Tonight I'll be taking Belara, an anti-androgen birth control pill, for the first time. My acne is definitely hormonal, so I should notice improvement from Belara, but I am nervous because all of the hormonal treatments I have tried in the past (yasmin, yaz, spiro, metformin) made my hair fall out. My hair is finally starting to thicken again since taking metformin, and the thought of it falling out again scares me. Wish me luck!
More info on Belara for anyone who is interested: [Edited link out]
On 8/24/2014 at 11:54 PM, paigems said:Tonight I'll be taking Belara, an anti-androgen birth control pill, for the first time. My acne is definitely hormonal, so I should notice improvement from Belara, but I am nervous because all of the hormonal treatments I have tried in the past (yasmin, yaz, spiro, metformin) made my hair fall out. My hair is finally starting to thicken again since taking metformin, and the thought of it falling out again scares me. Wish me luck!
More info on Belara for anyone who is interested: [Edited link out]
Good luck with the Belara!!! I'll be following your log 
I'm glad to have so many people interested in my progress
Tonight will be my 6th night taking Belara and I haven't noticed any significant differences yet. My skin and hair do seem a little less oily, but my skin is still as clogged as ever. It's actually more clogged than before I took accutane the first time. I hope the clogs will start improving soon.
I'm glad to have so many people interested in my progress
Tonight will be my 6th night taking Belara and I haven't noticed any significant differences yet. My skin and hair do seem a little less oily, but my skin is still as clogged as ever. It's actually more clogged than before I took accutane the first time. I hope the clogs will start improving soon.
Are you doing anything topically? Although I was very "I will do NOTHING except take my hormone medication" when I was on spiro...because I wanted to make sure that it was working...I think in hindsight I could have cleared up faster had I been willing to add in some topicals.
Hormonal medication isn't going to magically get rid of any clogs you already have. It just stops the chain of new formation eventually.
Can you stand some chemical peels? You can do 10% or 20% salicylic peels at home relatively safely. When I do a 20% I can actually see it dissolve the sebum.
I'm glad to have so many people interested in my progress
Tonight will be my 6th night taking Belara and I haven't noticed any significant differences yet. My skin and hair do seem a little less oily, but my skin is still as clogged as ever. It's actually more clogged than before I took accutane the first time. I hope the clogs will start improving soon.
Are you doing anything topically? Although I was very "I will do NOTHING except take my hormone medication" when I was on spiro...because I wanted to make sure that it was working...I think in hindsight I could have cleared up faster had I been willing to add in some topicals.
Hormonal medication isn't going to magically get rid of any clogs you already have. It just stops the chain of new formation eventually.
Can you stand some chemical peels? You can do 10% or 20% salicylic peels at home relatively safely. When I do a 20% I can actually see it dissolve the sebum.
I can't use retinoids, but lately I have been trying out peels. Right now I've been using 30% glycolic, and it doesn't seem to being doing that much. In the past I tried the 8% salicylic peel from MUAC and it made my blackheads bigger! I don't know if there was something clogging in the formula, but my nose blackheads were literally the largest I've ever seen them.
I'm glad to have so many people interested in my progress
Tonight will be my 6th night taking Belara and I haven't noticed any significant differences yet. My skin and hair do seem a little less oily, but my skin is still as clogged as ever. It's actually more clogged than before I took accutane the first time. I hope the clogs will start improving soon.
Are you doing anything topically? Although I was very "I will do NOTHING except take my hormone medication" when I was on spiro...because I wanted to make sure that it was working...I think in hindsight I could have cleared up faster had I been willing to add in some topicals.
Hormonal medication isn't going to magically get rid of any clogs you already have. It just stops the chain of new formation eventually.
Can you stand some chemical peels? You can do 10% or 20% salicylic peels at home relatively safely. When I do a 20% I can actually see it dissolve the sebum.
I can't use retinoids, but lately I have been trying out peels. Right now I've been using 30% glycolic, and it doesn't seem to being doing that much. In the past I tried the 8% salicylic peel from MUAC and it made my blackheads bigger! I don't know if there was something clogging in the formula, but my nose blackheads were literally the largest I've ever seen them.
Well I should also say that I HAVE to combine peels with manual extractions.
Lately I've been doing a 8 minute 50% lactic peel immediately followed by an 8 minute 20% salicylic peel. I then steam my face and go in with a metal extractor and gently push out the clogged pores or sebaceous filaments on my nose, cheeks, and chin. I've been doing this twice a week for 2-3 months now and finally gotten to a point where my pores look empty most of the time.
