Hey everyone, I am 16 years old and I have been on spironolactone for exactly 3 weeks now to treat my hormonal acne. I've had acne for 2 years now but just this past year it's gotten dramactically worse. I was trying everything! No matter how much I cleansed my face, used on the spot treatment, or moisturized my face, there was no improvemnt. In a matter of 4 months, I had 2 cystic pimples underneath my eye that caused it to swell almost completely shut and even slight bruising. I had to miss 2 days of school because of terrible, swollen zits(EMBARRASSING)! I then got put on antibiotics for 10 days which cleared my face up both times, but unfortunately I couldn't use the antibiotic as a long-term acne medication. I got put on birth control 7 months ago solely for acne. Once again, there was no improvement. Each day my self confidence was slowly decreasing. My mom finally took me to the dermatologist when I had one of my breakdowns in front of her. She asked what was wrong and I told her I hated myself. The truth is, I didn't hate myself, but I was so upset and embarrased about my acne. I just wanted a simple clear face like all of my friends and relatives. In the morning I would spend almost an hour doing my makeup to cover up my scars and pimples and even with concealer you could see some blemishes. Now back to spiro... I am SO HAPPY about the results I've already had! This has been the first time in forever the my forehead has been completely clear. The blackheads on my nose are going away more and more everyday. The white heads on my chin have decreased in size. The big zits I had on my cheeks are gone! GONE. I feel like some of the scars on my face are beginning to fade as well. I have 2 small pimples that are tolerable and coverable with concealer. I was actually able to go in public yesterday without foundation and using only a small amount of concealer. I was beyond excited about actually feeling confident with my face with hardly any makeup. I am out of my "hating myself" state and I can't wait to see better results in the next couple of weeks. For anyone looking into this medication whether you're a teenager or an adult, I highly recommend it!! This medicine has helped so much and it's only been 3 weeks. (For anyone wondering, I have been on 50mg the entire time)

Background- my doctors believe I have an atypical case of PCOS (meaning I don't have many of the symptoms most women with PCOS have, but do have polycystic ovaries), found this out in March 2015. Day 38 of 50mg/day of Spiro & just started my third pack of Beyaz BC pills. So needless to say my skin has been going through a rollercoaster of hormonal changes the last 2 months & I have been so depressed about it. Since starting both meds, I have had at least 2 active cysts on my face at all times (and many other acne spots that are scaring or trying to heal). I feel like I have been living at the derm office with all the weekly injections I am getting (really is the only way for my cysts to diminish). Yesterday, my derm agreed to up my dosage to 100mg of spiro a day. I am PRAYING this is what will do the trick. I know that I need to give the spiro & BC pills time to work (they say 3-4 months?). But I am sure others can agree that acne is so draining, it's all I can think about and has literally spiraled me into being depressed. Any words of encouragement? Do I just need to stick it out for results? Thanks so much for any responses :)

Like a lot women, I was acne free until high school. I used to pride myself on my glowing skin so my self esteem tanked when I started getting cystic acne. On top of that, my oily skin got worse so I had smaller white heads dispersed in between. My derm tried sulfur face wash, antibiotics, and ortho tri-cyclen birth control. The birth control helped the most but my skin still wasn't clear, even after patiently waiting for 3 months. Frustrated and determined to get my skin back, I turned to Acne.org. I found out about spiro through the forums and product reviews. I was going to ask my derm about it at my next appointment, but she was one step ahead of me. She wrote me a prescription for 25 mg a day. About 2 months later my skin was clear. I still has those nasty red marks where my acne used to be, but no new pimples! I am now 23 years old and was acne free for most of college (minus the occasional stress breakouts.) Since my skin improved, I stopped taking my spiro about a year ago. However, I had a nasty break out recently (which I attribute to ridiculously hot/sweaty summers in Arizona.) I resumed taking spiro and my skin has significantly improved. I'm not completely clear yet, but I'm well on my way. Moral of the story: This stuff works. If you are a woman with oily skin and hormonal acne, this might be your cure. Good luck to all you beautiful ladies!

