When did you stop taking it? It has a diuretic, as you probably know... and being dehydrated can age you DRASTICALLY. Hopefully, that is the problem, because it doesn't make sense that it would age you that much that quickly. Try drinking TONS of water for about a week, it's good for you whether or not it helps. The only other thing I can think of is maybe it messed up your already fragile hormones even more... and now they are all out wack, they are making you look different. Slight hormonal changes can totally mess with how 'young and feminine' your face appears. Maybe go get hormones tested if hydrating doesn't seem to help?

I agree, I would hydrate hydrate. I think only if you can a good laser might help and if you can't do that, I would look into keratin based products.

As far as tightening the skin, I have found in general for me.... It might sound like a lot of hype but I had to try it. On Amazon you can find a lot of masks 24k gold, platinum, & keratin based masks from Korea. Not only do they help with discoloration, my face tightens like you would not believe. I use religiously. My face shines and feels so great after I use. Please check with doctor before you use any of them bc so many of them do have elements of lightening elements, esp if your face is thin or agitated. To any extreme juviderm does help- one vial can help with jowls and a lot of places... I know the cost, but if it bothers you, it might be something to look into, lasers might hurt so badly if you are having that much irritation. Just check with a great and I mean great dermatologist or Plastic surgeon. I know it is costly but juviderm once a year can help- and hydrate (no sodas or sugary drinks.) for the last year I have been drinking Pellegrino, Perrier w a lemon or some fruit and it has helped so much.

Such good luck to you!!!

I find it strange that whenever someone posts something negative about spiro here (or accutane on other forums), other posts/threads immediately pop up defending the drug. Hmm. I spot some fake profiles.

Also, here and on another thread, there was advice about wearing wigs if hair continues to fall off with spiro treatment, and also about plastic surgeons! HELLOOO, what's wrong with this picture??? If your hair is falling off and your face is aging unnaturally, then obviously spiro is toxic to your body....why would you keep taking it and risk ruining your body? jeez, sometimes I wonder what's wrong with the world.

To glb, Sorry, you had this experience...noone knows how they will react to a drug, and other people's experiences are not your own.

I would start taking some vitamin C to help your skin bounce back and regain some of its lost elasticity.

that is so strange about spiro. if anything spiro has kept me looking young these days and i just turned 38. its been a god send for me i cant say enough about this stuff. i dont see it as toxic at all its been the only thing in 16 years that has totally cleared me. it has changed my life.

sending you positive vibes glb2130 that everything will get better for you

There is a lot of hype, especially if you consider short term effects. Even greengables, who was on spiro for a rather long time finally got off it and her acne returned, and on top of it it caused her other health issues. Short term, anything can work fine...but long term effects are only seen later on. Even as a blood pressure medication, spiro is not a long term solution.

And because I like to back up claims, here are some other users who say spiro made their face look old (this is just from acne.org...there are more on the Web from other sites). Everyone reacts differently, and there are some other women who make the same complains as glb, so it's not just a random reaction. These are just the complaints about aging from a quick search on acne.org. Other complaints are more frequent, such as weight gain, which you can also look up.

hearts: "For me the negatives outweighed the positives when I was on spiro. After about the year mark I gained 20lbs (I went from 110lbs to 130/135lbs) without changing anything in my lifestyle and I couldn't lose it, my long thick hair started to shed like crazy, it gave me severe constipation, decreased my libido, and my skin started to look old and lost it's suppleness no matter how much I moisturized. I just didn't feel good on it after a while." [good news is that, according to hearts, sagging skin can be reversed once off spiro] --> Source:

Thread by cyndotcom: Aging faster & voice deepening: & Spironolactone ages your skin?:

Also see complaints on the Reviews section on acne.org, as well as other sites. Aging/sagging skin is a complaint that comes up repeatedly. Also, I noticed that some positive reviews on acne.org pop up on other sites like drugs.com and makeupalley. Who would write exactly the same review on various sites?

To everyone reading this: take the side effects noted on the leaflet, as well as anecdotal reviews, seriously and don't buy into the hype because everyone reacts differently to medications. They are, afterall, medications....and most of which NOT EVEN DESIGNED FOR ACNE! Keep this in mind, especially as you get older.

