Day 17

Over the past week I feel as if my skin has really improved, but I also feel this will be very short lived... I've been trying to pick at my skin less which has really helped. Aside from the skin dilemma, I've been getting weird cramps in my legs and been feeling a little tired and emotionless. Also, I've noticed I can go an extra day before I wash my hair and that my face is less oily, so at least I know it's starting to do what it should!

Day 21

As I expect the clear(er) skin didn't last very long and I've been breaking out a little more over the past few days. Probably doesn't help I've started picking at my skin again.... ugh. I still have less oily skin so that's still good! Oh, and also over the past week or so I've gotten heaps of nodules under my neck! I'm not too worried as I find (weirdly) that about once every two months I will randomly breakout like this under my neck and then it will be perfectly clear again, interesting whether to see whether Ginet will solve this acne problem as well!

Day 25

I know I probably shouldn't get too excited at this point but I really feel as if my skin is improving! I'm still in my continuous cycle of breaking out, but those annoying cheek nodules are being more and more scarce... is this too early to notice a change or is it all in my head?! Aside from that, the neck break out is still wrecking havoc, which is sort of weird cause i've never had one this bad/long, it doesn't bother me though because the spots are pretty unnoticeable if I refrain from touching them; I suspect it's from the Ginet/Diane as this began about a week after I started. Weird leg cramps aren't as frequent now

I'm not looking forward to the pill free week for this pack (which i'm gonna actually do this time) cause I don't want to make backwards progress...

Day 27

Lol, skin is breaking out since my being quite a bit clearer (relatively) last week. What I have found though is that when I do get a blemish it has been disappearing quite fast, so hopefully this breakout won't last too long. My acne doesn't actually show too many red flags that it is hormonal so I still have no idea how much/if Ginet will help, I find the state of my skin can be bearable one day and horrible the next!

Day 28

I'm breaking out badly, this sucks big time. I'm going on holiday next week

I do suppose although i'm already 1/3 way through the second pack, it has only just been about a month now, so there's still a lot of time for this drug to start working. It's just so disheartening to start to feel better about your skin and then for this to happen!

Day 41 (ish)

So i'm on the 7 day break right now, the first since I've started, I'm a little apprehensive as to how it might go. Over the last week I've been on vacation overseas and to be honest my face became a mess, on top of being super dry which made it worse. During the end of the trip and over the past few days its gotten a little more under control, but still no definite signs of improvement yet, which i'm not surprised about. Can't wait to start the next pack to keep making progress! Oh also I will add that i've started drinking green tea and I think that's actually really helping,

Day 43

So my third pack arrived today, which I wasn't expecting until the end of the week and so I had no choice to take the sugar pills; anyway I've been a bit naughty (and possibly stupid) but I've started it after going for a two day break. Thankfully my period hadn't come yet so I think I'm in the clear. Current skin: still under control from holiday break out! Still no where near clear, but definitely one of the best few days since i've started; mind you I've been drinking green tea like crazy over the past 5 days, which I really think that has contributed.

I'm hopping that 1 1/2 month break out was part of the IB and now it won't be so rocky.

Other things I have noticed is that my breasts have gone up an almost cup size, tehe.

Day 47

I have literally been drinking green tea by the jug, and I don't know if it's because of the hormones starting to do what they should, but for the whole week so far my skin has been the best it has in months. I'm drinking around five cups a day, and been getting only 1-2 small pimples daily, a change from anywhere up to 5 new nodular pimples every morning. However it's also a little annoying not knowing if this improvement is attributed to the green tea or Diane/Ginet, so bcp could be a waste of time if it's the tea that's been helping me so much. I don't think the tea will get me clear alone so I guess it's still worth giving Diane/Ginet a full 6 months plus to hit its maximum potential. (I'm using both brand names as Diane seems to be a lot more ubiquitous than ginet).

Just as a side note, I haven't/don't find that this pill makes me overly moody. Of course the horrible break out I had around day 30 turned me into a frustrated anti-social b*tch, but other than that my mood has been pretty stable, if not more stable.

Oh and the headaches and leg cramps are 90% gone, however last week I had it persistent in one leg for about two days - little bit freaky but I know it wasn't DVT at least.

Day 52

So i'm about 1/2 way through my third pack, because I've been skipping all the sugar pills I'm not sure whether to count this as month 3 or not.

Weirdly, I've started breaking out over the last few days, which is ironic, because on my last pack I had this big break out around the same time; I know this pill is monophasic, so I think it's my body's natural hormones trying to combat this pill. However I have been stressed out the past few days as well. Right now I have a whole bunch of fresh red marks and about 3-4 active nodule things that I haven't had so many of at once, in a while now. It's frustrating because my ball/prom is in two weeks now and I really don't want to look any more pizza-faced than I already do, but to be completely honest, even though i'm no where near clear I have to admit that overall my skin has actually been quite a bit better, despite this mini-breakout right now. Fingers crossed that I will begin to see solid progress by the end of the month! Oh and also, the oil slick receded around week 2, pretty crazy, but my skin has now been quite flaky a lot of the time, which i think may be causing a few of the newer pimples.