I started taking spiro at 25mg per day. I didn't see a bit of difference after a bunch of weeks, so I wondered if I should bump it up to 50mg. However, I read a lot of other reviews that advised waiting. So I waited and waited. I took like 4 months to start clearing. Finally 6 months later I am 100% clear, I never have to wear makeup, and I only get 1 or 2 little spots before my period, which I can live with. However, it is a diuretic - I get low blood pressure, have trouble standing up, and I have to pee like 14 times a day. I also got the worst cellulite on my legs - soooo bad. I personally wouldn't go higher than 25mg, it's an androgen blocker and my testosterone was extremely high and my other androgens were literally off the charts they were so high (I have PCOS). So if you are wondering if you need to go up, be patient, and be prepared for some pretty awful side effects. My thoughts are, I can cover up the cellulite on my legs by wearing pants, but its harder to cover up your face. That said I will probably stop taking it soon and try saw palmetto as some others have suggested.

I am a 22 year old female and have had pimples here and there for most of my teen years. December 2014 my skin was gorgeous, clearer than it has ever been and then came January.. All the sudden the skin around my mouth erupted in rash like bumps and then progressed to acne -looking bumps as well as cysts that moved down to my chin/ jaw and up along the sides of my nose & even under my eye ( which swelled shut at one point and turned black & blue due to a cyst). I was told by 4 different doctors that I had perioral dermatitis & was put on antivirals, antibiotics, topicals and had blood work and cultures taken of my skin. No luck. I finally saw a dermatologist who put me on more antibiotics (100mg) for 2 months which did nothing but give me UTIs. After a second visit with him last week, and zero improvement (despite trying every holistic treatment under the sun, including going sodium laurel sulfate -free) he put me on spironolactone. It has been 1 week and my skin is nightmare-ish right now. I have multiple cysts and my chin is covered in painful spots. I feel so depressed, my confidence is shot and most days I can't bring myself to leave the house. I hope and pray my skin starts to improve soon. After 6 months of this constant physical & emotional pain, I don't know how much more I can take. Anyone have a similar experience? Or advice?

So I have been on it for over 11 weeks and there have been improvement in my skin however I have been getting my period every other week, not exaggerating! Then after my last period it went 8 days and started up again! I stopped taking it for a few days and I have been getting really bad headaches, not sure if that's related. I see others comments but no one really stated about if they have had messed up cycles and if that went back to normal...

I have struggled with acne for 10 plus years, with waxing and waning severity. At 23 years old, I was tired of always being self conscious of my face. After only 2-3 months on Spironolactone, my skin became completely clear. Now almost 6 months later I have perfect skin. I barely need to do anything to it anymore, just simple washing and mosturizing. I have had almost no side effects, some mild light headedness in the beginning. Also, I finally shed the extra 15lbs I had gained over the past few years! Now I look and feel amazing, and recommend this treatment to any of my female friends who stiff suffer from acne after their teenage years. :)

Well, sprionolactone did work well for clearing my acne. I've been on it for almost two months, and my face is completely clear and was completely clear towards the end of the first month. But I'm now having to get off of it because of the serious side effects I've had. The less serious side effects started as soon as I got on the medication, but I brushed them off in hopes that they would subside as I continued the medication. But as I started the second month, almost two weeks in, I got up one morning and my right leg was completely numb. Not asleep or tingly, completely numb. Hahaha. (It's really not funny, but it's making me laugh now because I was in a huge rush, so I JUMPED out of bed, and fell immediately to the ground. Several times hahaha.) Anyway, It's so easy to stay on meds for acne cause it sort of feels like a one stop shop. No need to change your diet, don't have to be too careful about what you wash your face with, at least that's how it was for me. I've always been a natural person, trying to cure anything I had with natural remedies, supplements, internal cleanses, all that good stuff. And it all worked until my skin decided to go absolutely crazy. I started breaking out like normal, probably something you could clear with a good cleanser, but then it started getting progressively worse. It started to be more cystic, and then really before I could even keep up with it, I had horrendous cystic pimples everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Shoulders, down my arms, all over my entire face, even sometimes on my thighs. It was ridiculous and I always felt gross. So I broke down and gave up my ideas for natural cures for a while, and got on the meds. They cleared me right up! About one month and almost everything was gone. But then of course I had the terrible side effects, which is why I'm now having to get off. My sister on the other hand had no side effects at all. Everyone is different. So, hopefully I can find a natural way to keep it clear from now on. Good luck to anyone trying:)

