Hi

First, relax. You'll think clearer if you aren't panicked. Assuming you don't want a child now, taking emergency contraception was a good choice.

I understand your concern about breaking out, but you have to remember that anything you would take to "lessen absorption" or "counteract the hormones" (as you say) would actually reduce the effectiveness of the Plan B pill. You basically have to choose which unwanted scenario you want to deal with- do you want a child or some acne?

I'd have to assume you're more concerned about having a child, and so in order to make sure that Plan B has the best chance of working you do not want to take ANYTHING out of your usual routine that would affect your hormones. You'll just have to ride out any breakouts you may get, if you even get one at all.

Next time make your BF have some condoms handy in case things start to heat up and you find you both are ready to go. It's generally the man's job to be prepared in this sense.

Good luck.

This happened to me around three weeks ago. We were using a condom but it broke. I took Plan B about 10 hours later. I have to say I did experience a small break out (maybe like 5 or 6 spots on my chin), but it was nothing major and cleared within the first week. It also made me extremely tired for a couple of days, kinda like I had the flu.

I was panicking too after what I read online, I'd suggest you don't read it anymore. If you think about it, how many women worldwide take Plan B everyday? I would bet a hell of a lot. I think the people who say they break out for months after are very, very rare cases and I doubt that Plan B alone caused it.

I'd suggest keeping your diet clean and drinking lots of water, but apart from that, don't stress because it'll make things worse. And use protection next time!

If you need to talk about anything, send me a message

You can continue taking spiro on Plan B, just like you can take spiro with birth control. Plan B is just a huge dose of Levonorgestrel, which is a synthetic progestin used in many birth control pills. Spiro does not interfere with it. Your androgen levels have very little to do with conception.

I wouldn't up your spiro, though, because too high of a dose can have negative side effects and may even make your acne worse. Spiro is all about consistency at the right dose, so I wouldn't increase it because you're panicking right now.

The best thing you can do is stay on the same dose, and get a TOPICAL antibiotic from your dermatologist to lessen the inflammation until Plan B has run its course. Do NOT get an antibiotic PILL, because antibiotic pills CAN weaken your birth control.

I took Plan B about a year ago and I really wish I didn't have to. That being said though, I didn't get severe acne afterwards - never had cystic acne in my life, and it wasn't like complete pizza face. But it did give me quite a few spots for the next few months, and I think my hormone levels have been a little off ever since. I used to have super regular periods but then afterward it was kind of all over the place.

I agree with sorbet - stop reading things online. I made the mistake of reading other forums/threads like this one about Plan B and hearing all those horror stories...plus I started getting scared when I didn't get my period when I was supposed to - altogether this adds a LOT of stress and can make your skin worse. I'm sure a lot of my spots during that time were stress-induced, especially when I spent a lot of time berating myself for putting myself in the position to have to use Plan B and ruining my skin even more than when I had more severe acne.

You did the right thing to get the emergency contraceptive. If I had to choose with dealing with a bit of acne or a child, I feeeeeel like I might actually choose the acne.

Thanks for the responses everyone, made me feel better:) Reading things online totally freaked me out and I should have just taken the pill and not gone searching for things to upset me! I just hate the thought of the few weeks I've been dealing with this IB from spiro being for nothing.

So I have calmed down a lot since yesterday. And yes, being safe and not getting pregnant is most important so I will just deal with the consequences. I'll let you guys know if I end up breaking out badly or not. So far I don't notice a difference, but it's only been a day. Crossing fingers that by some miracle I won't notice any difference from the plan B. :-/

I'm going to my derm to see if she'll prescribe a topical antibiotic to help me get through whatever might be coming...

Just FYI, it didn't take long but my skin is now out of control again. I'm really frustrated but doing my best to be patient with the plan b hormones getting out of my system and the spiro doing it's thing. I swear, the acne I've experienced in the past year has aged me 5 years. Sigh.

I've taken Plan B twice and both times I didn't see any effects on my skin, although I have hormonal acne. My skin was just the same as before.

And FYI, Plan B isn't a good form of birth control at all - the medical community isn't even entirely sure how it works, but it seems that the large amount of progesterone in plan B prevents or delays ovulation. Which means that if you have already ovulated when you take it, it doesn't do anything. The percentage for preventing pregnancy (90% or whichever) they state for plan B is actually really misleading, because unlike with other forms of birth control (where the figure means the likelihood of not getting pregnant during a year of using this method), it merely states the likelihood of not getting pregnant after one unprotected intercourse and then taking plan B. That figure doesn't take into account that most of the time you're not in a fertile stage to begin with. I remember doing some background research after taking it and I found a figure that it actually only prevented about a half of the number of expected pregnancies. Which would make sense assuming it just prevents ovulation - the efficiency of plan B is entirely based on the timing of your cycle and if you take plan B right after ovulation, it may not help and you could still end up pregnant. So from now on, use it if necessary but remember that it's not comparable to other 'valid' forms of birth control.