5 days from end of month 3

I'm starting to feel really discouraged, even though I've read most people don't start to see results until month 4 i'm feeling so depressed that my acne is still as bad as it started most of the time and my school ball is only 13 days away. Perhaps skipping the placebo week pills are doing more harm than good. Last night my skin was mostly just full of red marks, but this morning i woke up with 3-4 deeps cyst/nodules around my mouth.

2 days until end of month three (active pills)

I don't know how much more I can handle of this uncertainty. I went to the docs yesterday to get the clear for my next three months of pills, she was confused as to why my skin had gotten worse after almost three packs of treatment. Right now I have this huge fluid filled cyst like thing under my lip which won't go away and the usual run of nodules and what not lurking all over my face worse than it was before the treatment began. I hope month 4 brings some better results because honestly this is making me so depressed.

1st day of 4th pack

Surprisingly, the last couple of days have been somewhat under control, apart from the dry skin which is still not getting any better.

I'm quite excited for this month because it seems like the turning point for a lot of people, however I know this might not happen until pack 6. I've also been taking my pill at almost the exact time each day, I didn't realise till a couple days ago but taking your pill at 'the same time each day' does not mean take it at 7am one day and 10am the next... so hopefully my skin's state will become more consistent.

My senior ball is this week and its now been a week since I developed the cyst under my lip/on my chin, I've tried sulfur and hot compresses but nothing will bring it to a head and I can't stop resisting to squeeze it every night and make it more raw. ahhh

Considering the rest of my face (and chest and back) isn't looking too bad right now I really shouldn't complain!

Half way through pack 4

Sorry for the lack of updates for anyone who is following my progress, but the last week my skin got so good and stayed good for my ball that I didn't wanna jinx it! For the first time in years my skin looked flawless and all the makeup artist had to cover was red marks instead of huge angry lumps on my face; I think some of this can be contributed to my super clean eating last week in preparation because then the day after (sunday) I binged on junk food and now i'm breaking out a little. I hope things will get continue to get better and I'm glad i held out until month four like i've heard so many people say.

Despite this good skin progress and all the hype over the ball I find myself increasingly depressed lately, before this pill my moods were often low because my confidence isn't particularly the highest, but now I just been feeling sh*t for either no reason whatsoever or because I'm letting stupid things get to me 1000x worse than before the pill, like flaws in my appearance and popularity at school. My skin is 80% clearer right now, and they call this the 'beauty pill' but I'm feeling uglier than ever.

I'm gonna be wary of this, I know this pill is helping my skin which is so so important to me, but I know from reviews that it can cause people to feel truly depressed.

RANT OVER!!

1 week of active pills left of pack 4

ughhh this is so frustrating, my skin has gone into break out mode again and pretty badly!! I've gotten about 4 deep nodules over the course of the past couple days that I know will take ages to all disappear. I'm suspecting that this has happened because straight after the ball I basically binged on junk food due to the withdrawal week, I kind of hope that's why this has happened because i'm so over this pill constantly getting my hopes up. So I am going to restart eating how I was last week: almost no sugar and eating mostly raw veges and fruits with plenty of fish and wholegrains (i'm a peskatarian). Fingers crossed! Oh and also I am not going to move straight onto the next pack like I have been doing, I have some break through bleeding (tmi lol) and it's probably not very good to keep oppressing my cycle for so long.

1 active pill left of pack 4

Despite healthy eating face is a mess. Last night I pilled on way too much BP onto a cluster of spots on my cheek and I now have the worst chemical burn from this stuff I've had in my life. It literally looks like a 2nd degree burn, it's all motley and blistered, so I took the day off school today. To make matters worse I have a family portrait tonight. I hope my skin doesn't go awry on the first placebo week since I started this medication, I think if my skin isn't more consistent by the end of the fifth pack i'm throwing in the towel.

Start of pack 5

What the heck people, i'm at a total loss of what to do. My skin was actually pretty good during the placebo week and now I'm back on the active pills (three days in) an my skin is getting a little temperamental.

I don't know whether its worth carrying on or stopping all together!

By the fifth pack I would expect to start seeing minor improvement

Halfway through pack 5

Skin is doing so so.

I've decided to stop posting so religiously on this log because I feel its not helpful and essentially the same in terms of any progress, so I will get back to it when I:

a) see actual significant results in whatever amount of time or

b) throw in the towel on Diane.

Peace

So it's been a month since i last posted on here about my progress and if anyone's still interested on reading about my time on this drug i will probably leave this log up. I'm gonna go to my doctor when i next can because about 3 weeks ago I started using sulphur soap and its been the best thing for my skin since i started getting acne like 5 years ago. I really recommend people give it a go. I wanted to stay on the pill at the same time because it was really handy with my periods etc but it only dawned on me lately that the hormones have been making me crazy, i have blurred vision a lot of the time and am beginning to feel as if i am living in a tumblr post.... lol. Diane has helped a little bit i wont lie, so i want to change to a bcp that is similar in its hormonal effect but more mild. I feel this drug could really help a lot of people but for me, my acne doesn't even really seem that hormonal so there is no point carrying on being a paranoid psycho for very little benefit.