I never ever ever ever write up reviews. But I need to share this. I've suffered from moderate to severe acne for nearly 2 years. I would have these dots all over my face, my skin was red, and it just didn't look appealing. And I have tried so many tricks in the book. This comes down to changing my diet, trying tons of skin products (including natural), drinking so much water and I do (3litres a day) and so much more. It has put my self-esteem so down, I refused to go out a lot of the times because I'd see other girls my age with clear skin and it come to a point where I decided to go to the doctor. He prescribed me with doxycycline and a cream to apply on my skin once a day. It is currently day 6 of being on this pill and cream. And I have been complimented by my peers that my acne has been reduced significantly including my hyperpigmentation. I don't know if this will work for everyone but it is worth a try. And since I have taken this pill, I have never felt so much better about myself. and the best part is, IT'S ONLY DAY 6. I will say it hasn't cleared up fully but around my chin area I had lost of cysts and pimples that had white heads everyday and it looked nasty. So far my acne has reduced in size and has flattened. I still have 22 days to go of taking this pill so I will give a heads up.

I've been on two, 2 month courses of doxycycline in my life, using it as a way to pump the brakes on the cycle of acne when it's been out of control. The first time, I had never ever been on any oral medication for my acne and wasn't on birth control. Doxy cleared most of my acne in that time and after getting off it, my skin was relatively under control for a year and a half, with good skincare practices and a regimen that worked for me. I got back on it recently for less severe acne than before, but just because I was switching birth control pills a lot at the time and my skin was understandably reacting. I just wanted to calm things down immediately rather than waiting for the birth control to even out, and it worked great for that. I will note that I did *not* experience any side effects, except increased redness and sensitivity when I got my eyebrows/upper lip threaded which went away in a few hours. Doxy isn't a permanent solution to your acne, but if you have out of control breakouts and don't want to go on Accutane, it's a great choice to get your skin possibly to the point where it can be managed with a good skincare regimen.

Background info- I've had mild acne ever since I was 13 (now 18), for that period I'd used multiple topical creams, the only one that worked was a 5% benzac cleanser & spot cream. I've never really been fussed about my acne until the end of last year. My acne turned moderate where my face was covered in paptules, pustules with the occasional nodule. So I decided medication was the next step, the pimples were stress induced and weren't hormonal so I knew the pill was less likely to clear my skin. I was prescribed doxycycline for 6 months. I was apprehensive at first as a few friends had tried doxy with no result, to be fair, their acne was severe and cystic. KEEP IN MIND you won't see results until the 2 month mark at the earliest! At 2 months I'd noticed my skin changing, however, my skin wasn't completely clear until the 4 month mark. Your prescription needs to be for a substantial amount of time! 2 months worth isn't enough. In saying that, you will know around the 3 month mark if doxy has or hasn't worked for you! My friends who weren't so successful with doxy were then prescribed roaccutane and currently have the clearest skin I've ever seen! So I'd stopped taking doxy and my skin remained clear for approximately 6 months until now. It's exam period and the stress is in full force and so my acne has returned. No where near as severe as before hand but I didn't want to risk it progressing to that stage. So I'm back on the prescription have been for a month and I've already seen a massive improvement! So all the reviews 'not recommending it' had a similar experience as my friends, it shows you that the effectivity varies per person. You won't know if it will effect you until you try it! Be optimistic. For those with moderate acne I'd suggest Doxy as an initial step and roaccutane as a back up plan. Acne is a fkn pain, but to those who wear makeup I'd suggest investing in Estée Lauder double wear it didn't aggregate my skin and would last the whole day! No one knew I had moderate acne until I took this foundation off bcus it's that full coverage and long lasting! My acne was extremely red against my pale skin, but was mainly inflamed rather than dry and this foundation made it look like I had a handful of pimples in person and flawless skin in photos! I'd recommend doxy to anyone with moderate acne as an initial step or to those with severe acne who would prefer not to take roaccutane. However, those of you with severe acne who are desperate for clear skin I'd suggest roaccutane, as a prescription of doxy has the potential to add an additional 3 months to your journey and is only effective on certain people.

