Hello everybody I am 22 years old and am a somewhat new sufferer to acne. I didn't start breaking out til the age of 20. Since then, I have tried a few things, both antibiotics and topicals, aside from countless drug store products! Currently, my doctor prescribed me Ziana gel, and have been for 51 days now, so almost 2 months. I know I need to wait out the full 3 months/12 weeks, but shouldn't I be seeing SOMETHING by now?? My skin not only got way worse since being on the med, which I was warned about the "purging process", but I feel as though I have been in the stage the entire ride so far! Anyone have similar experiences?? When should I expect to see any sign if a turn around? I have remained patient and positive up until now, but thinking about the holidays coming around is making me a little upset. Any advise would be greatly appreciated everyone! Thanks!!
I have been on Ziana for about 4 full months now and I am finally seeing improvement. However, I believe this may be due to my switch to a hormonal birth control two weeks earlier. (Your profile does not list your gender, but if you have any reason to believe your acne is hormonal, Ziana will only bring up pimples faster. It does not treat an internal problem 
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I hate to break it to you, but it may take a full 3 months to see positive results. 51 days is not that long of a treatment in terms of Retin-A products. If you find that after a full 3 months that you do not see any improvement, I would suggest going back to your derm for a second opinion.
Good luck! Remember to be patient and positive! If you check the reviews of Ziana on this site, you'll find a lot of people experienced an increase in breakouts before having great results.
Hey! Thank you so much and yes, I'm a girl 
I know I gotta wait the 3 months but literally I feel like this was the slowest two months if my life! Lol another thing is that I also started birth control (lowestren) 2 days after I started my ziana treatment. I don't THINK my breakouts are hormonal, it just literally came outta no where last year! Then I was completely clear all summer and then when school started my breaks began again. My ziana breakout, the initial breakout was hor rib ble ! Did yours last a while??? But yes, I'm gonna def stick it out the three months, no use of quitting now! Also, I am meeting with my derm Thursday, to make sure everything looks normal. So nice to hear from someone on here though! I feel like there are few threads on this topical
It's hard to say how long my purging period lasted. At least a few weeks to a month. However, 3 months into treatment (with little results) I had a chemical peel done, and I was broken out for an extra 3 weeks to a degree similar to the purging period (you can imagine how happy I was). But during that third week, my switch to NuvaRing really helped me out. I had a few cysts pop up, but I figured my body needed time to adjust to the hormones. They are already faded to nothing.
Hormonal birth control also takes some time for you body to get used to, at least 2-3 months. Do your body a favor and try to take your pill around the same time every day to reduce the possibility of your hormone levels fluctuating, which may cause acne.