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I've been taking vitex everyday for 3 months now. Just last month I developed 3-5 painful pimples on my chin, in between my eyebrows, and on my forehead. I also have acne on my cheeks (underneath the skin type) but I notice it doesn't change at all before, during or after my period. I'm not worried about the cheeks. Just the painful pimples I'm getting elsewhere.
They wouldn't go away until I started period which was Friday May 6th. My period came early too I think and it only lasted 3-4 days which was a bit odd. Last month, it lasted 7 days which is again, odd. It seems like vitex is making things worse. I had hormonal tests done 2 months ago and they all came back normal (I was still taking vitex during this time). They said vitex starts working in 3 months.. soo I don't know if the vitex was working, balancing my hormones when I took the test or my hormones were already balanced before taking vitex?? That's what I don't know..
Anyway during the week of my period, the acne on my chin, forehead, and in between my eyebrows were starting to fade away. Just yesterday I noticed they are coming back. It will get worse until my next period starts up again.
Why is it that I clear up DURING (not before and definitely not after) my period? Should I stop taking the vitex?
I know most women have break outs before or during their periods. Why am I different? Please explain the hormones, if you can. I don't know what else to do and I definitely don't want to take BC for this issue. 
Thank you.
Hey! Back then when I came off of birth control, my acne breakouts were always at their worst around the time of ovulation. I think that's because of the rise of testosterone level during ovulation. A lot of people break out around the time of their periods because their testosterone level is higher than their estrogen level (if I am wrong please correct me! I am not that sure either). But for me, even though my estrogen level was supposed to be relatively high during the time of ovulation, that didn't help with the rise of testosterone and I would break out 
Now that I am back on birth control, my skin would look the best in the middle of the pack and look the worst during the placebo period. I think it has to do with: not having the active pills = no anti-androgen effect = a rise in testosterone again!
Hope it helps 
but I am no expert!
1 hour ago, Jennifer Cheung said:Hey! Back then when I came off of birth control, my acne breakouts were always at their worst around the time of ovulation. I think that's because of the rise of testosterone level during ovulation. A lot of people break out around the time of their periods because their testosterone level is higher than their estrogen level (if I am wrong please correct me! I am not that sure either). But for me, even though my estrogen level was supposed to be relatively high during the time of ovulation, that didn't help with the rise of testosterone and I would break out
Now that I am back on birth control, my skin would look the best in the middle of the pack and look the worst during the placebo period. I think it has to do with: not having the active pills = no anti-androgen effect = a rise in testosterone again!
Hope it helps
Thank you Jennifer! Very interesting how hormones work. Haha. Also I read vitex has an anti-androgen effect but I'm not sure. I just know it hasn't been helping me, that's for sure. So this morning I decided that I'm not going to take vitex for the next couple of days just to see how my skin will react. Pretty nervous. Wish me luck! Thanks again!
vitex helps to balance the estrogen to progesterone ratio, usually it is needed in women who are estrogen dominant to help raise progesterone which is the dominant hormone before your period. Progesterone levels drop immediately before your period, and during your period estrogen slowly begins to rise to become the dominant hormone leading up to ovulation. I think the fact that your acne comes on before your period and clears up during your period suggests you may have a progesterone problem. As progesterone finally begins to rise after vitex supplementation, it can temporarily make estrogen dominance worse as the estrogen receptors "wake up" (read this somewhere) but that this is only temporary until progesterone rises enough to become dominant over estrogen. So the vitex may just finally have risen your progesterone enough to make the estrogen dominance worse, but not enough to be dominant yet. Have you tried DIM? It can really help with hormonal acne as well.
1 hour ago, JustDifferent said:vitex helps to balance the estrogen to progesterone ratio, usually it is needed in women who are estrogen dominant to help raise progesterone which is the dominant hormone before your period. Progesterone levels drop immediately before your period, and during your period estrogen slowly begins to rise to become the dominant hormone leading up to ovulation. I think the fact that your acne comes on before your period and clears up during your period suggests you may have a progesterone problem. As progesterone finally begins to rise after vitex supplementation, it can temporarily make estrogen dominance worse as the estrogen receptors "wake up" (read this somewhere) but that this is only temporary until progesterone rises enough to become dominant over estrogen. So the vitex may just finally have risen your progesterone enough to make the estrogen dominance worse, but not enough to be dominant yet. Have you tried DIM? It can really help with hormonal acne as well.
Wow, thank you for this information! I have not heard of DIM but will gladly look into it. So do you think it's a good idea that I'm stopping vitex for a few days just to see if my chin acne clear up? Or should I just stop taking it all together? Because my periods have become irregular since I've been taking vitex. It was never like that before I started taking vitex.