I've struggled for decades now with acne on and off, mostly of the mild-moderate variety with the occasional hormonal cystic pimple that usually would never come to the surface. Starting a few months ago, I went through a series of extremely stressful life events (relationship, work, family health issues, etc.) It was honestly the most horrible time of my life, and my skin suffered. Badly. I broke out -- oddly almost entirely on the left side of my face -- with sort of cystic looking pimples. Think bright red, super raised from the surface of my skin, like frozen peas underneath the skin. The worst part was that I'd get a cluster of a few that would basically merge together into a pulsing, throbbing mess. These "cysts" actually came to the surface. The top layer of skin would dry out and start to peel, which looked bad enough, but then I'd actually get green/yellow pus oozing from them. So horrible. I felt like I could barely leave the house! I mean, people would stare. Let me also mention that at the same time, I always had my more normal variety of very small spots, mostly around my jawline. No big deal at all with these -- easy to cover up with makeup and would usually go away on their own in a few days. Anyway, I also wound up hurting my hand taking a fall and got a scrape that became infected. My doctor basically looked at it and my face and was like, you need an oral antibiotic right now. He gave me Doxy, 2x100 mg a day. In less than 24 hours, not only did my hand scab over, turn a normal color again and stop hurting, but nearly 100% of the raised acne went down and also became way less red. They're all in a healing process right now -- and no new cystic bumps whatsoever. The improvement is dramatic. It will definitely take a few more weeks for everything to heal and start to fade, and unfortunately, I do think there is some scarring that I'll need to get a peel/laser for, but I can't recommend this antibiotic enough. BUT, I want to mention that the minor acne I always had is basically exactly the same. It seems like this should be reserved for severe infections. I obviously have had some stress-related immune suppressing things going on, and this is the backup artillery my immune system needed to fight off the bacteria that were running rampant. I'm planning on weaning off of it in a few weeks and also focusing on stress reduction in my life right now.

I'm 20 year old female that one month ago, had terrible hormonal cystic acne. Acne has always been something I have battled with for years, but recently it had become worse than I had ever experienced. I decided it was time to get a prescription of an effective antibiotic and was prescibed Doxycycline (100mg 2x a day) due to the fact that my skin wasn't responding to any of the cleansers/topicals/or regimens that i had tried over the years. The first few weeks definitely had a negative effect on my skin, since my skin was at the purging stage. However, STAY WITH IT. It has only been about 5 weeks now, and i kid you not, my acne is completely gone. I haven't got a single pimple since the purging stage and I couldn't be happier. Yes, many complain about the nausea that accompanies the antibiotic, but i don't find it unbearable. As long it is taken in the morning right before breakfast, and at night right before dinner, there shouldn't be any issues. Although it has only been a month since i started, I cannot see how doxycycline could possibly have adverse effects. Im so very pleased with my results, and I cannot wait to see what it does for my skin long term! Highly recommend!

Ive taking doxycycline for 3 years already. Best thing you can try for your acne. It clear my acne in a week or so. Control my back and chest acne too. The only bad thing is you have to tape it and mostly you will get alot of pimples but its only a month. This is what i do. Take it for 5 months then one month off. And repet. I will start using retin a for better results but im pretty content with doxy. I would recomend to anyone

This antibiotic is what helped me the most. No other prescription helped me reduce acne like this oral antibiotic. I remember not using any topical prescription on my face because of how well my body reacted with this antibiotic. I first used it around 5 years ago when my acne first started to worsen. My skin cleared up within weeks. I felt a little nauseas when I took this 5 years ago because I had to take it on an empty stomach, everyday. After, I took a break from this and had a really bad reaction. I took this a year after and it seemed like it wasn't helping. Since it wasn't helping, I took another break from this antibiotic. After the break, I was prescribed to this for the third time but instead of one pill a day, I had to take 2. It has been working like a charm ever since I've been taking this antibiotic twice a day. To prevent the nauseas symptom, I eat right before I take this pill (in the morning and at night) and I avoid dairy products 2 hours before/after taking this pill.

I've struggled with adult onset, hormonal, cystic acne for 15 or so years. Various things have helped at various times. However, I decided I no longer wanted to be on birth-control (Diane 35 was wonderful for my skin). Once I went off of it my skin exploded with very painful, long lasting cysts all over my face. My doctor put me on Doxycycline and that did a wonderful job for a couple months. When I went off of it, the cysts came back. So, Im back on and clear again. In the meantime, I've cut out refined sugar from my diet (and lost 10lbs in the first month). I'm also adding probiotics to my diet along with other fermented foods to increase good gut health. Hopefully these changes will do the trick in keeping the acne gone once I'm done this round of Doxy. I am thankful to the posters here that are detailing their holistic approaches and how they've worked. The whole reason for quitting birth-control was because I no longer wanted to rely on pills! (plus I hate my body being tricked into thinking it's pregnant all the time!)

I went to my doctor because I had a bad case of bacne (back acne) but it turned out to be some sort of bacterial infection...sorry, I can't recall its name. Its from excessive sweating and possibly supplements I take. I don't really have facial acne but I do have a minor case of rosacea as well so he prescribed Doxycyline for both. Within 5 days my back is almost 90% clear and the minor redness on my face is gone. I definitely feel like my skin looks alot tighter/smooth. For those complaining about being nauseous, vomiting, stomach aches etc. are you reading the label warnings? Make sure you are taking this on a full stomach during or immediately after meal or else you will feel sick. Also my label said do not consume dairy products within two hours of taking it. Hopefully my skin will stay this way once I'm off of it!

This worked great for my cystic acne. Used it twice for extended periods of time (6 months & then 1 year). Just recently discontinued use 2 weeks ago. Exactly as with what happened the last time, not even 2 weeks later ..... 4 PAINFUL, CYSTIC pimples have already appeared on my chin (all within the last 3 days) .... and I have a huge social function to attend this weekend. I know long term antibiotics are potentially dangerous because of the possibility of drug resistant microorganisms; but ...... I WANT MY ANTIBIOTICS BACK!!!!

So, this is a vague review because this started years ago. I had really bad acne my whole life and I tried everything under the sun. My doctor one day prescribed doxycycline along with my birth control. 100 mg in the morning and a 100mg at night. I take a lot of medication to begin with but there is one thing I learned with this medication. Never...EVER take this on an empty stomach. You will likely get nauseous. Slowly but surely, my face cleared up and I rarely get pimples now. The reason I put down "inconsistently" is because I can't get the antibiotic anymore for the past 2 years (why, I don't know... shortage?) but, my face is still clear. I think it has a lot to do with entering my 20's. Even though it helps with the pimples, I still have blackheads and whiteheads on my face. Seriously though, this really saved my face from further damage in my teenage years because I had breakouts that would swell my face.

Started with 2 100mg doxycycline a day around a year ago. My acne nearly completely cleared up. Got lazy and tired of the stomach pain that occurred for 10-15 minutes after taking and acne got bad again. Been taking it once a day for a few weeks and I've noticed a HUGE reduction in new acne.

Its an antibiotic, so its going to have some bad results if is consume in a wrong way. The key is very simple: don't eat anything with calcium three hours before and three hours after taking it, because CALCIUM prevents the body to absorb it. Some days I wait just 2 hours. I buy cookies without calcium to eat with the antibiotic, so my stomach not hurt. And wait 1 hour before go to bed!