I don't remember where, but I either read something or heard someone say that manual extraction is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY if you have chronic problem skin. That all the other steps (retinoids, peels, etc.) are just to help make the manual extraction easier. You have to be willing to manually push that crap out. The peels just help soften it up considerably. Extractions on raw skin are not fun and not very effective. After a peel and steaming session I can push out most of my pores in 20 minutes. Without that I could spend an hour and still be working on just my nose.
As far as the idea that extractions are harmful, I think that's bunk. Unless you have some super high tolerance to pain or you're OCD, you can't apply enough pressure to harm your skin. If you're really scared to do it on yourself you can just hire an esthetician or derm to do it, though it's hard to find someone who's good at it.
I'm glad to have so many people interested in my progress
Tonight will be my 6th night taking Belara and I haven't noticed any significant differences yet. My skin and hair do seem a little less oily, but my skin is still as clogged as ever. It's actually more clogged than before I took accutane the first time. I hope the clogs will start improving soon.
Are you doing anything topically? Although I was very "I will do NOTHING except take my hormone medication" when I was on spiro...because I wanted to make sure that it was working...I think in hindsight I could have cleared up faster had I been willing to add in some topicals.
Hormonal medication isn't going to magically get rid of any clogs you already have. It just stops the chain of new formation eventually.
Can you stand some chemical peels? You can do 10% or 20% salicylic peels at home relatively safely. When I do a 20% I can actually see it dissolve the sebum.
I can't use retinoids, but lately I have been trying out peels. Right now I've been using 30% glycolic, and it doesn't seem to being doing that much. In the past I tried the 8% salicylic peel from MUAC and it made my blackheads bigger! I don't know if there was something clogging in the formula, but my nose blackheads were literally the largest I've ever seen them.
Well I should also say that I HAVE to combine peels with manual extractions.
Lately I've been doing a 8 minute 50% lactic peel immediately followed by an 8 minute 20% salicylic peel. I then steam my face and go in with a metal extractor and gently push out the clogged pores or sebaceous filaments on my nose, cheeks, and chin. I've been doing this twice a week for 2-3 months now and finally gotten to a point where my pores look empty most of the time.
I don't remember where, but I either read something or heard someone say that manual extraction is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY if you have chronic problem skin. That all the other steps (retinoids, peels, etc.) are just to help make the manual extraction easier. You have to be willing to manually push that crap out. The peels just help soften it up considerably. Extractions on raw skin are not fun and not very effective. After a peel and steaming session I can push out most of my pores in 20 minutes. Without that I could spend an hour and still be working on just my nose.
As far as the idea that extractions are harmful, I think that's bunk. Unless you have some super high tolerance to pain or you're OCD, you can't apply enough pressure to harm your skin. If you're really scared to do it on yourself you can just hire an esthetician or derm to do it, though it's hard to find someone who's good at it.
This is very interesting. Thanks for sharing! I guess I'll have to try some more peels and extractions now.
Today was day 10 of taking Belara. My skin is pretty bad right now. Usually I don't feel embarrassed by the way my skin looks, but today when I went to school I did. I think the less oily thing the other day was a fluke. I didn't expect to see a change in oil for a while anyway. I'm very happy, though, that I have not experienced any side effects so far and my hair is not falling out.
Have you tried taking berberine to replace the Metformin? One study showed it to be more effective than Met with less side effects. It might help without making your hair fall out.
I've been taking the GlycoX brand once a day (with my heaviest meal) and I've been able to lower my spiro dose to 50mg and stay clear. (It's been about a month now too and still clear.) It's really making me think this idea of insulin/glucose affecting your other hormones is A Real Thing
Also if you do need some topical help to get you through the initial phase of bad skin, I like the Clean and Clear Continuous Control benzoyl peroxide. The formula is effective and not drying (it's mostly glycerin and water). I liked it better than Proactive or the Acne.org formula. Obviously BP won't stop acne from happening, but once it's already there oxygenating the pores with BP to kill the anaerobic bacteria (like p. acnes) is really helpful.
Have you tried taking berberine to replace the Metformin? One study showed it to be more effective than Met with less side effects. It might help without making your hair fall out.
