I had severe cystic acne with risk of scarring, condition aggravated by eczema and insanely oily skin.

Diet and other medications didn't work so the dermatologist put me on oral isotretinoin after years of troubles and strong emotional distress due to condition.

Even go to bed and wake up was a nightmare due to the skin reactions.

Start oral isotretinoin at 16 yo: 6 months at 40 mg/day (0,7692 mg/kg/day).

Short story: no particular sides effects during the therapy (only typical cracked lips and flare up at first) and in fact this period was one of the happiest of my life (relationships, social life, good performance in high school due to reduction in stress). 

My skin and my hair was literally amazing: I embraced the typical emo hair without wash or use an hair straightener.

My hair grew insanely long and shining without sebum.

After the regular end of the treatment everything was fine (skin returned oily but no more pimples or breakouts, eczema still here but manageable, hair still awesome but now a bit oily).

I spent my last teenager years very well and I finished high school with very good performance.

But troubles started in early twenties: inexplicable depression, anxiety, agoraphobia, low libido, erectile dysfunction, cognitive impairment, memory disorders, lack of ambition, eye floaters, photophobia, blurred vision, pili torti (occipital and temporal areas), thinning hair (now I'm completely bald).

At first merely mental and sexual issues, then...

A couple of years after I started to experience low back pain and severe lombalgy resulted in herniated disk so I had to go under surgical intervention (diagnosed with degenerative disk disease).

My bowel habits changed dramatically, I'm now constipated all the time and full of gas everyday.

Blood exams are all fine, markers of inflammation were never found.

Today I'm 27 and I'm just a shadow of my former self but my skin is perfect.

It's definitely a life-changing drug.

In conclusion: oral isotretinoin worth the risk? It's no coincidence that it's called the drug of last resort.

If you are a parent in search of an answer to relief the emotional distress of your son/daughter, I can tell you that oral isotretinoin worth the risk especially in the short term.

Adolescence is a very critical age and further stress is no recommended, teenage body dysmorphic disorder and social pressure are huge weights.

Destroyed my hair. Do not go on this poison 

Accutane has cured so many of my patients when nothing else has worked. It is truly a miracle medication. It has even healed some acne scarring in the worst conditions of acne. It is my medication of choice in recalcitrant acne patients. 

Best,

Dr. Green

Honestly anyone who is suffering from acne like mine GO ON ACCUTANE! Don?t be afraid of horror stories, it is truly life changing. Never used to have ANY confidence because my skin was so bad at one point (2 years ago) and now I?m so confident with no makeup and my skin is brand new. I was 18 at the time, was on it 6 months and the only side effect I had was dry lips (nothing horrendous just you?re usual dry chapped lips) used aquaphor to sort that and I had quite dry skin which looked bad with makeup on, nothing horrendous and was okay when I soaked my face in ceravae moisturiser or aquaphor.

before I went on accutane I had tried about 4 antibiotics, 3 birth controls (all made it worse or did nothing), duac, isotretinion gel, mario badescu products... the list goes on. I used to spend hours a day searching how to clear acne, I went insane! I even went vegan during the process as at one point I was convinced chocolate caused my acne. So many positives to accutane the only thing now is that my hair is maybe a little thinner than prior to the tablets and try not to drink too much alcohol on these (even though I did as I was a uni fresher eeek). Best of luck, it ALWAYS gets better just be patient. X  

I took Accutane twice. I took it the first time for 6 months(20 mg) daily. And my face was clearer than ever. After exactly 6 months my acne came back. But it was not as severe as before. Then it got cystic again. And after 7 months. I thought that maybe i should take it again. I took it AGAIN. For 6 months(20mg) daily. Got really clear skin for another skin months. Then i had a relapse. Keep in mind i’m a person that takes best care of their skin. From morning to evening routine i take care of my skin as best as i could. After that i was soo disappointed. Now almost an year after my second round of accutane. I still have moderate acne. On my face , back , arms and chest. Accutane may be the solution for some but not all. Please keep in mind the side affects when starting Accutane. It made my hair very thin. And i still to this day have severe back pains. And my bones ache. And my hair is very less than what it used to be. Hopefully it works for you. But it was not an answer for me. 

