So a little background.. I've been off birth control for the past 4 months and the regimen as kept me remarkably clear. I have noticed an increase in clogged pores and smaller blemishes this month but I just have to tell myself this is the worst of it and I'll come out of it soon, I hear the 4 months mark is a hard one for most women. I'd say my skin is like 96% clear most days now with The Regimen. Sometimes I still get chin break outs if I stay over at my boyfriends house and sleep in my makeup and don't wash my face. So I don't always follow the regimen to the exact but I think my face is still pretty good.
That being said my hair is still shedding an insane amount due to hormone levels still being out of whack from previous use of birth control. My periods are regular though. I kept reading people online saying that Maca supplements help get your thyroid and hormones balanced after birth control so I went this past sunday and bought some capsules. OH MY GOD! Stay farrrrr away from that stuff. After taking only one pill (500mg which isn't a lot, some people seem to take 4 pills a day and are fine) I woke up with MONSTER cystic acne. At first I thought it might just be a fluke so I took two more pills and a cluster of about 5 large cysts appeared all together on the tip of my chin. As soon as I stopped taking the pills no more cysts showed up so now I'm just trying to take care of the ones still there. They were massive like one was the size of a quarter under my chin, so there's only so much a topical can do when they are THAT large. Wow so attractive right now. I'm super pissed, my boyfriend is visiting tomorrow and I've got these things that look like boils all over my chin. I think I definitely had an allergic reaction or something to the Maca. It's a food so I guess it's possible. Of course after I googled cystic acne and maca I saw it breaks a lot of people out with severe cystic acne. Such a waste, I'm returning these capsules. What a nasty supplement..
Also does it really balance hormones? I also read things about women saying it made them gain weight in their hips and butt. It sounds like it increases estrogen if anything. I've noticed that I seem to get cysts when my estrogen is raised (I realize that's not the norm, most women have better skin when estrogen is a bit higher) so maybe that is what's causing this horrendous break out too. Either way, very disappointed in this supplement and how violent a reaction it caused after only 3 pills :S
Theoretically, maca is one of the best supplements for hormonal acne. However, I never read any positive reviews on it on acne.org.
Check the Hormonal acne forum for beneficial herbs & vitamins to try...maca is hardly popular here.
If you suspect estrogen dominance, then something like DIM could be the right herb for you. You have to be attentive to your cycles & symptoms in order to find the right supplements for you.
So a little background.. I've been off birth control for the past 4 months and the regimen as kept me remarkably clear. I have noticed an increase in clogged pores and smaller blemishes this month but I just have to tell myself this is the worst of it and I'll come out of it soon, I hear the 4 months mark is a hard one for most women. I'd say my skin is like 96% clear most days now with The Regimen. Sometimes I still get chin break outs if I stay over at my boyfriends house and sleep in my makeup and don't wash my face. So I don't always follow the regimen to the exact but I think my face is still pretty good.
That being said my hair is still shedding an insane amount due to hormone levels still being out of whack from previous use of birth control. My periods are regular though. I kept reading people online saying that Maca supplements help get your thyroid and hormones balanced after birth control so I went this past sunday and bought some capsules. OH MY GOD! Stay farrrrr away from that stuff. After taking only one pill (500mg which isn't a lot, some people seem to take 4 pills a day and are fine) I woke up with MONSTER cystic acne. At first I thought it might just be a fluke so I took two more pills and a cluster of about 5 large cysts appeared all together on the tip of my chin. As soon as I stopped taking the pills no more cysts showed up so now I'm just trying to take care of the ones still there. They were massive like one was the size of a quarter under my chin, so there's only so much a topical can do when they are THAT large. Wow so attractive right now. I'm super pissed, my boyfriend is visiting tomorrow and I've got these things that look like boils all over my chin. I think I definitely had an allergic reaction or something to the Maca. It's a food so I guess it's possible. Of course after I googled cystic acne and maca I saw it breaks a lot of people out with severe cystic acne. Such a waste, I'm returning these capsules. What a nasty supplement..
