Vitex : Vitex

I will sing vitex's praises forever! I HAD severe hormonal cystic acne on my cheeks - cutting dairy helped but not 100%. I also have severe PMS or PMDD, so I was desperate for help. At the end of August 2016, I tried my first vitex pill and within 12 hours my face started clearing! It was like the undo-button for my face. Praise God. I take 2-3 400mg pills a day. My face has only improved and my PMS is slowly getting better. A few weeks ago I upped my vitamin A which is clearing out any old stubborn zits. For the first time in my life I have clear skin with NO BREAKOUTS. I can feel my cheeks and the subsurface is even and painless, instead of swollen and lumpy. It's a skin-saving, miracle-working herb. I wish I had tried it sooner!

So glad we can finally review vitex! I've been using it for the last 6 months and it has worked well for me. At first I was very skeptical. I'm NOT someone who pops all kinds of vitamins but a friend of mine suggested this since it worked for her. According to my doctors I could either go on BC or accutane--options I desperately did not want to try so I gave Vitex a go. I've been taking one pill a day regularly (except for July, was travelling a lot). In short, I like it, it works and I recommend it as worth trying. I'm going to go into detail about it below just for the benefit of whoever wants more info: My kind of acne: My hormones have been tested and found to be only slightly out of whack according to my doc. He was ready with a birth control rx but I was not! My acne was severe a year ago and with the help of medical topicals and cleansers I was able to get it in check (not cleared). Even after my acne was in check I still had a bad breakout before my period every month (papules, pustules, inflamation, redness, etc). It would take forever to 'recover' from the breakout. Then right when my skin recovered from that breakout the process started all over again. Sound familiar? Vitex is not the kind of thing that works really fast. I'd say into the 2nd month I noticed a change. The change was that my monthly breakout was not so severe. Instead of several pimples I might get one or two of the non-inflamed variety. These healed and went away instead of staying and inviting friends. Since then I've had months when I didn't break out at all. Like I said, my acne was not severe when I started using vitex but if yours is I would use vitex in conjunction with whatever topical your doctor might suggest. It is not a magic pill so don't expect miracles but it does what I need it to do which is help reduce or eliminate my hormonal breakouts.Have patience with it. For my part I am thankful to have found an alternative to BC or accutane. Brand: N

I actually joined this website in order to rave about my results with Vitex over about three months.. Cystic (scarring!) acne came out of nowhere when I turned 22 and I tried everything. Since taking Vitex, in combination with my acne therapy light, my breakouts are finally under control. I couldn't be happier. Wish I could add pictures to show you the improvement; but take my word. When nothing else is working, it may be your hormones being wacky and producing too much testosterone like me.

After the birth of my daughter I started experiencing lots of cysts on my face, neck, and back. I started taking doxycycline, which helped to reduced the size of the cysts, but it did not eliminate them. I purchased some Vitex at my local health-food store. After about a month or so I started having fewer cysts on my face and body. My acne has definitely cleared up. I still get a couple of cysts before my period, but nothing like before. There are 2 types of Vitex (also called Chaste Berry). You can buy root or extract. Extract is more potent, so you end up taking fewer pills. The more expensive price tag actually ends up being the same or less expensive than buying Vitex root capsules. I am currently taking Solaray brand, 1 225mg pill per day, but after this bottle I will increase it to 2 225mg pills per day.

After 25 years of trying every single OTC & RX acne cure on the market (with only temporary or no results, I finally stumbled upon a website that recommended the DIM + Vitex treament. I couldn't believe that within 1 week, my skin was no longer bumpy and breaking out. I had just quit Spiro (which hadn't even worked after 8 months) cold-turkey and expected there to be at least a little flare-up, but my hormonal acne all over my skin was almost gone. After a few months now, I can say that perhaps 1 small pimple happened at PMS time, and then nothing more. One caveat: if you are taking the recommended dosage on the bottles and get headaches, add in Milk Thistle. I should have started out more slowly anyway and might have not gotten the headaches. I took 1 DIM + Vitex in the am & pm. Now up to 2 pills twice daily.

Try it! It not only cleared my acne almost instantly, it has remained clear despite quitting Spironolactone cold turkey. It also had the added bonus of bringing back my period which I haven't had for an entire year. Balanced hormones seems to really agree with me and it might with you too. Oh, and it has a lot of positive reviews in terms of conception. I'll be updating if I'm also able to become pregnant with continued use (we've been trying for 16 months and on various fertility meds so it would be a miracle!). Give a try, I'm glad I did.

