First off..I didn't put this in the " hormonal acne" section because I truly do not believe I even HAVE hormonal acne. My acne isn't really on my jawline or lower cheeks at all. Right now its awful on my forehead and some every where else too... and their mostly cysts or " mini cysts" which hurt A LOT, are very red and never come to a head.
What I can't seem to figure out is why all of a sudden this is happening to me... I was on Alesse for most of my teenage years- while I did have very oily skin, I didn't have too many breakouts.
I then changed to Seasonale in January 2013...and my oily skin got worse, and so did some back acne and chest acne.
After thinking it was because Alesse/Seasonale both have awful androgenic effects, I switched to Ortho Cylcen.
It's been almost 2 months and my face is just awful 
...
My question is, it seems the estrogen level has increased in each new BC I started...and maybe thats the issues. Too much bad estrogen causes acne as well.
Alesse- ethinyl estradiol- 0.02
Seasonale - 0.03
Ortho Cyclen- 0.035
HELP?! Has anyone had just plain bad experiences on birth control in general..and just can't take them because they mess with hormones too much?
I was on several types of birth control, and I got side effects from each of them (diane, yaz, kariva). I don't think my hormones would be as imbalanced if I hadn't taken birth control at a young age. It's called birth control for a reason, not acne control. If you are only taking birth control for acne, then you can try other methods. If you are taking it specifically for birth control, then you just have to find the right one for your skin.
This is the exact same thing that happened to me. I was on Lutera generic or Alesse and my face started breaking out...prior to this my face wasn't acne prone or oily. I was on it for two months and came off of it because I hated the breakouts...that's when my body went CRAZY and the acne got worse on my face then spread to my body. I tried Ortho Cyclen and 10 days in break out in cycsts which isn't common for me. I just don't get it. I've been on spiro twice and like clock work 3-4 days into taking it start breaking out in cycsts also. Ugh.