Dianette : Oral Contraceptive

It's good if you're gonna use it for the rest of your life cos you have no plans of getting pregnant!

This worked beautifully the first time I tried it and I enjoyed flawless skin for 5 years. Also the ability to eat whatever I liked while remaining a uk size 6/8. However, coming off it for me was one of the typical horror stories. Acne like never before, even down my chest, stomach and arms. Sudden growth of thick black body hair. Sudden weight gain especially around middle. And to make matters worse it didn't really work the second time around and now I'm too scared to come off it again for fear of what will happen to my body. But the first time I was on it I had little troublesome side effects and it worked on my skin amazingly. I'm not sure it's worth the risk, but who knows whether the Dianette caused these problems for me, or whether they'd have happened anyway and the pill was blocking the symptoms.

Don't use it. I never made the link with the pill until my boyfriend shouted it at me this morning after another tantrum. Although my skin is ok, not perfect, but ok, it's not worth the moodswings. They're making my life unbearable. Definatly not taking it anymore.

Not sure if it is worth it. Skin not totally clear with up and down stages, and crying, depression and irritability worse to deal with I think. Also being fat is probably just as confidence shattering as spots, especially when in the space of a month you can't fit into your clothes.

I took this pill briefly a few years ago and I somehow decided it would be a good idea to go back on it. How wrong could I be! I didn't realise that the mood swings, clinginess, laziness that ruined the relationship I had at the time might be partly attributed to this drug. Now I realise it was most definately a factor. I have been taking this drug again for the last two months. During this time I have struggled to get out of bed before the afternoon (and I am usually very active). My breasts have become uncomfortably huge and hurt like they have been bruised. Myself and my boyfriend have also seen a horrible change in my personality - I'm lazy, irrational, argumentative, I overeact, I cry loads...I could go on for days. That is why I will not be taking any more of these pills, the doc put me on Yasmin instead, just reading some reviews on it, doesn't sound much better!

If you think your acne is hormonal I recommend it. If you are about to take accutane women usually have to go on the pill anyway, so if you are using dianette for this reason (like I originally was) maybe wait 3-4 months before using accutane to see if the dianette makes a difference - accutane has more side affects. I noticed the improvement with the pill in a month so refused accutane.

Personally it didn't agree with me atall. I went on it for two reasons. 1)to help prevent me from getting cysts (which i suffer from) and 2)to clear up my spots. I've been on Dianette for just under 6 months but today i've decided to stop taking it as i was fedup of feeling so unwell and down! I just hope i'm back to my normal happy, energetic self very soon!

It is good and does it's job well. However I am now off it and worried about getting spots which I never had that bad in the first place! don't think anyone should ever go on this spots just come back really really bad and just messes with your hormones.

It was a great solution for me. I think as it is a hormonal treatment it needs time to make a change but it was the right thing for me.

I'm 31 and I've been suffering with acne since my late teens. I've been taking this for about 8 days and was feeling quite nauseous for about the first 5 but this has now subsided. I don't feel depressed exactly but I seem to over-react emotionally to everything. I felt close to tears at the supermarket because someone brushed past me roughly. This is not typical behaviour for me! My skin was not terrible before, but now it is! I've broken out all around my chin and on my neck and chest where I didn't have any spots before. I'm hoping this is because it has to get worse before it gets better. I don't want to jump to any conclusions about the effectiveness of this medication yet but I am certain it's affecting my body and mind in lots of ways. I'm not really sure it's worth it to improve my (not so terrible) acne. Also, why are doctors so keen to prescribe this? My doctor wouldn't even consider offering me any alternative so basically I have to try this before I can have anything else.