Accutane was the only thing that ever gave me clear skin, and that feeling was just great. My lifestyle and diet could be a mess and it kept my skin clear. If nothing works, I'd say just go for it.

However, I recommend everyone to only go on it short term, which is the usual duration recommended by your skin doctor, I would presume a year max is probably still ok, but only based on my own experience

Otherwise, unless you are that special few (of whom i'm so envious of), you will start to see all the side effects appear.

Accutane past a few months started messing with my stomach and bowel movements. Still nothing that is crazy so I stayed on it.  Then I started getting back pains. Still, nah clear skin is sooooooo much more important. A year passed and I find myself losing hair. Ok, that got me worried but no way was I going off accutane. By then I was already taking a dosage that is lesser, because  without a completely valid reason, no sane doctor will allow you to take the full dosage for past a certain duration, which can range from 4-8 months depending on the doctor and how much you can take per day.

Sad to say, the lesser dosage did not keep me clear, but still, I chose to continue taking it even for that 80% clear skin. That's just how persistent I was.

By 1.5 years, the hairloss was quite a concern I had to start on minoxidil. Minoxidil did great until I realized I landed myself in deeper shit because once you stop minoxidil, the hair that grew back will very likely go as well. So I had no choice but to stay on minoxidil. But that is another story altogether.

Even with all that, I continued on accutane as I continue getting more stomach problems.

One fine day, I decided I have had enough and I stopped. And though that was the start of a lot of the side effects lessening in intensity (they never go away completely), a while later I got hit with an autoimmune disorder which destroyed my life and when I did a search, I realized that accutane has a possibility of causing auto immune problems. Oh, if only I knew about it earlier...btw an autoimmune illness is medically incurable. And though I can't say for sure accutane is the cause for it, I can't say for sure it isn't.

Therefore, now. I always tell people, it is ok to take accutane, as a matter of fact, please do take it if you really want to and need to. But never take it long term (and past the recommended cumulative dosage), you will wreck your body in horrifying ways. We all want clear skin, but never do it at the loss of the healthy functioning of another body part.

I never write reviews but I decided to write this as if it can help one person on deciding to use this ill be happy.. before starting accutane I was so worried about it due to reading the horror stories, but with my cyctic acne taking over my life I would of tried anything. I would sit up every night and read the reviews and sometimes not being able to sleep till 4am. When I finally decided to start, the nurse was explaining all the bad side effects (obviously they have to) and I started to have a panic attack. I was so scared of these that I didnt want to even start the accutane! After calming down I started my course, and with starting to see a difference in around 6 weeks I was so happy! Its been 6 months from starting and its one of the best things I have ever done, my confidence is finally coming back after suffering with acne for 10 years. So if anyone is considering this I would certainly recommend. Dry lips and low moods are something I experienced, but with healthy diet and exercise, I was able to over come them. I hope this helps someone today who is feeling low about themselves and their acne and know there is hope :)

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. 

I have always had terrible cystic acne growing up that started when I was around 9-10 years old. Over the years I tried every damn treatment you could think of but nothing would get rid of it, or even get it under control. The products I tried would all just clear it up a little bit, but not enough to really notice much of a difference. I had an extreme morning and evening regimen of vigorously washing my face and putting acne creams on. If I ever once forgot to wash my face or put the creams on, I would wake up with the worst breakouts of my life the next day. I absolutely could not forget or skip a day, ever. I took birth control for my acne, but it only helped a small amount. I always thought once I got out of highschool the acne would just go away eventually, but it never did. Finally at age 23 with a face full of zits, I thought, ?This is it. This acne is never going away.? And I started looking into more drastic treatments. This is where the accutane came in. Let me tell you this was no walk in the park. I went through the hardest 6 months of my life while taking this stuff. It made my lips and skin soo unbearably dry. Describing it as uncomfortable would be an understatement. If I ever left my house without vasoline, I was absolutely screwed. My lips would get so dry that they would stick together and I couldn?t even get my mouth open. One time when they got stuck together, I forced them apart, and the skin from my bottom lip got pulled off and was stuck to my upper lip. It was bad, and nasty to be quite honest. I felt sooo tired all the time. I would sleep for 12 hours and wake up still feeling exhausted. I felt so fatigued. I am a full time college student, and school got extremely difficult while I was on this stuff. I just could not for the life me concentrate, and was always falling asleep in class. I couldn?t find time to get homework done and study because I was always so exhausted. I ended up failing TWO classes while I was taking this stuff. And I had never failed a class before in my life! I was also experiencing memory loss, which honestly freaked me out a bit. I was constantly forgetting things, leaving things at people?s houses, forgetting to do things, which is very unlike me. It also caused me to gain a ton of weight! Which was terribleeee. The weight gain was probably the worst part for me. I would literally go days without eating and STILL gain weight. I was always starving, but was always afraid to eat because I was blowing up like a balloon. I probably gained over 30 pounds during the 6 months I took this stuff. And then as soon as I stopped taking it, the weight fell off without me even having to try. 

However, despite all the terrible side effects, I still have to say I feel it was worth it. My acne was controlling my life, and I finally feel free now. I think what I like most is not having to do a full face of make up every time I leave the house. It feels like a true gift, because I always hated wearing make up. I no longer have to wash my face or put acne products on at all. It?s been about six months now since I stopped taking accutane, and all the side effects are gone. I?m back at my normal weight, and my skin is still completely clear. As others have mentioned, please be very aware of the side effects. If you can, try to take it during a time when you don?t have too much going on in your life. Also, you can pretty much expect to have no dating life whatsoever while taking this stuff, so be prepared to spend some time alone. 

This drug was amazing and cleared my skin on both occasions rapidly. Side effects are not fun but you do it because its only for 6 months and then its 'cured' (sigh). Not the case for me at all. On both occasions the acne came back after 6 months. I am now 26 and I now and my acne is as bad as it ever was and is clustering on completely new parts of my face. How much I wished that this was my cure and this nightmare would be something of the past.