Thank you wishclean! I printed out like 15 other reviews on spiro about premature aging/sagging skin and I plan to bring it to my derm because she claims she has never heard of this before. She assured me that it is just dehydration and that eventually my face will go back to normal, I'm praying. It actually surprised me that I took the drug because I am very anti-drug and very healthy- I never like doing anything unhealthy- I don't think I've even had a soda in 3 years. I think that this was really a learning lesson for me in the sense that acne , yes is annoying, but it is not the most terrible thing in the world. I will be the happiest girl ever if my face returns back to normal (and I will still have acne.) I watch girls on YouTube doing makeup tutorials for acne coverage, and I see that acne can really be covered up well. Mypaleskin is my favorite YouTube girl- she's GORGEOUS and she has moderate acne. Watching girls like that make me feel so much better. If my face does not return to normal, I've reasearched a bit about dermal fillers for under eye/cheek area like juvaderm/voluma/restylane. I CANT BELIEVE THIS. Anyway, I'm praying every day that my face will plump up and I'll be back to my old self. You girls are very kind. I'll let you know if there is any progress . XOXO

Also I find it ridiculous that a diuretic is prescribed for acne by dermatologists. When people think of healthy skin- what to do they think? DRINK WATER AND EAT VEGGIES. being on a diuretic is horrible for your skin.period. I think the dermatology community should come up with some better options for acne, it seems like the only things they offer that "work" are drugs that can potentially be quite dangerous (accutane spiro birth control..) I wish there was some great topical that actually worked. I would be so happy if I could just put on a gel or cream on my face twice a day and have my skin clear up. I've done everything I can for my acne, I guess it's just a high testosterone case (since spiro worked for my acne) and there isn't much Else I can do to control it.

Thank you wishclean! I printed out like 15 other reviews on spiro about premature aging/sagging skin and I plan to bring it to my derm because she claims she has never heard of this before. She assured me that it is just dehydration and that eventually my face will go back to normal, I'm praying. It actually surprised me that I took the drug because I am very anti-drug and very healthy- I never like doing anything unhealthy- I don't think I've even had a soda in 3 years. I think that this was really a learning lesson for me in the sense that acne , yes is annoying, but it is not the most terrible thing in the world. I will be the happiest girl ever if my face returns back to normal (and I will still have acne.) I watch girls on YouTube doing makeup tutorials for acne coverage, and I see that acne can really be covered up well. Mypaleskin is my favorite YouTube girl- she's GORGEOUS and she has moderate acne. Watching girls like that make me feel so much better. If my face does not return to normal, I've reasearched a bit about dermal fillers for under eye/cheek area like juvaderm/voluma/restylane. I CANT BELIEVE THIS. Anyway, I'm praying every day that my face will plump up and I'll be back to my old self. You girls are very kind. I'll let you know if there is any progress . XOXO

Yes, it's good to take those to your derm, although he/she will probably say don't believe random reviews on the internet...then again, positive reviews are also random! In my experience, doctors do not want to admit they don't know everything, so anytime something new is mentioned, they will discredit it.

Don't go down the fillers path, you sound too young for that! I say give it time for your skin to bounce back, and up your vitamin C to help restore collagen. Also, if there's a good naturopath/ integrative doctor/ acupuncturist in your area, go see them...it's a way better alternative for acne management.

Thank you so much for your advice!!!!! I'm definitely waiting (impatiently, of course) for my skin to plump back up, drinking lots of water etc. I agree about doctors never wanting to believe that they don't know everything. Sometimes I think I know more than they do! Haha

Spiro makes me pee like crazy, I'm so tired of it. I pee way more than I drink and I'm constantly lightheaded. Yet I don't dare getting off of it, since my face isn't completely clear and I'm afraid of what's gonna happen if I quit. Besides, can agree with the thread's author, that my undereye area is more saggy since some time (I'm on spiro for 1,5 years), probably cause of dehydration (damn, i pee it all out, how could i possibly be hydrated...)

ok so my skin is just thin and mushy, where as before spiro it was thick taught firm, strong. Now it is so sensitive too that I can't put anything on it at all. My derm assures me that this is JUST dehydration and will go back in time, she said give it a month or two. I've been off spiro for 2 weeks and there is 0 improvement, I've been chugging water non stop. The thing that scares me is that maybe this isn't dehydration, maybe it is skin thinning from the fact that spiro is a steroid. Oral steroids cause skin thinning and it not reversible. I'm very worried and upset. Thoughts on this anyone?