I've been taking the GlycoX brand once a day (with my heaviest meal) and I've been able to lower my spiro dose to 50mg and stay clear. (It's been about a month now too and still clear.) It's really making me think this idea of insulin/glucose affecting your other hormones is A Real Thing
Also if you do need some topical help to get you through the initial phase of bad skin, I like the Clean and Clear Continuous Control benzoyl peroxide. The formula is effective and not drying (it's mostly glycerin and water). I liked it better than Proactive or the Acne.org formula. Obviously BP won't stop acne from happening, but once it's already there oxygenating the pores with BP to kill the anaerobic bacteria (like p. acnes) is really helpful.
I haven't considered trying berberine because I know it is similar to metformin, and the metformin did very little for me. Actually, when I stopped taking it I noticed no difference in my skin at all.
Thank you for the topical recommendation. My skin typically doesn't like bp, but if I get desperate I may try the clean and clear.
Other things that have helped me pre-Spiro (even though they weren't a complete cure). And not to spam your thread I just don't want you to give up. Hormonal methods do work but they require some tweaking and months of patience. That can be a really long time to push through with no improvement.
Vitamin D3: 10,000 IU a day
Pro-hormone that helps your body naturally regulate its hormones. Deficiency leads to all sorts of seemingly unrelated problems.
Betaine HCl: 1-3 capsules with each meal. A capsule is usually 600ish HCl.
Acne and rosacea is correlated with low HCl. Taking HCl has decreased any negative reactions I had to certain foods.
Other things that have helped me pre-Spiro (even though they weren't a complete cure). And not to spam your thread I just don't want you to give up. Hormonal methods do work but they require some tweaking and months of patience. That can be a really long time to push through with no improvement.
Vitamin D3: 10,000 IU a day
Pro-hormone that helps your body naturally regulate its hormones. Deficiency leads to all sorts of seemingly unrelated problems.
Betaine HCl: 1-3 capsules with each meal. A capsule is usually 600ish HCl.
Acne and rosacea is correlated with low HCl. Taking HCl has decreased any negative reactions I had to certain foods.
Thanks for the suggestions. I used to have very low Vitamin D and took a supplement for a while. Eventually, my levels got too high and my doctor told me to stop taking them. My acne never improved from the vitamin D, though. I've never tried HCl, and I guess I could try that.
I've been taking Belara 2.5 weeks now. Not a lot is happening with my skin. It's still just as oily and broken out. I still am not experiencing any hair loss, though, which is great, because I think it was about this time on yaz and yasmin that my hair started to shed. Sorry if this log is boring so far guys! Hormonal treatments take a while to work 
i've been taking belara for 5 months and it worked very well...it was just around the time i started with my benzac treatment,so i can't really know which helped,but i have rarely broken out since then,i'm really happy with my skin now.
i had to stop taking the pill because of an upcoming operation and have been off it for 20 days now and i'm still clear,got my period and still didn't get the monthly hormonal chin acne,i'm really excited!
i was afraid the bp wouldn't be able to treat hormonal acne,but turns out that it keeps them away. i didn't see any side-effects from belara, so i think you shouldn't worry. i do remember it took me a while to see a change as well...in about 3 months you can really see the progress! 
Quick update:
Two and a half weeks ago I had to have an emergency appendectomy. After that I wound up in the hospital for another week with complications. Prior to this I had no hair loss, but now I think I am having a bit more shedding than usual. Everyone is telling me it's from everything I've been through in the past few weeks, though.
My skin is looking pretty good lately, but it might be because I've been avoiding makeup. No noticeable reduction in oil yet.
I'm glad to hear others have had luck with belara. I'm still staying hopeful
Hi !
I am from France. I'm very interested in your experience with Belara. I'm on Dianette but I have too many side effects with this pill, so i want to change.
How is your skin now ?
Hi MaryanFR!
So far I am really liking Belara. As far as I can tell I have no side effects from it. I don't even seem to have the hair loss I was so scared about. I haven't noticed that much improvement with my skin, but it has only been three months, and in the past when I used hormonal treatments it seemed to take me about 6 months before I noticed anything.
Thank you very much for your answer. I hope you'll see very good results for your skin.
Did you ever try Dianette ? Its a very good pill for hair and skin but many people have bad side effects as anxiety, lack of libido, depression....and i have these side effects.
I never tried Dianette because it's not available where I live. Sorry you're having side effects I had bad side effects from yaz and yasmin, and I know what a pain it can be.