Wow, I had no idea, Austra. The information I've heard makes it seem like Plan B stops a sperm and egg that have come in contact from creating a viable pregnancy, at least that's how I imagined it. Sounds like that's not at all how it works. In any case, my boyfriend and I have agreed that we will be careful because I do not want to resort to Plan B again.

The good is news is that, for whatever reason, I think I'm clearing up. I noticed a bad breakout this weekend with everything peaking yesterday, but no new pimples since yesterday morning. It may be too soon to speak, but I'm thinking either the Plan B didn't hit me as hard as I thought it would, or that the Spiro I've been taking helped block the effect on my skin.

Also, yesterday I said screw it to trying only 25 mg/day of Spiro and moved to the 50mg/day that I was prescribed. Impatience got me. :-/ But I figure I'd likely need that dose anyway and didn't want to waste anymore time while my skin was a mess.

I had no idea either until one of my close friends got pregnant despite taking plan B years ago. I actually doubted her words to begin with, because it seemed so unbelievable she could get pregnant despite using a condom (which had broken) and then taking plan B. But she's kept to that story for years, and it must have really happened. Since then I once had homework to find the mechanisms for different forms of birth control, where I found out that plan B "only" prevents ovulation, as far as they know. They don't really know if levonorgestrel could have other mechanisms for preventing pregnancy as well, but I wouldn't count on it. When I had to take plan B myself, I wanted to look into it more and finally found a figure somewhere that it prevents just half the number of expected pregnancies, and that really took some digging. Even though overall the likelihood of getting pregnant after taking plan B is still very low as getting pregnant in the first place isn't that easy.

I would definitely recommend taking plan B if you're uncertain, but just don't skip regular birth control and think you can make up for it later by taking plan B.

Just wanted to update this to say that my acne became about 25% worse after taking Plan B. Not good, but not the nightmare I was fearing.

I was still getting pretty frustrated, but over the past couple of days I've started to feel a bit clearer. I've been eating only fruits, vegetables, meat/fish, raw organic honey and a few other natural things - absolutely no processed foods. It's helping but I don't think it's sustainable. I also have continued taking the 50mg/day of spiro that I started mid-Sept.

Over the past two days I haven't had any new cysts but have had some new whiteheads and bumps. No new cysts is amazing for me though. I'm giving myself until the end of the year before I expect any long-term clearing. Not getting my hopes up until then.

Just wanted to update this to say that my acne became about 25% worse after taking Plan B. Not good, but not the nightmare I was fearing.

I was still getting pretty frustrated, but over the past couple of days I've started to feel a bit clearer. I've been eating only fruits, vegetables, meat/fish, raw organic honey and a few other natural things - absolutely no processed foods. It's helping but I don't think it's sustainable. I also have continued taking the 50mg/day of spiro that I started mid-Sept.

Over the past two days I haven't had any new cysts but have had some new whiteheads and bumps. No new cysts is amazing for me though. I'm giving myself until the end of the year before I expect any long-term clearing. Not getting my hopes up until then.

Progestogens like plan B neutralize estrogen. Since estrogen neutralizes testosterone you are essentially leaving testosterone unopposed to stimulate sebum production and of course acne.

The other problem for some women is that estrogen stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. When estrogen is opposed by a progestogen you loose the stimulating effects of estrogen and feel very tired/fatigued.

Just wanted to update this to say that my acne became about 25% worse after taking Plan B. Not good, but not the nightmare I was fearing.

I was still getting pretty frustrated, but over the past couple of days I've started to feel a bit clearer. I've been eating only fruits, vegetables, meat/fish, raw organic honey and a few other natural things - absolutely no processed foods. It's helping but I don't think it's sustainable. I also have continued taking the 50mg/day of spiro that I started mid-Sept.

Over the past two days I haven't had any new cysts but have had some new whiteheads and bumps. No new cysts is amazing for me though. I'm giving myself until the end of the year before I expect any long-term clearing. Not getting my hopes up until then.

Progestogens like plan B neutralize estrogen. Since estrogen neutralizes testosterone you are essentially leaving testosterone unopposed to stimulate sebum production and of course acne.

The other problem for some women is that estrogen stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system. When estrogen is opposed by a progestogen you loose the stimulating effects of estrogen and feel very tired/fatigued.

Thanks, that definitely helps explain some things. I find the whole hormone thing very confusing.

Just out of curiosity, Ive heard you can take 4 pills of certain BCP and it will act as emergency contraceptive. Since BCP contains estrogen, would this be a safer option for the skin? Again, this is just curiosity as I plan to NEVER put myself in this position again!

For those that are interested, I have one cyst on my face right now (plus one tiny one thats been there for ages and will likely take forever to completely heal), and about 5 that are healing on my back. I also have about 10 regular pimples on my face (pretty small ones). This is pretty amazingly good considering where I started in September. Im about 2 months on Spiro 50 mg/day. I'm not 100% certain, but I do feel it has helped negate some of Plan B's effects.