My acne took a turn for the worse 6 months ago and only after trying absolutely everything on my own did I go to the dermatologist.. I'm thinking your acne is hormonal as well because of where it is concentrated on your face. My dermatologist prescribed me Differin (a retinoid) and told me to keep using benzoyl peroxide. (differin at night, BP in the morning). I am also taking probiotics, I heard online that a lot of people see improvement with it. I attached a link on some blog posts I found about probiotics for hormonal acne. Personally, I noticed my skin is less clogged and I don't get diarrhea as often as I used to (TMI), but I have not been taking probiotics long enough to really speak on them-- also I've only been using differin for 2 days and its a type of product that takes months to see improvement with because it tends to make skin go through an initial "purging" phase.

I would say keep your head up and try not to lose your confidence. I am in the same boat as you, and it is incredibly depressing. Sometimes I will look in the mirror and break down crying because I hate not having control of my skin. I had perfect skin for years and now I suddenly I have hormonal acne, and no one else in my family has ever had to deal with acne. Not a lot of my friends have had to deal with it either so I get a lot of "Have you tried washing your face?" It really sucks.

Have you ever tried benzoyl peroxide?

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I used a benzoyl peroxide cream in the morning and the trentinion cream at night. The benzoyl peroxide helped with redness but it didn't really do anything other than that.

Bp is usualy a great anti inflammitory,why its should keep the red and swelling down.

i am a guy so cant talk female hormones,periods and pills etc.

i would think you could help things by adjusting your lifestyle,diet,drinking water and general hygene.clean towels and patting dry,bedding,keep fingers off face.

you should know the dos and dont with regards acne?

your young and pretty,take the time now to get this under control rather than fighting it for years.bp isnt gonna do much to stop acne,its only usefull to apply to active stuff,try not to be too reliant on it and fight it from inside diet wise.

drink plenty of water and stay away from fast food and sugar,dairy and even keep eye on meat intake (meat contains hormones)

what we wanna do here is get yourself to a blank canvas where your face is under control or at min.then build up diet and what you eat and observe your skin for obvious signs that what your eating and the skin reaction is bad or your stable.

this way you stay looking good,healthy and hopefully scar free.

I have used sodium sulfacetmide prescription cream and it had worked wonderfully...

Tretinoin cream was too harsh for my skin. You may need to try a gentler topical like sodium sulfacetamide cream which really helped with my breakouts. You could also try birth control or an antibiotic if topicals do not work.