Hi all!
For the past little while I have been reading other's posts with their acne struggle, and I have been so impressed with the community and support that I thought I would try my own! So I'm going (try) and do long story short, but it may just end up long story long! If you don't want to read it all, I won't be offended if you just skip to the end
I first started getting acne when I was in 6th grade, and by 8th grade it was awful. I started on a topical and antibiotic (I believe it was differin and doxy) but nothing was doing anything. By grade 9, I was put on accutane. At first, my body could not handle the dose that I was on, so I went off of it. A few months later, I went back on a very low dose... and this became the start of my prolonged battle with accutane. For about four years (I know, super unusual!) I was on about 40mg of accutane 2x/week (typical dose between 40-80mg daily!) I was also on multiple different birth controls over these four years (but was not sexually active). Every time I went off of accutane for periods of time, I would break out and my skin was awful (cysts, never ending pimples, blackheads, and viciously oily skin). I told myself at the start of my sophomore year in college, I would give accutane one more go. I was paired with a birth control, and I broke out completely in perioral dermatitis (a cross between acne and eczema). My skin had never been worse. I immediately went cold turkey on accutane and swore that would be the last and final time I would use it. I was then put on doxy which within a few months, cleared the pd. However, in January of my junior year in college, my doc put me on spirnolactone. After about 3 months, I loved the results I was seeing! In June of that year, I decided to go off of it (I can't really tell you why) and by September of my senior year of college, my skin was terrible all over again. Starting in September, I was put on spirno once again, and without results by November my doc also put me on doxy and a topical tretinoin. I am happy to say, come January of my senior year, my skin is good, but not great. I typically only have 1-3 pimples at a time, but my face is still very sensitive and has red marks all over my lower cheeks/jawline/neck, but is also still very oily.
So this brings me to present day. I am satisfied with my current regimen. I take 100mg of doxy 2x/daily (200mg total) and I believe I am on 100mg of spirno 1x/daily. I use my tretinoin gel at night before bed. In the morning, I wash with an oil control cetaphil cleanser, and at night i use panoxyl face wash (10% bp).
I am in a serious relationship and we are planning on getting engaged in the next few months and be married in summer of 2018.
I've been on doxy close to 4 months, and am nervous my body is starting to reject it or the effect is starting to wear off. My questions are: what should I do once doxy fully wears off? How long can I stay on spirno for? I still get occasional breakouts, but I'm nervous that going off of doxy was make my face completely break out and all my progress will be lost. I am 21 and have been struggling with acne since I was 12. Needless to say I am SO done. My boyfriend who has porcelain skin doesn't get it, and I feel as though people who have had acne (so people reading this) will be the only ones who truly knows how depressing and dark it can be to walk through this.
Does anyone have any suggestions for what to try after doxy? How long can I stay on spirno? Will that also start to wear off? What are some long term treatments I can use?? (my goal is to have clear skin consistently by my wedding in a year and a half! Which seems like a long ways a way, but in acne treatment world, isn't that far away!)
Any suggestions will be truly appreciated (especially after this long story long)! Thanks for your help in advance!
I'm sorry you've been through such an exhausting battle with your skin. Since Spiro helped clear the acne more effectively than the other treatments, my best guess is that it's hormonally fueled acne. Maybe your free or total T levels are too high, in which case Spiro would help lower them and in turn reduce your acne.
Have you ever had lab work done? If not, get it done ASAP. You'll be able to determine if you have PCOS, which I suspect you might. And if you have other issues, like elevated adrenal androgens, there are solutions for that besides Spironolactone.
There is no set rule for how long you can take Spiro...however, based on my research from this site it seems Spiro can cause imbalances down the road. It makes sense, if you think about it: the medicine is basically making you more estrogenic, and this could potentially trigger a state of estrogen dominance (and different kinds of breakouts) years down the road. That's why you def need to get to the root of exactly what is going on so you can figure out how to treat this.