.
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results."
For the past 8 years as I got serious with treatment, I kept thinking the next treatment would clear me or that just adding a bit more BP or cutting out a few more foods would clear me. I now realize that it is never going to happen and I have been an absolute idiot for thinking it would. I SHOULD have gone on Accutane years ago but certain threads on this forum scared me off.
I am now deciding between Accutane and going the herbal route to balance my hormones. I know Accutane will clear me (for at least a certain amount of time) but the herbal route seems like certain. I am really going for certainty at this point as I do not want to be still breaking out a year from now experimenting with something else.
I guess what I really want is for guys on here that have used supplements like saw palmetto and found that it cleared them. Any information would be great to help me make my decision.
I tried S.P. for a couple weeks not long enough for it to really help with my acne but it definitely lowered my libido so I quit taking it.
That's exactly what I want to avoid. Seems like it's not even worth it for men to try and balance their hormones with supplements. I see you are back on Accutane. How did the first course go?
My first course went great completely cleared me up. It just slowly started coming back after a while then got pretty bad again. I have very oily skin though and a month after my first course I had to deploy over seas to Afghanistan so I couldnt maintain my skin well at all. Now as far as when I tried S.P. the side effects went away right after I stopped taking it. But I agree there doesnt seem to be a good way for men.
The libido effect seems to be more closely tied to high doses of saw palmetto and beta-sitosterol specifically, you could try other anti-androgens that work through slightly different mechanisms, such as stinging nettle, pygeum, and pumpkin seed oil.
You could also try TOPICAL spironolactone, which is safe for men. It is available over the counter at this website. Its original use was for hairloss, but it is perfectly safe to use on your face. It may not be as "preventative" as an oral solution, but it also won't systemically affect your hormones as much either, if you're worried about any possible loss of libido or whatever.
Lastly, you can search for information on progesterone supplementation for men. If you're low in progesterone, adding progesterone will have a regulatory effect on your other hormones. This may be more of what you're looking for, if you don't want to lower testosterone directly, but want something that helps your body figure out how to regulate itself.
Men can use natural USP progesterone cream, or you can also use progesterone-inducing herbs such as vitex agnus castus. Don't use a progesterone pill (body loses most of it through the liver) or wild yam cream (body isn't capable of converting wild yam into progesterone).
Another male user on here recently reported their experience with the topical spironolactone I linked you to:
I took Greengables advice and decided to try the S5 cream. It has made a huge difference for me no doubt. i decided to try it for a while and noticed my skin all over looked good using it but I was unsure if it was just the supplements I was taking or if the cream was truly helping. I ran out of the cream for about 5 days and all of the sudden my skin broke out bad. I immediately order some more and after I started using it again, everything started calming down and there have rarely been new ones. While this cream is fairly expensive, i would definitely recommend trying it. I have order 4 more containers just to make sure I dont run out any time soon.