Hi everyone! I'm a 25 year old female (just turned 25 two weeks ago!) who has been struggling with bad acne for about a year and a half now (all started when I first came off birth control pills when I was 23). Going back on birth control pills didn't fix my skin unfortunately and neither has any of the topicals/antibiotics I've been prescribed over the past year.

I went to a derm in the middle of November 2012 and she gave me the options of spironolactone or accutane. I basically told her I wanted accutane and she gave me the ipledge booklet. She told me to get back on birth control pills and come back in a month since if I decide to do spironolactone or accutane I'll need to be on birth control pills. I got a prescription for birth control pills, got a blood/pregnancy test and went back to the derm in the middle of December. I was deadset on accutane but chickened out and told her I wanted spironolactone instead. She gave me 25mg a day, which annoyed me cause its such a low dose and told me to come back in 6 weeks to increase the dose. After about two weeks I regretted my decision and realized I just want to do accutane cause even though I've only had bad acne for a year and a half, I've had milder forms of acne since 4th grade and I'm just sick of it. Also, ever since birth control pills my acne ALWAYS scars- lots and lots of red marks all over and some actual shallow pitted scarring as well Apparently my cheeks are very prone to scarring which I never knew since I never broke out on my cheeks until going off birth control! I hate those pills!

I went back to the derm this week and told her I changed my mind and want to do accutane. She said ok, but told me that she never signed me up for the ipledge program. She then told me to go to the gyno for the contraception counseling, get another blood/pregnancy test and come back in a month. My initial appt with her where she offered accutane was in November 2012 and now my next appt is in February 2013 and I'm just hoping I'll finally get the prescription this time. Does this seem normal to others who have gone on accutane? It seems like its going to have taken me 3 months to get on accutane, but I guess it's my fault cause I chose spironolactone over accutane at my 2nd appt, but I thought I only set myself back two weeks not another full month or more. Also, is the contraception counseling mandatory? I was under the impression that it wasn't mandatory especially considering the fact that my derm knows I went back on birth control pills in November, and I already have my two forms of protection chosen( birth control pills and condoms). She didn't even tell me if she was signing me up in the ipledge system or not so I'm hoping I don't go back in Feb to have her tell me to do something else and just come back in another month. I want to start this medication already! Any feedback from anyone would be great- thanks!