This was the only acne product that worked for me. I was scared about all the supposed side-effects before taking it and especially stunted growth and depression. I ended up taking it for a year and my only side-effects were dry skin and lips that weren't really even that bad. I was on a low dose but took it for a longer time as my dermatologist had prescribed. Now afterwards I still have a pimple or two once in a while but by my standards I consider my skin clear :). For me getting rid of acne with accutane was one of the best things that has happened in my life and for me it was a miracle drug.  

I am so sad I waited so long to do this. It is life. Changing!  I had a pretty gnarly cystic acne going on. Not a single pimple now. Not. A. Single. Freaking. Pimple. Scars and redness is still there, but just started Retin a for that! 

I was on accutane for 2 months when I was supposed to be on it for five - totally stopped cause the pills rose my liver levels and I got scared, nonetheless, it cured my awful, thick, painful cystic acne. Heres photos along with a details on my journey 

ANYWAY,



Don't have insurance? You're screwed. ESPECIALLY if you're a female. Let me explain:



Woman, once a month we must have blood tests done. Before you can get the pills, you must have a blood test. Each blood test (at QUEST) is $580 without insurance, the pills themselves range in price depending on the pharmacy, I picked mine up at COSTCO and paid $450 for them. Now, both the$450 and $580 are needed once a month. Its very, very costly.



As for Accutane itself, the process is insane and VERY much full of headaches. You CANNOT get the pill right then in there, you cant get them next week, in the next two weeks and so on. You must take a very stupid online assessment, pray to a god that your doctor did the steps right in calling Accutane and adding you into the system (otherwise, you would need to wait 2 months to get the meds) and after a month, if everything is done well and you visit your doc ON THE EXACT date planned, you can get the meds. Do no travel if you are on accutane. If you miss an appointment, they will need to reschedule everything and you could have to wait 2 months for the meds.



Everything with accutane is a damn process, a long, expensive one, due to law suits or something.



Ive had appointments on a monday, rescheduled for a friday and was told accutane removed me from the system therefore i had to take a blood test on a specific date, wait certain days, take another blood test, wait a few days, go to the doctor, after 30 days go to the doctor again and if, again, the doctor did everything well on their part (ive been to several and many times they could add your name wrong ((slight mispell can affect everything)) your birth date wrong, etc - youre screwed and gotta wait another 30 days) i could then get the prescription. 

I took a generic called Amnesteem, and it is the only thing that worked for me.  For some background, I had acne starting at a very early age at about 10.   I think I was probably one of the only kids in my school at that age that had acne and everyone made sure to remind me of it.  For the next several years my acne got progressively worst although there were periods were it got better.   Then by 15, my acne became uncontrollable.  I still remember the very first cyst I had on the left side of my cheek.   For the next 11 years, well into adulthood, I struggled with cystic acne that took a toll on my life. While everyone else dated, I hid myself and every facet of my life took a hit.

By about 26, I had enough and finally started Accutane.  I hate to FIGHT my dermatologist in order to get on it.   Even though I had deep scarring, this dermatologist was resistant for god knows what reason.   My suggestion is that if your dermatologist is not receptive to your needs, drop them immediately.  DO NOT waste your time and let your skin get scarred.   I was on accutane for 5 months.  The first few months I took a moderate dose of 40 mg and I went through a pretty severe purging period where all the lesions came to the surface.   It seemed like it was failing.  By the 3rd month I upped it to 80mg and finally it started to work.  My cystic acne cleared and has remained mostly clear to this day.   

The fear mongering around this drug is ridiculous, and highly overblown.  I was scared for so long because of the all the horror stories online.  It's a serious drug, but do not let the overly dramatic accounts scare you.   This drug saved my life in many ways.  My only regret is that I took it way too late and I had the scars to show it.    Please, if you are starting to scar, do not wait.