Hey you guys.
I'm a 20 year old female that started suffering from acne about a year go. Throughout my entire high school career, my skin was spotless...I rarely had more than one or two pimples every couple of months. Starting a year ago, I got my first every series of break outs that lasted about a month. After starting my new job at a restaurant back in December (9 months ago) I started developing moderate to severe acne. Not just whiteheads and pustules, but cystic acne all along my forehead and chin. At first I thought it was from the grease in the air, and it would pass. But it has only gotten worse and worse.
I don't know what started this. My family has no record of acne, and I am a healthy and active young adult. After no over the counter topical treatments worked, I went to the dermatologist. She prescribed me Epiduo at night, which I used for 2 months and saw no results from.
After this, I tried tea tree oil, removing gluten from my diet, taking vitamin supplements, etc and saw no results except an increase in my acne.
I went back to the dermatologist 3 months ago and she prescribed me 200 mg of Doxycycline a day along with a prescription topical in the morning and Epiduo at night.
My face is less red since beginning the treatment, but otherwise my acne is just as bad and I continue to break out all over my face, instead of just in certain regions like my T-zone before.
Why isn't this antibiotic working? I have friends who had even worse acne than myself that noticed results from Doxycycline just a few weeks after taking it! I can't afford Accutane, but don't know what else to do. I'm a very pretty girl, but feel so embarrassed about the condition of my face...especially when I religiously keep up with a skin care regimen to maintain it.
Picture of me now (and this is with make-up and concealer on ):
This is far from severe acne, however persistent mild-moderate as you do not have nodular cystic acne just white heads. You may be resistant to antibiotics, especially if you have taken them frequently for other purposes in the past. You could try a stronger antibiotic such as bactrim. Your a female so you could try birth control, which is known to be very effective as your acne could be due to hormones. Do you break out more around the time of your period?
Last resort if its persistent, scarring or getting worse and your doctor has tried multiple resources, accutane will likely be the solution.
Antibiotics are probably one of the worst treatments available for acne. They only work for a short time, and then your acne will come back, sometimes worse than before because the compromise your immune system by changing the natural immune system in your GI tract.
If you must use antibiotics, they should only be used as a temporary helper while relying on a different medication to do the main work.
In the long run, antibiotics made my acne worse and completely destroyed my immune system, and gave me years of IBS.
I would recommend birth control to regulate acne from a hormonal level, or just to save up for Accutane.
I've been taking 100mg of doxy a day along with a topical retinoid for around 6 weeks for mild/moderate acne on my forehead and chin. After being on doxy for around 4 weeks I noticed any active acne would die down a lot faster than usual, and that the frequency of breakouts was decreasing. Currently I still breakout on my forehead, but my chin is now clear. I agree with others on antibiotics only being a short term solution though, and I've only been taking doxy to reduce any initial breakouts caused by the retinoid I'm using. I certainly don't plan on taking another course after I've finished this lot as it would likely do more damage than good. I think it's important to remember that everyone is different, and what works for someone may not work for you. If you've been on 200mg a day for 3 months and haven't noticed any change at all it's probably best to go back to your derm and talk about other treatment options. Don't give up though as there are lots of other treatments for you to try out.