I have moderate stubborn acne and even though it didn't clear me up, it did make my breakouts less frequent. At any given time I would have about 10 pimples on my face and while this I'd only have about 4 or 5. It's definitely for hormonal acne though. I did only take it for a month though before trying something else so maybe I just didn't give it enough time.

I've suffered from adult hormonal cystic acne for the last 7 years, ever since my senior year of college. I've tried absolutely everything: all kinds of topicals, supplements, birth control... nothing worked. For a couple of years, the Acne.org regimen kept me somewhat in check, but I still got big, painful, itchy zits. At one point when I went off the regimen, my face broke out so badly that I went back on the regimen and completely overdid it, far beyond Dan's recommendations. Well, I ended up with an actual chemical burn on my face that caused EXCRUCIATING pain for 3 months. Yes, you heard me. 3 months. And then, the acne started coming back, and I couldn't cover it with makeup. I was mortified. I didn't want to live anymore. I ended up on disability from work due to severe anxiety and depression due to an acne dysmorphia that caused massive breakdowns throughout the day. I couldn't focus on anything. I felt so lost and hopeless, like no doctor would ever help me figure it out, and the pain on top of it was unbearable. I tried to kill myself, it was so bad. Now, in June before the chemical burn happened, a new doctor had started me on 50mg of Spironolactone. I'd been on it for only 2-3 months at the onset of this disaster, so I knew it wasn't likely to be working just yet. I was in agony, constantly praying it would start to work. After around month 3, I asked my doctor to up me to 100, which had about the same results. Finally, in month 7, she agreed to up me to 150mg. Within weeks, I had stopped producing new pimples. I had finally found my magic number. I watched as my face began to clear, and my scars continued to lighten with it. At the same time, my chemical burn had stopped hurting and was starting to show slight improvements. I had already started to get better about my acne dysphoria, but finally seeing the itchy, painful, unsightly problem go away took so much stress and worry off of my mind. I do still get small pimples here and there--even some that are fairly deep, but there are days where I will miss taking my spiro, as well as times I pick at things I shouldn't, so I completely blame those on myself. I do still have some healing to do from the chemical burn as well as some indented scars and hyperpigmentation that has been present for over a year since the initial big breakout, but I've been working on them with a dermaroller and vitamin C serum. Not sure if the roller really does much, but the serum definitely has improved things for me. I highly recommend it as part of anyone's nightly routine. Anyway, it is so much better than it was, if I think about it too much I could cry at the relief. I can scratch my chin mindlessly if it itches, now. I can snuggle up to someone without worrying that their dirt will give me a zit (which didn't turn out to be true, anyway). I can run to the store for something I forgot without feeling like I have to endure a 20-minute makeup routine just to feel okay enough to go. I ABSOLUTELY recommend trying spiro if your acne appears to be hormonal (around the chin and mouth, possibly deep and cystic feeling, painful, spiking at a certain point in your cycle, etc.), and if you're not planning on getting pregnant (it's not good for the baby/pregnancy, as it directly affects the expression of hormones. I was fine with this, as I'm in a lesbian relationship and have no intentions of ever carrying a child via artificial means). It took me about 5 months to find the right dosage with my doctor and see the real results, and trust me, it was HORRIBLE having to wait. But it was so, so worth it. Please try it, please stick to it. It saved my life.