Also does it really balance hormones? I also read things about women saying it made them gain weight in their hips and butt. It sounds like it increases estrogen if anything. I've noticed that I seem to get cysts when my estrogen is raised (I realize that's not the norm, most women have better skin when estrogen is a bit higher) so maybe that is what's causing this horrendous break out too. Either way, very disappointed in this supplement and how violent a reaction it caused after only 3 pills :S
I HATE maca. I've tried it in different forms and amounts and always got the same result. It makes me super pissy and hungry. Also, I notice that my hair sheds like crazy instantly and for a couple of days after. Maybe it's only good for men.....boosting sex drive and such.
Theoretically, maca is one of the best supplements for hormonal acne. However, I never read any positive reviews on it on acne.org.
Check the Hormonal acne forum for beneficial herbs & vitamins to try...maca is hardly popular here.
If you suspect estrogen dominance, then something like DIM could be the right herb for you. You have to be attentive to your cycles & symptoms in order to find the right supplements for you.
So a little background.. I've been off birth control for the past 4 months and the regimen as kept me remarkably clear. I have noticed an increase in clogged pores and smaller blemishes this month but I just have to tell myself this is the worst of it and I'll come out of it soon, I hear the 4 months mark is a hard one for most women. I'd say my skin is like 96% clear most days now with The Regimen. Sometimes I still get chin break outs if I stay over at my boyfriends house and sleep in my makeup and don't wash my face. So I don't always follow the regimen to the exact but I think my face is still pretty good.
That being said my hair is still shedding an insane amount due to hormone levels still being out of whack from previous use of birth control. My periods are regular though. I kept reading people online saying that Maca supplements help get your thyroid and hormones balanced after birth control so I went this past sunday and bought some capsules. OH MY GOD! Stay farrrrr away from that stuff. After taking only one pill (500mg which isn't a lot, some people seem to take 4 pills a day and are fine) I woke up with MONSTER cystic acne. At first I thought it might just be a fluke so I took two more pills and a cluster of about 5 large cysts appeared all together on the tip of my chin. As soon as I stopped taking the pills no more cysts showed up so now I'm just trying to take care of the ones still there. They were massive like one was the size of a quarter under my chin, so there's only so much a topical can do when they are THAT large. Wow so attractive right now. I'm super pissed, my boyfriend is visiting tomorrow and I've got these things that look like boils all over my chin. I think I definitely had an allergic reaction or something to the Maca. It's a food so I guess it's possible. Of course after I googled cystic acne and maca I saw it breaks a lot of people out with severe cystic acne. Such a waste, I'm returning these capsules. What a nasty supplement..
Also does it really balance hormones? I also read things about women saying it made them gain weight in their hips and butt. It sounds like it increases estrogen if anything. I've noticed that I seem to get cysts when my estrogen is raised (I realize that's not the norm, most women have better skin when estrogen is a bit higher) so maybe that is what's causing this horrendous break out too. Either way, very disappointed in this supplement and how violent a reaction it caused after only 3 pills :S
Sorry but what is DIM again?
DIM supposedly helps your body metabolize estrogen correctly.
I went on the mini pill birth control which is very androgenic and made me break out worse than I ever had in my entire life. I stopped taking it, because my face had so much painful cystic acne. I read about different methods I could do to try and regulate my hormones and get my fave back to normal, so I first started with maca powder. It actually made my cycle come back normal and helped very little with my acne. I tried that for a month and then tried evening primrose oil capsules for a couple weeks after stopping maca. My face blew up with horrible acne and kept getting worse. I also got severely depressed. I decided to go back to maca, because it helped a little bit. I began to take the capsules instead and took 4 500mg a day. I got organic capsules that described the root had not been messed with and there were no added ingredients. After two months of being on this, my face is doing amazing!! I have a lot of scarring, but now I only get one or two pimples a week. I still break out a little more during my period and ovulation, but other than that it's doing wonders
On November 9, 2014 at 3:09 AM, Green Gables said:I believe that one of Maca's traditional uses is to increase libido because it stimulates testosterone.
Most people get worse acne from increased testosterone.
This is information that I have heard before and have been terrified to try Maca - however, I now understand that this is incorrect. There are many different strains of Maca. Some that work in Testosterone, some that work in Estrogen ways. In order to use Maca correctly you need to know what your hormone imbalance is, and which strain of Maca to take in order to address that imbalance. I have normal-high Testosterone but along with very low Estrogen, and my naturopath assured me that Maca, when used correctly in the correct form, will help to bring my Estrogen up.
