Hi all,

I am a new member, but I have been lurking for years.

I would like to get everyone's opinion on deciding what to do next for my mild acne that I know for a fact is hormonal. Yasmin or SP for the rest of my life or the nucleer bomb that is called accutane once and for all? Which one is the lesser of the evils?

Here's my story:

I am a 25 year old female who had been battling with mild persistant acne(always a few deep cysts present, along with a few surface acne) since 18. I have exhausted all sorts of topicals, including retin-A. Nothing cleared me up, until Yasmin 2 years ago.

Yasmin was like a magic pill to me. Cleared up my skin, regulated my oil production while still keeping my skin supple, enlarged my breasts and helped with the body hair growth(I also have always been a slightly "hairy" girl. I'm Mediterreanean) with little to no side effects. No depression, only a few kgs of weight gain that I managed to diet off, no nausea, nothing!

However, I decided to go off Yasmin 1.5 years later to see if my skin would stay clear. I got scared off of the long-term side effects. I did not want to pump estrogen into my body for 25 more years! I already have fibroadenom cysts on my breasts. My mother has been through an ovarian cancer, while my aunt from my dad's side suffered through a breast cancer.

My acne returned to its previous condition in 3 months. I've decided to go on accutane, aware of its potential side effects. I'm on my 3rd week of accutane right now, 30mg a day. My skin is optimally dry, lips are very manageable, eyes are noticably dry. No pain anywhere yet. My acne is at its worst with 3-4 cysts, lots of post-acne redness and major whiteheads-blackheads breaking out around my jaw, but it's still mild ot moderate. However, my teeth are going crazy. The visit to the dentist was frustrating. I had a few cavities I've been postponing to get checked, they have accelerated. I might even have gotten new ones. Previously seemingly healthy teeth now needs fillings.

Now, my teeth(and bones) are weak to begin with(I disliked and avoided dairy since I was a child). I've read about people getting a few extra cavities AFTER the whole course of accutane. But at this rate, I'm really worried that I'll lose my beautiful teeth while trying to ward off mild acne. And getting a few scars from this IB in the process! I am seriously considering quitting accutane.

I have recently bought supplements including multivits without A, fish oil caps, milk thistle and calcium. Do you think calcium supplements coupled with religious brushing would be able to prevent accutane's damage?

And lastly, Saw Palmetto is something I haven't tried before, but believe it would help. I am very tempted to just drop accutane and go try that. What concerns me is that there isn't really a research on its long term use. I am not sure if lifelong use of SP would be worse than 6 months of accutane overall.

People using SP, how long do you plan to use it? Is it better to just go on Yasmin or SP and deal with the long-term side effects when they do come into play? Do you think SP is easier on the body than a BCP?