I've tried dozens of acne products for almost 10 years now (23 yr old female now, all topical medications). from benzyl peroxide, tactuo, spectro, cerave, clindoxyl and even natural things like tea tree oil and witch hazel, and NOTHING worked. All they did was dry out my face and make my acne flare up (not to mention most of them had a less than pleasent scent). My doctor prescriped doxycycline since I was fed up with topical agents, rather than going straight to accutane (which i'm very hesistant about considering the long list of side effects). I'm about halfway through my 90-day prescreption of doxycycline. It didn't do anything for the first month or so, but after the halfway mark, I've noticed that a lot of my larger pimples have dissappeared, and I haven't gotten any of the bigger pimples since about day 30. I still have a lot of the smaller ones that for some ironic reason are a lot more stubborn than the bigger ones, but I can at least easily cover those up with some concealer. Although it's taking a little longer than I had hoped, I'm pretty happy with the results. I still use my tea tree oil cleanser, exfoliator and clay mask (all from the body shop) along with Cerave and Spectro, but only because I don't want all these products to go to waste. My doctor also recommended that I stick with cleansers while on doxy for maximum effect. Even though doxy isn't as fast as accutane might be, I haven't seen any bad side effects (the best of which being NO dry skin! Something I had to CONSTANTLY deal with when on topical medications). Others have said that taking it on an empty stomach gave them really bad nausea but I've only had that happen to me once. I try to take it on an empty stomach since that's how it'll best get absorbed into the body. Make sure you don't take any dairy a few hours before or after either!! But you need to replenish the good bacteria it kills, so I try to eat yogurt earlier in the day with probiotics... apparently doxy will lose its effect if you don't replenish the good bacteria killed. don't forget though that yogurt can cause acne too so tread carefully. Anyways, I guess I'll see how my face will turn out come the 90 day mark (about 45 days in now). If any changes happen, I'll try to update it here.

I took 100mg daily and had clear skin for 6 months. Cleared up my acne within a fortnight. It was amazing. No real side effects unless I took one on an empty stomach - awful nausea would follow. So I only made that mistake a couple of times. Really good treatment but I found they stopped working after 6 months so then it was back to the drawing board...

so i was on doxy for about a month and a half with retina cream and it was great my acne was going away and my acne scars were fading. but suddenly i started having upper stomach pains and trouble swallowing- feeling almost like acid reflex. i thought to myself that it couldn't possibly be the medicine. but i went to my derm and she proved me wrong- apparently you aren't supposed to be taking this medicine at night- it will mess up your stomach big time!! I now have to wait a week for my stomach to heal in order to take it again- but now I know that you're supposed to take it while you're up and moving so it can digest properly! I hope this helps a lot of y'all! I can't wait to get back on this pill, though. Ever since i've been off it- my face has broken out big time :( but please be careful taking this pill!

I started on this pill 2 months ago, and I've seen positive results. When I started on it, my acne was horrible - especially around the jaw, chin, and forehead. I'd get new pimples every day and they were always very red, swollen and painful (and would keep coming in the some spots). Within 3 weeks, I started seeing my face clearing up. Of course now and then, I still get a small pimple, but it does not get as swollen and disappears much faster. I have not suffered from any of the negative side effects associated with this antibiotic, so it's definitely been a positive experience so far! For topical treatment, I've also been using a vitamin A cream (Differin) at night, and I think the combination of these two have really been helping, especially with fading my old acne marks. I know your body tends to build up resistance to antibiotics eventually - so far it hasn't happened, but we will have to wait and see.

I have been on this prescription medicine and Retin-A cream for about 7 weeks. The first 6 weeks were tough for me. I definitely went through the "purging" stage and experienced some bad break outs. Once i reached this week, week 7, i can see a HUGE difference in my skin. My acne is mostly small to medium sized white heads on my forehead and around my mouth/chin. This week my entire chin is cleared up along with my forehead being clear but also with a few minimal pimples near my mouth which are hardly noticeable. The only thing that bothers me is the redness and hyper pigmentation that is left behind after each breakout that you get. This is most likely due to the cream i put on overnight because the cream, Retin-A, works with the surface of the skin while doxycycline works with your body internally. Overall i would definitely recommend waiting out on this product even though it may take a few weeks for it to kick in. Seeing this progress with my skin is super encouraging and i can't wait to see what it looks like when it clears completely and all the redness fades. Don't lose faith on this medicine!! Wait it out before giving up too soon.

When I turned 21 I started getting severe cystic acne around my jaw and on my cheeks. I tried creams, gels, herbal stuff and 'acne' products that aren't actually for people with acne. I eventually got so sick of feeling bad about my skin, I went to see a doctor and was prescribed doxycycline for 3 months. I was so skeptical because I read a few bad reviews and I just gave up all hope of anything working but 5 months later I have much better skin. I read that apparently it makes your skin worse before it gets better but that never happened for me and they started working noticably after about 2 weeks. I still get one cystic acne lump every so often but it's nothing compared to how bad my skin used to be, my scars are fading and my skin looks less red, I'm so pleased with the results. However towards the end of the 3 month period I started to get quite bad nausea to the point where I was throwing up every other day so I started taking them on a full stomach with water and that stopped the nausea completely. Do NOT lye down after taking!!!