Typically aound 1-3 months. It works by dramatically reducing the size of the oil glands so that sebum production is stagnated.

Typically aound 1-3 months. It works by dramatically reducing the size of the oil glands so that sebum production is stagnated.

Thanks, that's really helpful. For some reason I thought it would start to dry me out straight away so I was worried it wasn't going to work but I guess I just need to be more patient!

I am an oil slick and it took me about 2 weeks.

A week isn't much time. I took 10mg every day and didn't notice my oil production slowing down until 3 to 4 weeks after I started the medication. The wait is painful but the effects of the Accutane should start kicking in before long.

I started on 20mg and it took a few weeks to start working. After that it was dose dependent for me. I never took enough for it to actually shrink my oil glands, so the oil would just decrease when I increase the accutane and it would increase when I decrease the accutane.

You will notice a lot if not all your oil stops around the end of month 1

I'm coming out of the woodwork to remind you boys and girls that isotretinoin shouldn't be taken for sebum control. I continue to pay the price for doing the very same. Skeletal modifications now extend to the joints of my hands, besides the neck and lower back. I'm doing my best to scare you off, though I know it's futile.

Accutane should reduce oil production within 4 weeks of starting:

http://www.acne.org/messageboard/index.php?app=core&module=attach&section=attach&attach_rel_module=post&attach_id=34903

(Click graph)

(Click graph)

If oil returns after Accutane, it won't necessarily come back to the same extent as it was originally (see above graphs).

I'm coming out of the woodwork to remind you boys and girls that isotretinoin shouldn't be taken for sebum control. I continue to pay the price for doing the very same. Skeletal modifications now extend to the joints of my hands, besides the neck and lower back. I'm doing my best to scare you off, though I know it's futile.

How much did you take and for how long?

I'm coming out of the woodwork to remind you boys and girls that isotretinoin shouldn't be taken for sebum control. I continue to pay the price for doing the very same. Skeletal modifications now extend to the joints of my hands, besides the neck and lower back. I'm doing my best to scare you off, though I know it's futile.

How much did you take and for how long?

Years. For long term side effects the cumulative dose is relevant (ranging 0.1-1 mg/kg/day if you must know). Higher range when I battled cystic acne, lower range when controlling sebum. Wrt sebum control results only last as long as you're on the drug.

Guys, I will make my annual statement on this topic, at the wise old age of 40. There is nothing sane to do with this affliction short of acceptance - at least for now. The only thing that works (if only while you're on it) is isotretinoin - but the collateral damage from long term use is not something you can rationalize, however young and brash and wanting to live your life you are.

Back in 2004-2006 when I was doing exactly what yo do know I was like "fuck it - I'll take my chances". So say we all.

Aside for other disturbing and rare horrors that can and do happen, there is evidence (studies) documenting that upwards to 50% of long term users of isotretinoin develop skeletal "malfunctions". It can be osteoporosis (tame), it can be hyperostosis (like me) or a combination of both (fun eh).

It's a function of total lifetime dose, and I dimly remember something along 700 mg/kg/life as a point of no return, the entrance to hell as it were. It may be less than that (I'm positive it's not more) - that's what the statistics from that study showed. I don't have the reference for it, sorry. So these are the rather expected bad things to happen, leaving aside the more acute (and rare but documented) very bad things.

For people not familiar with my side effects, I am diagnosed with cervical hyperostosis (vertebrae L3 to L7 fused in my neck). I have 20% neck mobility and can only sleep on orthopedic pillows. It no longer hurts unless I get a massage or the weather changes. Until the outgrowth stopped, I did want to die back in 2008-2009 as an exit from the pain.

I turn my head from the waist so to speak. I am no longer allowed to go to the gym. Despite my better judgement I went skiing this past winter (after a decade o pause) and I could hack it almost as good as I ever did. It felt so liberating - I'm not quite the cripple yet.

The keyword here is 'yet', as the process is seemingly moving to the metacarpal bones. In another decade I might report 20% hand gripping ability. Also it kind of hurts, though I no longer perceive pain like normal people.

Hang in there a few more years until they bring these promised topical treatments to market. I can post X-rays if I wasn't eloquent enough (not my first language but I'm not hiding behind that).

Guys, I will make my annual statement on this topic, at the wise old age of 40. There is nothing sane to do with this affliction short of acceptance - at least for now. The only thing that works (if only while you're on it) is isotretinoin - but the collateral damage from long term use is not something you can rationalize, however young and brash and wanting to live your life you are.

Back in 2004-2006 when I was doing exactly what yo do know I was like "fuck it - I'll take my chances". So say we all.

Aside for other disturbing and rare horrors that can and do happen, there is evidence (studies) documenting that upwards to 50% of long term users of isotretinoin develop skeletal "malfunctions". It can be osteoporosis (tame), it can be hyperostosis (like me) or a combination of both (fun eh).

It's a function of total lifetime dose, and I dimly remember something along 700 mg/kg/life as a point of no return, the entrance to hell as it were. It may be less than that (I'm positive it's not more) - that's what the statistics from that study showed. I don't have the reference for it, sorry. So these are the rather expected bad things to happen, leaving aside the more acute (and rare but documented) very bad things.

For people not familiar with my side effects, I am diagnosed with cervical hyperostosis (vertebrae L3 to L7 fused in my neck). I have 20% neck mobility and can only sleep on orthopedic pillows. It no longer hurts unless I get a massage or the weather changes. Until the outgrowth stopped, I did want to die back in 2008-2009 as an exit from the pain.

I turn my head from the waist so to speak. I am no longer allowed to go to the gym. Despite my better judgement I went skiing this past winter (after a decade o pause) and I could hack it almost as good as I ever did. It felt so liberating - I'm not quite the cripple yet.

The keyword here is 'yet', as the process is seemingly moving to the metacarpal bones. In another decade I might report 20% hand gripping ability. Also it kind of hurts, though I no longer perceive pain like normal people.

Hang in there a few more years until they bring these promised topical treatments to market. I can post X-rays if I wasn't eloquent enough (not my first language but I'm not hiding behind that).

700mg/kg/life is a huge dose. I too am hopeful about some of these topicals, but I've been waiting almost a decade now. I plan on trying 5mg 2-4 times a week indefinitely. It would take forever at those low doses to reach that kind of cumulative dosage level and by that time hopefully a topical that work will have reached the market.

You might think I'm crazy, but at this point I'm willing and ready to roll the dice. Oily skin is ruining both my personal and professional life.

End of month 1 you will get dry around ur mouth area and abit on the nose and then it will continue to get dry around the remaining areas.

700mg/kg/life is a huge dose.

Ha. I may have remembered the magnitude wrong. Might be 70.

700mg/kg/life is a huge dose.

Ha. I may have remembered the magnitude wrong. Might be 70.

If you have done 5-6 courses reaching ideal cumulative dose (120-150mg/kg) then you could very well have taken 700mg/kg/life

Is oily skin your only health problem? Have you had your testosterone levels checked? Accutane will never suppress the internal cause of your acne, you have to find it and treat it, I'd get off the accutane.