At 27 I woke up with insane cystic acne a few months ago. After trying Atralin, Clindagel and Aczone about 2 weeks ago I finally I went on 55mg of solodyn, lo loestrin birth control and 50mg of spiro a day. I e-mailed my dermatologist and asked about increasing my spironolactone based on some things I've read on this forum and elsewhere-- like that you should be taking spiro twice a day exactly 12 hours apart. I asked if I could increase to 100mg and she told me to go ahead but didn't specify if I should take it all at once or split up during the day. How do you take your spiro? Should I be taking it in two doses? I'm a little scared to up the dosage for fear of side effects-- how long did you wait before you went from 50 mg to 100 mg? I also have read that lo loestrin is a high androgen bc so I am going to ask my gyno to put me on something else. I am also wondering if I should go to an endocrinologist for testing now that I'm on spiro or if they won't be able to see my correct hormone levels because the spiro is blocking the androgens? My gynecologist tested my hormone levels and said they were all normal but I know this acne is hormonal and my derm agrees and says that not all abnormalities show up on a blood test so she put me on spiro anyway. It's too soon to tell if it's working but I think it's starting to....

I seriously went from clear skin to this seemingly overnight. The crazy thing is that it only got worse after Atralin and Clindagel--- I thought that maybe the topicals caused this but the derm said no way.--- it's like this on both sides of my face and then i have cystic nodules and pustules on my forehead but only 2 or 3.