My derm told me that my skin could be like a hose and when you take the water out of the hose it's mushy and weak, if you fill the hose up with water it's firm thick and strong. In the analogy it makes perfect sense but I'm always a pessimist and nothing like this has EVER happened to me before. I can deal with acne much more than I can deal with this. Acne is not a stranger to me anymore and is a normal thing. I feel like it's just a waiting game with this situation.. Waiting for my face to go back to normal , hoping , praying, but not even sure if it's going to happen

Spiro makes me pee like crazy, I'm so tired of it. I pee way more than I drink and I'm constantly lightheaded. Yet I don't dare getting off of it, since my face isn't completely clear and I'm afraid of what's gonna happen if I quit. Besides, can agree with the thread's author, that my undereye area is more saggy since some time (I'm on spiro for 1,5 years), probably cause of dehydration (damn, i pee it all out, how could i possibly be hydrated...)

when you started spiro did you have any dry flaky skin? did you ever notice decrease in the firmness of your skin? also when i was on spiro my face would get really red and feel hot. do you have any of that? i don't understand why the skin thinning / sagging thing happened to me and not many other people. i only took it for 3 weeks at 50 and 75 mg. i'm praying every day that it is dehydration and it will plump back up but a part of me feels like it might not. is the skin thinning due to the fact that it's a steroid? or mayebe the fact because it is an anti androgen and androgens play a big part in collagen production??? my skin before spiro was firm and thick, the only issue i had was acne. now i have so many more dermatological problems after spiro it makes me sick. i'm so sad that i took spiro... i don't want to leave my house or see my friends because i look different. acne i can cover up and is much more normal for me. this is just devastating for me..

 

Spiro makes me pee like crazy, I'm so tired of it. I pee way more than I drink and I'm constantly lightheaded. Yet I don't dare getting off of it, since my face isn't completely clear and I'm afraid of what's gonna happen if I quit. Besides, can agree with the thread's author, that my undereye area is more saggy since some time (I'm on spiro for 1,5 years), probably cause of dehydration (damn, i pee it all out, how could i possibly be hydrated...)

when you started spiro did you have any dry flaky skin? did you ever notice decrease in the firmness of your skin? also when i was on spiro my face would get really red and feel hot. do you have any of that? i don't understand why the skin thinning / sagging thing happened to me and not many other people. i only took it for 3 weeks at 50 and 75 mg. i'm praying every day that it is dehydration and it will plump back up but a part of me feels like it might not. is the skin thinning due to the fact that it's a steroid? or mayebe the fact because it is an anti androgen and androgens play a big part in collagen production??? my skin before spiro was firm and thick, the only issue i had was acne. now i have so many more dermatological problems after spiro it makes me sick. i'm so sad that i took spiro... i don't want to leave my house or see my friends because i look different. acne i can cover up and is much more normal for me. this is just devastating for me..

Sorry that your side effects were so extreme... I have no idea about how Spiro can affect collagen production, the only side effects I'm aware off are dehydration, potassium retention and hyponatremia (low blood sodium). It can really screw up the electrolyte ballance in your blood and hyponatremia makes your cells not absorb enough water. I believe that's my case cause I never look or feel better no matter how much water I drink. I pee it out instantly (sorry, it's so much about the pee lol ), have sunken eyes, dark circles and dull skin. Yea, I notice firmness loss (which, as i state below, i blame on dehydration) and my face feels like it has it's own temperature - sometimes flushed and hot, sometimes cold even if the rest of my body is warm. It's weird.

Anyway, do all the blood work to check your blood electrolytes and hopefully you can find the reason. Myself I'm gonna go down on the spiro dose, this drug is just getting unbearable, I can't work out, can't do physical activities and coooooonstatly feel weak, dull and on the way to black out. Spiro's shit and damn it, my face is not even 100% clear

its so crazy to hear these negative side effects from spiro. I have many friends on this drug with no issues at all me included. it never made me pee anymore or anything like what you are all describing. how crazy! now i already used to already drink a crap ton of water before spiro so maybe that is why but yeah this is all so strange to hear. i wonder if its the dose or something.

its so crazy to hear these negative side effects from spiro. I have many friends on this drug with no issues at all me included. it never made me pee anymore or anything like what you are all describing. how crazy! now i already used to already drink a crap ton of water before spiro so maybe that is why but yeah this is all so strange to hear. i wonder if its the dose or something.

i was only on 50 mg and 75 mg and i only took it for 3 weeks. maybe other people aren't as observant in skin firmness as i am? i don't know what the cause of that is, but i have lost so much volume in my face and i'm only 21. i hate spiro

 

Spiro makes me pee like crazy, I'm so tired of it. I pee way more than I drink and I'm constantly lightheaded. Yet I don't dare getting off of it, since my face isn't completely clear and I'm afraid of what's gonna happen if I quit. Besides, can agree with the thread's author, that my undereye area is more saggy since some time (I'm on spiro for 1,5 years), probably cause of dehydration (damn, i pee it all out, how could i possibly be hydrated...)

when you started spiro did you have any dry flaky skin? did you ever notice decrease in the firmness of your skin? also when i was on spiro my face would get really red and feel hot. do you have any of that? i don't understand why the skin thinning / sagging thing happened to me and not many other people. i only took it for 3 weeks at 50 and 75 mg. i'm praying every day that it is dehydration and it will plump back up but a part of me feels like it might not. is the skin thinning due to the fact that it's a steroid? or mayebe the fact because it is an anti androgen and androgens play a big part in collagen production??? my skin before spiro was firm and thick, the only issue i had was acne. now i have so many more dermatological problems after spiro it makes me sick. i'm so sad that i took spiro... i don't want to leave my house or see my friends because i look different. acne i can cover up and is much more normal for me. this is just devastating for me..

