It is a myth that you HAVE to be on bc to do accutane. There is an abstinence option but you have to be responsible and not have sex and get pregnant. On my last course i did not do BC. Accutane should be used after you have exhausted your other options so if you have tried BC, topicals, spiro and dietary/lifestyle changes, accutance may be the next best thing

Good Luck

Women on the medication take mandatory pregnancy tests each month (two, one in a clinic), and have to take two forms of birth control at the same time. Or, they can pledge to "abstain from intercourse for one month prior to treatment, during treatment and for one month after treatment has ended." Every month patients must repledge the two forms of birth control they are using. Those who get pregnant anyway must "agree to be queried by an agent of iPLEDGE."

Hey everyone,

this is my first time posting but i have been reading these messages boards for years. I've had acne since i was 12 or so, It was a nightmare in the beginning and now over ten years later my skin is almost worse than when it started. I'm kind of at a loss right now as I feel i've tried every option i can and It never goes away permanently..

a little background: I suffered pretty severe acne all over my face until I was 14, I got put on birth control (othotricyclen) with some topicals/antibiotics which initially helped my skin a lot. Over the next few years I went through periods of having pretty clear skin, to moderate acne, and some periods where it was severe again. I tried going off birth control my juinor year of high school for about 6 months and my skin broke out so bad I couldn't handle it, I caved and went back on bc (yaz this time, which I stayed on up until a year and a half ago)

My senior year of high school I started taking spironolactone (50 mg 2x/day) and in conjunction with birth control, my skin remained at least 75-80% clear.

The problem is birth control killed my sex drive, made me anxious and depressed, and caused a ten to fifteen pound weight gain and crazy fluctuations in water retention. I stopped taking it a year and a half ago and remained on the spiro. Acne aside, I feel great and I am adamant on not going back on it.

I experienced no initial breakouts from stopping birth control. The only strange thing that happend is I went a little over a year without getting a period. I am now getting a regular period however now it comes every 2.5-3 months instead of every 4 weeks which can be a pain, but really i don't mind it too much. Ever since I got my period back regularly though, my skin has become progressively worse, and just recently (in the last month or so) it has EXPLODED...and unlike anything ive seen before, I have acne everywhere and primarily under my skin and on my neck. Its huge and cystic and painful, and it just keeps coming. I can't cover it with makeup.

I saw my derm today and she put me on doxycycline to just try and calm it. I'm still taking spiro 100 mg/day. She agrees with my decision to not go back on bc, my reasoning with her was that if this is my body still trying to adjust to being off the birth control after so many years, I dont want to go back on it for another 10+ years and experience the same situation. I dont want to prolong the inevitable. the only thing is, I don't know how long this is going to last.

she mentioned if things dont calm down that we could try accutane, but i need to be on birth control with that too and it probably wont clear me for good because my acne is pretty obviously hormonal. She said something about the accutane clearing the cystic acne and id be left with just my hormonal acne, instead of both "kinds"...Idk if thats even possible but she went to med school so I don't really know how to argue that point lol. I just don't understand why the spiro isn't working anymore either..I asked to up my milligrams but she said it probably wouldn't do much..

Sorry if this post is all over the place, I just need some advice. I don't know if I should just give in and go back on bc, try the accutane, or wait out this horrible horrible breakout and see if my body will adjust itself...but i dont even know if thats still a possible contributing factor being that ive been off it for so long now?

I should also add that ive also had major issues with Hair loss/ and growth over the years I go through periods where my hair is thick and healthy, to complete shedding cycles where it seems I lose half the hair on my head, and in the last year my hair texture has changed in addition to the thinning. This is at times just as frustrating as having acne..and ive been tested for PCOS, thyroid issues, etc. The only time anything has ever shown in my bloodwork it was a slight descrease in estrogen, and that was back when i was about 17. To my knowledge, this is not an issue any more..

any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated

 

I'm sorry for what you're going through and I really feel your pain. I'm in a similar situation, having gone off birth control after being on it ten years (!!!) several months ago. About three months ago my skin freaked out and I'm still trying a whole bunch of different things to resolve it. Your skin problems also sound very much like mine, and Accutane didn't really help me. You can read through the regimen logs on here but I don't feel like I see many people who say Accutane cured them. I wish I had an answer for you, but I haven't figured out what will work for me either so I'm not much help.