When I am stressed or menstruating, I break out badly. I have been thinking about getting this for over a month, but was too lazy to buy it. Finally I went to the store and got it. Maybe 5-6 days after taking it, my mom asks me "what am I doing with my skin"? "You face is clearing up". I have been taking them three times a day for two weeks and my face is CLEAR. I only had one small pimple compared to the huge pimples and whiteheads I had two weeks ago.

If you have HORMONAL acne, this is an excellent supplement. I take 2 pills everyday, and have for almost 2 months now. It takes 3 weeks to see some noticable results, but it IS worth it. If I go a couple days without taking it, I start to get pimples again so it's important to make you're taking it every day consistently. BONUS: If you have a problem with ovarian cysts, it calms those symptoms and helps prevent future cysts as well.

I eat a very healthy plant based diet, drink over a gallon of water per day, exercise regularly, sleep 8+ hours per night, and do yoga and meditation to manage my stress. Despite all of this, my cystic acne has only gotten worse and I figured that I must have a hormonal imbalance. I wanted to avoid harsh medications like accutane, retin-A, birth control, antibiotics, and spironolactone so I decided to take the natural route. I stumbled upon vitex and only found positive reviews, so I decided to give it a try. Probably one of the worst mistakes I've ever made. I ended up in the ER because of heart palpitations and acute anxiety. I could not sleep because my heart was pounding and I would wake up in the middle of the night and look in the mirror and not be able to recognize myself. Sometimes when I closed my eyes, I experienced some form of psychosis and saw terrifying images and hallucinations. I couldn't concentrate at all and I became unable to read, hold conversations, or perform simple addition. I put on weight because I was ravenously hungry and no amount of food could satisfy my cravings. The worst part is that my skin broke out in a severe, itchy, acne-like rash and it had never looked more terrible or swollen. I took it for approximately 1 week and stopped it cold turkey after taking a higher dose (two 400 mg pills, 12 hours apart) and suffering severe diarrhea the following day. It has been nearly 3 weeks since I last took it. Fortunately, my period is still regular, but the anxiety and the derealization/depersonalization remain. I'm getting better day by day but this has been not been an easy journey. I was lucky to get out quickly and to be young (I'm 19 years old) and fairly healthy, but I have read stories of women who stuck with the pill for months and even years despite the side effects and permanently damaged their bodies. Please, please reconsider taking vitex until you have gone to a doctor, gotten your hormones tested, and been told that your progesterone is low. I don't want to discount that vitex has been a miracle worker for so many women. However, it is NOT for everyone. I feel that after the pain I have endured, it's my duty to share my experience so no else has to suffer like I have. If you do wish to start vitex, start with VERY small dosages. A lot of my anger stems from the fact that the Whole Foods brand has pills with 400 mg of the herb and the instructions recommend that you take 1 to 2 capsules per day. IMPORTANT: THE RECOMMENDED DOSAGE IS ANYWHERE BETWEEN 50 MG AND 250 MG (MAX!!!!) DAILY. I took 800 mg only ONE day and I have not been the same since. So start with small doses or avoid the herb all together. Trust me, clear skin is not worth your health or your sanity. Update: It has now been nearly 4 months and I am still not even close to 100%. My acne is the worst it's ever been, my period comes later and later each month, and my anxiety is through the roof. DO NOT TAKE ANY SUPPLEMENT WITHOUT CONSULTING A DOCTOR OR A LICENSED HERBALIST. I'm devastated and I would never wish this pain upon anyone.

While Accutane got rid of the worst of my acne (I started taking it when I was 14,) I still had it worse than the average teenager. As I got older (17) I stopped getting acne on my forehead, cheeks, and chin, and instead it spread to the sides of my face, and along my jawline, and under my chin. This was my transition from teenage acne to adult acne. While I do use a prescription topical cream which entirely eliminated the acne along the sides of my face, it did not get rid of the acne along my jawline and under it. I started taking Vitex in hopes of it helping with the acne there, and after about a month I started noticing a small difference. After approximately two months my acne along my jawline and underneath it was pretty much gone. Of course I still get some zits (mostly along my jawline and under it) but my face hasn't been this clear since I was 12-13. I think the more I use Vitex, the better the results will be. Vitex also helps a lot with period acne and PMS.