 

Sorry that your side effects were so extreme... I have no idea about how Spiro can affect collagen production, the only side effects I'm aware off are dehydration, potassium retention and hyponatremia (low blood sodium). It can really screw up the electrolyte ballance in your blood and hyponatremia makes your cells not absorb enough water. I believe that's my case cause I never look or feel better no matter how much water I drink. I pee it out instantly (sorry, it's so much about the pee lol ), have sunken eyes, dark circles and dull skin. Yea, I notice firmness loss (which, as i state below, i blame on dehydration) and my face feels like it has it's own temperature - sometimes flushed and hot, sometimes cold even if the rest of my body is warm. It's weird.

Anyway, do all the blood work to check your blood electrolytes and hopefully you can find the reason. Myself I'm gonna go down on the spiro dose, this drug is just getting unbearable, I can't work out, can't do physical activities and coooooonstatly feel weak, dull and on the way to black out. Spiro's shit and damn it, my face is not even 100% clear

oh wow so you really did have the same face kinda stuff as me - loss of firmness, red hot face, etc... i don't even care about acne anymore, i can slap on some foundation and call it a day. at least i used to like my face...it was firm and plump and youthful and i had no problem sending snapchat selfies to my friends all day (lol) . now that's a different story since spiro because i can't even believe how much my face changed. the doctors claim spiro is such a mild diuretic but it seriously can't be so mild because i had every symptom of dehydration to the point of no appetite all day everyday towards the end of the 3 weeks. i have my appitie back now and i'm feeling better, the only problems i have now are with my face volume and firmness and no libido (i don't even care about that right now) like even my temples / cheeks feel mushy where they used to be thick and bouncy like strong collagen. my derm insists that it's dehydration and that the face is "like a hose" and when i get re hydrated it will firm up. i dunno... derms don't always know what theyre talking about and im pessimistic. obviously i pray she is right but i can't just picture waking up one day with my old face back. it doesn't seem possible, i think that the collagen loss might be because of loss of androgens which are responsible for skin thickness and firmness

I just don't know how that could happen I've never heard anything about any medication doing anything like that. I would need to see a pic because with you being so young I just cant imagine anything aging you that fast like ever. So has your derm confirmed the drastic change to your appearance? I take 100mg and pretty much everybody I know on spiro takes 100mg so that's not a high dose or anything you were on. You do need to take it with food and drink a crap ton of water and sometimes it can make your periods out of whack but I haven't heard of much else happening to people I know that are taking it. I know for me spiro makes my skin just look a million times better and I can eat anything I want and wash my face with anything I want too. Now I do wear a lot of makeup but that is for my scarring which I got prior to spiro. For me had I found spiro years ago I would be in a much better place mentally now.

Anyway post a before and after picture on here so we can see what you are talking about but I am sure you look just fine.

I just don't know how that could happen I've never heard anything about any medication doing anything like that. I would need to see a pic because with you being so young I just cant imagine anything aging you that fast like ever. So has your derm confirmed the drastic change to your appearance? I take 100mg and pretty much everybody I know on spiro takes 100mg so that's not a high dose or anything you were on. You do need to take it with food and drink a crap ton of water and sometimes it can make your periods out of whack but I haven't heard of much else happening to people I know that are taking it. I know for me spiro makes my skin just look a million times better and I can eat anything I want and wash my face with anything I want too. Now I do wear a lot of makeup but that is for my scarring which I got prior to spiro. For me had I found spiro years ago I would be in a much better place mentally now.

