I went to a dermatologist and it was basically a waste of my time. He wanted to get rid of me and simply put me on an antibiotic and that was it. He was terrible and didn't care that I've had acne since I was 12 and now I'm 21. He said "oh it's just your hormones" but I recently got a physical and they checked everything and my hormones are completely regular. Why would he just jump to this conclusion? Is there something I'm missing??
yes acne can be hormonal when your hormones are fine i have had mine tested 3 times and every time they came back normal. my derm put me on spiro last year and it was the best thing i have ever been on. most derms though dont usually like to start out with something like that before trying other alternatives first and if you are male then you cant even be on it anyway. your best bet is to get a good regimen and use it daily.
Because "normal" is relative. Doctors believe you are normal if your hormones are in a certain range of numbers, when actually it is a lot more complicated than that. It's different in every case, but it could be that even though a certain hormone (free testosterone, for example) is in the normal range, it is still too high for you personally and causes acne or other symptoms. Another case is that the ratio between the actual hormones is off (e.g. too much estrogen in relation to progesterone) even if they are both in the normal range.
Hormonal tests always came back normal for me too, but I clearly had excess androgens and estrogen. Though hormonal tests can be helpful, they don't always determine what is actually going on. I would advise finding a new derm because if your acne is hormonal, antibiotics won't help.
Some medical researchers have said that the normal ranges are off because they are partially based on sick people, not healthy people.
We spend more time researching diseases and sick people. If you were perfectly healthy, would you volunteer to get your skin pricked and your blood drawn and do invasive testing? No. Even the paid baseline studies can be skewed because they don't really pay that much. If I'm a successful lawyer who's never been to a doctor in my life, spending 5 hours in a study for $100 isn't even worth my time. Yet that would be exactly the "ideal" person that the baseline should be measuring.
But sick people volunteer to get poked and prodded for FREE all the time, hoping someone can figure out why they are unwell.
We also talk a lot about testosterone / estrogen / progesterone on here, but the endocrine system is much more complicated than that. Hormone related skin problems could be attributed to thyroid or adrenals or blood sugar or liver as well...
We also talk a lot about testosterone / estrogen / progesterone on here, but the endocrine system is much more complicated than that. Hormone related skin problems could be attributed to thyroid or adrenals or blood sugar or liver as well...
Good points, Green Gables. It's definitely more complicated, which is another reason I don't think the tests are all that much help.
I've also wondered this. There's research out there about the possibility that some people have hormones in a normal range but are hyper-sensitive or allergic to their own hormones.
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=sex+hormones+allergic+sensitivity&btnG=&hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C38
So you may have normal levels of estrogens, androgens, etc, but you could be overly sensitive to them and have a non-normal reaction- i.e. acne.
Mine also came back completely normal, had acne on face back & chest since I was 9, I'll be 30 next year and it shows no signs of easing up.
Accutane cleared it up nicely until I fell pregnant with my son 4 years ago, since then I've been on & off dianette & using clindamyacin gel & differin, although the topicals seem to have stopped working so im now back on Dianette again *sigh*
I'd love to do Accutane again but my acne isn't severe enough at the mo to get the prescription. It would be if I stopped using the dianette & topicals but I can't function when my acne is severe. Hugs to you! Xx