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At a totally loss with hormonal acne. Blood work says hormones normal. Please help!!!

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(@shannyanny)

Posted : 01/17/2019 8:35 am

Im gonna keep my back story short, been suffering acne since 13, im 22 now and its just getting worse. In almost 10 years there has not been a single day where I haven't had a spot on my face. The mental effects of this are really starting to effect my day to day and depression is getting worse. In the last year I have tried...

Vitex - didnt improve after 4 months and gave me awful depression and panic attacks. 

L-lysine - didnt effect acne

Burdock root - didnt effect acne

Dandelion - didnt effect acne

Nettle tea - no noticeable changes

Estroblock - made acne worse then back to how it normally looks plus expensive

No milk/cheese - took acne from servere to moderate but still looks awful

Clean diet - no noticeable changes

Vegan diet - made acne worse

No sugar - helps alot but constantly restricting is having a bad impact on my mental health

Perfectsil skin plus - no noticeable changes

Omega 3 fish oil - made acne worse

Plus a shit ton of skin care products that never make a difference to my face anyway.

My current routine is -

Vitamin D, Saw palmetto, myo-inositil & the nettle tea as was convinced I had pcos as my periods are irregular, the acne is stubbon, cystic and get worse during ovulation and before my period, i have excess facial and body hair and my mood swings are getting worse plus my hair is falling out by the hand full . I got blood work done last week and the doctors are saying all tests come back as normal. Im at a totally loss and dont know where to go or what to do from here. I have attached photos of my results as i refused to not have them for myself to look over but not a clue what they mean. Please anyones advice / guidance / expertise would be greatly appreciated. I cant stop crying and dont know where to go from here but I cant go on feeling this way.

20190117_132747.jpg

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(@karenm)

Posted : 01/17/2019 11:59 am

Hi. I also have hormonal acne. My blood tests also came back normal, but my dermatologist said that some women's bodies are so super sensitive to their own hormones that your body "thinks" it's getting too much. So you break out. My dermatologist prescribed spironolactone to block this from happening. I just started ut 3 weeks ago and it takes 3 months to work so I'm trying to be patient. From everything I've read, many dermatologists use this drug as a lice saver for women suffering with hormonal acne as it usually has no side effects and you can stay on it for a long time.

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(@emilee_sarah)

Posted : 02/12/2019 11:10 pm

Hi love,

My heart goes out to you...hang in there. I know how emotionally painful and frustrating adult acne is.

I too struggled with stubborn adult acne. My miracle product was Unblemish by Rodan+Fields. It completely transformed my skin. Maybe it could help you as well?

 

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17
(@gutskinaxis)

Posted : 02/12/2019 11:27 pm

Hi it seems like your diet really effects your acne, just like mine. I was able to clear my skin while still allowing myself to eat good but clean foods. Message me if you want some tips. Trust me I went through it all, all the topicals and diets. It was so hard to stick to. But I found a way to stick to one that still gives me energy, does not make me feel low or sad about missing out on other foods. I can give you step by step instructions on how to eat well and get better skin each day.

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(@amanda-hall)

Posted : 08/06/2021 4:08 am

I'm not a believer in many supplements.

Have you considered Accutane?

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(@elainea)

Posted : 08/06/2021 10:32 am

You may not have acne. It might be Rosacea Subtype 2 with papules and pustules. Rosacea Subtype 2 is frequently misdiagnosed as bacterial acne especially if your face isn't particularly red from the rosacea. When the usual bacterial acne treatment doesn't work it may get written off as "hormonal acne". This happened to me for decades. 4 board certified dermatologists misdiagnosed the condition as bacterial acne. The 4th one said "Gee you have had this a really long time, maybe its hormonal". None of them ever ran any tests, just performed the "10 second glance exam".

A large number of people with Rosacea Subtype 2 also have Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO). Most of the human immune system is in the gut. SIBO affects the immune system allowing microscopic demodex skin mites to become severely overpopulated on the skin resulting in Rosacea Subtype 2. Everyone has a few of these mites - a healthy immune system keeps the population under control. The mites eat skin oil and possibly skin cells. The mites live on a 2 to 3 week cycle. When they die they form pustules of dead mites. The cyclical behavior can sometimes lead to a hormonal acne misdiagnosis. Skin symptoms may include: large blackheads, pustules, papules, body acne, scalp acne, red eyes, ocular rosacea/blepharitis demodex.

SIBO can treated in 1-3 weeks with the right antibiotic. The types of antibiotics used to treat bacterial acne are not the ones they give to treat SIBO. Any given antibiotic only works on a small number of types of bacteria. To clear the infection the correct antibiotic has to be used. To diagnose the bacteria causing the SIBO they do an endoscope test to collect a small sample of fluid from the intestine. The fluid is tested for bacteria and fungus. It is possible to have a fungal overgrowth (SIFO) instead of a bacterial overgrowth. So they check for fungus as well as bacteria. The doctor can then select the correct antibiotic or anti-fungal oral drug to clear the overgrowth.

Here are 2 medical studies that tested 2 different antibiotic treatments shown to clear demodex skin mites. The first study tested Oral Ivermectin alone versus using a 2 drug treatment Oral Ivermectin + Oral Metronidazole. Adding Oral Metronidazole to the treatment was far more effective than Oral Ivermectin alone. At the time of the study, the medical researchers were not certain why Oral Metronidazole helped so much. Oral Metronidazole is highly effective against 2 different bacteria known to cause SIBO. The combined treatment worked for me after having Rosacea Subtype II misdiagnosed as bacterial acne along with SIBO for decades. Oral Ivermectin and Oral Metronidazole are available as inexpensive generic drugs.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S120197121201315X

The following medical study from 2016, tested the expensive antibiotic Rifaximin on Rosacea patients confirmed to have SIBO. It worked in a large number of cases. Rifaximin is highly effective against E. Coli bacteria which is known to cause SIBO. Rifaximin does not work against all types of bacteria known to cause SIBO. That why the endoscope test results are important to select the right antibiotic for treatment.

https://www.jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(12)02330-4/fulltext

Treatment with Accutane may temporarily make the skin look better as it starves the mite population down by drastically reducing the skin oil. But the mite population can rebound after the Accutane is discontinued. In the long run if SIBO is the problem, Accutane is not the answer, it only treats the symptoms not the gut issues that are causing the real problem. Accutane also has a lot of dangerous side effects making it a drug to avoid if at all possible. The following medical study documents a patient misdiagnosed with acne and finally treated with Accutane. His skin condition rebounded because the issue was with demodex skin mites - it wasn't acne. Treatment with just 2 once a week doses of Oral Ivermectin cleared the skin condition.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5489393/

Eating a healthy well balanced diet low in sugar along with probiotics and drinking plenty of water can help keep the gut healthy.

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