Anyway post a before and after picture on here so we can see what you are talking about but I am sure you look just fine.

this does not make me feel better- assurance that i "look fine" is not what i need right now. there was a DEFINITE change in my face that i know happened because of the spiro. if i were to post a picture, what are you all supposed to say? yeah you look horrible?? of course you wouldn't say that. there is no point in posting a picture i'm obviously devestated right now

So my mom asked a pharmacist at CVS about the problems I'm having with my face bc of the spiro and he said this is a known side effect of spiro . What the heck??? How does a pharmacist know this and my dermatologist doesn't ? He also said it should go back to normal in a few months. I swear to god the day my face goes back to normal I'm buying a puppy

Now I thought about my boyfriend's comment, that he made some time ago. We looked at my pictures from 1,5 or more years ago and he said that my face was so plump (he personally didn't think the plumpness was cute, but the point is, he saw the difference) and now I thought that my face might have changed after I started taking spiro. The difference is that I've been taking it waaaay longer than the thread's author and it's weird to me, that something would drastically change after just three week, but shit happens... Anyway, this topic made me consider getting off spiro.

ok so my skin is just thin and mushy, where as before spiro it was thick taught firm, strong. Now it is so sensitive too that I can't put anything on it at all. My derm assures me that this is JUST dehydration and will go back in time, she said give it a month or two. I've been off spiro for 2 weeks and there is 0 improvement, I've been chugging water non stop. The thing that scares me is that maybe this isn't dehydration, maybe it is skin thinning from the fact that spiro is a steroid. Oral steroids cause skin thinning and it not reversible. I'm very worried and upset. Thoughts on this anyone?

 

My derm told me that my skin could be like a hose and when you take the water out of the hose it's mushy and weak, if you fill the hose up with water it's firm thick and strong. In the analogy it makes perfect sense but I'm always a pessimist and nothing like this has EVER happened to me before. I can deal with acne much more than I can deal with this. Acne is not a stranger to me anymore and is a normal thing. I feel like it's just a waiting game with this situation.. Waiting for my face to go back to normal , hoping , praying, but not even sure if it's going to happen

Yes, actually since it's a steroid, steroids can cause skin thinning. I remember I used to use a topical antibacterial steroid cream (which of course the doc "forgot" to mention it was a steroid), and when I finally read the leaflet it said not to use long term because it can cause skin thinning. This was a topical, though, but perhaps oral steroids have a similar impact. In any case, you quit taking it so you are on your way towards improvement.

Naturally, derms/ docs will never take responsibility for negative side effects. I was given an anesthesia overdose for a surgery, and when I had side effects from it, doctors did not take responsibility for it and instead told me the side effects must be from something else. You are doing what you can at the moment, and you need to give it time for it to completely leave your system and for your skin to bounce back. It won't happen overnight unfortunately :/

Spironolactone IS a synthetic corticosteroid just like prednisone which is known to thin the skin. However I whenever I type stuff into google about spiro and thinning skin, besides other people complaining, I do find articles like this that would prove that IT WOULD NOT cause skin thinning. Very confusing , interesting to read.

http://www.news-medical.net/news/20150319/Spironolactone-drug-reduces-side-effects-of-corticosteroid-based-dermatological-creams.aspx

 

Now I thought about my boyfriend's comment, that he made some time ago. We looked at my pictures from 1,5 or more years ago and he said that my face was so plump (he personally didn't think the plumpness was cute, but the point is, he saw the difference) and now I thought that my face might have changed after I started taking spiro. The difference is that I've been taking it waaaay longer than the thread's author and it's weird to me, that something would drastically change after just three week, but shit happens... Anyway, this topic made me consider getting off spiro.

As you age you lose volume so that was probably why. It happens to us all

 

 

Now I thought about my boyfriend's comment, that he made some time ago. We looked at my pictures from 1,5 or more years ago and he said that my face was so plump (he personally didn't think the plumpness was cute, but the point is, he saw the difference) and now I thought that my face might have changed after I started taking spiro. The difference is that I've been taking it waaaay longer than the thread's author and it's weird to me, that something would drastically change after just three week, but shit happens... Anyway, this topic made me consider getting off spiro.

As you age you lose volume so that was probably why. It happens to us all

I don't think it's that, not that much aging going on between ages 22 and 24, I hardly have any wrinkles and my parents look youthful in their late 40s. The loss of face volume happened rather quicly for me as well, just not during 3 weeks as the author of this thread experiences. It's easy to track down my pictures.

Btw you shouldn't write down other people's negative experiences with some "simple" explanation. That's insensitive of you... This drug clearly has side effects on a lot of users.

Anyway, sick and tired of spiro and a throbbing pain on my jawline from yet another hormonal breakout doesn't make me encouraged to go through all the dizzy spells and about-to-faint experiences spiro causes me. Why take it, if it doesn't even do it's job - keep me clear.

To the author - well just know that I understand your despair, but all spiro's side effects should be gone once you stop using it, maybe it takes some time while it gets out of your system. Good luck!

Not being insensitive i just dont believe it. I am allowed to have my opinion. If its that bad for you though then no reason to keep taking it then.