Background info: I starting getting acne when I was 16 years old (Currently 23). All through my teens it was mostly little zits all over my forehead and chin. I started birth control that year to keep control of my acne but it only did so much. The next couple years I switched birth controls twice and literally tried every over-the-counter topical treatments and wash, along with 3 other topical treatments from the dermatologist (Aczone, Tazorac, etc.). NOTHING HELPED. All those topical treatments would do was dry out my face and then I would break out even more. I became so frustrated and gave up. I figured through high school and college it was semi-normal to have bad acne and thought it would go away as I matured. Nope, not the case....around age 20 just when I thought my acne was going away naturally my face blew up with cysts. The acne "moved" from my forehead/chin to my cheeks and instead of little zits they were deep cysts, sometimes painful to touch. It has been awful. I haven't been able to leave the house without makeup for over 5 years (which really sucks as an athletic person, I workout everyday). I workout daily, drink a lot of water and have a balanced diet. I came to the conclusion this is 100% hormonal acne. I decided to see a dermatologist and went it determined to start Accutane. She thought it would be better to try something else and less harsh on my body. Medication: I started this med on 12/29/2014 along with a topical cream from my dermatologists (Going on my 5th week). The first couple weeks I didn't notice much. My pores were shrinking slightly and I noticed a decreased size in my normal cysts. I was breaking out more (the cysts were just smaller in clusters) but it hasn't bothered me that much because hey, I have acne, it's normal for me, right? Going into my 5th week I'm starting to see slightly less acne. I'm wondering if it comes and goes for awhile before it really gets better. The most noticeable side effect is INCREASED THIRST which in turn requires me to go to the bathroom every 30 min. I am SO thirsty all the time. I have already drank 3 large water bottles before 9am today and am still thirsty. Other than that, I haven't noticed any other side effects. Bottom line: It seems to be working and I have a lot of hope for this medication. If you haven't tried any hormonal pill treatment, I highly recommended seeing a dermatologists. I should have went on this 3 years ago and now I am stuck with ugly scars on my cheeks. Once the acne dies down a bit I'm going to start using chemical peels to help with the acne scar resurfacing. I'm also thinking I might cut diary out of my diet because I love milk, cheeses, yogurt, etc. I'll update this post in a few weeks to really share the results. Good luck! Thanks everyone for the encouraging process!

Background: 25 y/o female, have had hormonal acne issues since 22. Have had terrible self-esteem issues, also because I had NEVER had a pimple before 22! Literally. So having this acne has really put a damper on my confidence. I wait until my boyfriend goes to bed to take off my make up, and wake up before he does in the morning to put on make up (INSANE), and I have cancelled plans because of my skin, spent hours in front of the mirror, cried, etc. I haven't been able to leave the house without make up for three years. So I went to the dermatologist. Dermatologist prescribed minocycline which kept things manageable (not clear) for about a year. Then the minocycline appeared to stop working. Also have tried many topicals which never worked. Acanya is the only one I still sometimes use as a spot treatment. Went back to there dermatologist and it happened to be a new doctor who took one look at where my acne was on my face and prescribed spironolactone, telling me it was basically a miracle drug for people with my kind of acne. So- I don't know how I feel yet because it hasn't been too much time, but will update this post... I have been on spironolactone for exactly 7 weeks. I was on 50mg but about 2 and a half weeks ago I was bumped up to 100mg. I currently take 100mg every morning. I hadn't seen any improvement at all...mainly just more clogged pores than I have ever had and still had new pimples all the time, especially when old ones cleared up... So I would get my hopes up and be let down again. Side effects have been minimal, mainly just drinking a lot more water & peeing a lot. Anyway, exactly 2 weeks after the dermatologist upped my dose I had a horrible break out. I read reviews and figured I was doomed for these breakouts for months, because thats how it seems to be for those that it doesn't work for quickly. I cried over the initial breakout and thought it would never end...meanwhile only a couple days later it SEEMS to be clearing up, but of course this may jinx it. I'm hoping this was it for the initial breakout and things will be good from here. Fingers crossed!!! I have HIGH hopes for this med. It just feels like it will work for me because I KNOW I have hormonal acne. 8 weeks- face is clear!!! only one small bump. fingers crossed that this won't jinx it but I had to update for anyone out there wondering if the initial break out ever ends...my hair is getting healthy too, and my hair felt so gross for about 7 weeks being on this med at first. I'm glad that didn't stick around because it would have possibly been a deal breaker for this med. So I'm very happy with the results right now...will update with any changes... now time to clear these old scars up. UPDATE Exactly three months in... I STILL get acne. I would still say my skin is better than it was but I was expecting more from this med. Maybe it was retin-a I was trying to use to clear up my scars. So I stopped that and seeing If my skin clears. These acne marks are also driving me crazy. they take a long time to fade...

As a teenager I had issues where I needed to be put on birth control, which in turn cleared up my mild acne. The birth control worked for a few years, then at 22 my acne went crazy. It was worse than I had ever had it before. It mainly consisted of painful cysts that stuck around for weeks. After trying topical medications and different face wash regimens, along with new birth control, I still had no luck. I was starting to have other symptoms that I attributed to having a hormonal imbalance, and it was then that I decided to see a hormone specialist. The dr. prescribed me 100mg spironolactone daily and a low dose birth control. This was in April of 2014. I will admit that the initial breakout with this medication was severe and difficult to deal with. It left me in tears and I almost quit taking it. I am so glad that I stuck with it. After being on spiro for a few months I already saw amazing results. It took about 6 months or so to see the full results, and since then my skin has been 100% clear, and I don't have to worry about waking up with new acne on my face. I still have some dark spots and scars, but through exfoliation even those are starting to fade. I am so thankful for this drug!

My skin became so much worse after taking 100mg a day of this medicine. I was hoping it was just the initial breakout I kept reading about, but after about 3 months on the drug my acne became disfiguring with multiple huge cysts and whiteheads, and I also developed some sort of strange facial rash in conjunction with the acne. I also had horrible leg cramps and felt thirsty all the time despite drinking up to 10 glasses of water a day, So I guess next up is Accutane.

I have been taking erythromycin and tactuo gel for over 4 months and am seeing decent results but my derm recommended adding spiro. Wondering if anyone has tried this combo. Also concerned about the initial breakout when starting spiro but maybe the erythromycin will help with that. If anyone has any personal experience would love to know.

Ive been on Spiro for almost a month. 50 mg twice daily as well as minocyclin 50 mg twice a day and 0.1 Trentinon(spelling) cream at night. I haven't seen any improvements. Some days my skin looks even worse. I'm trying to stay positive. Here's a little background about myself. I'm 30 years old and my skin has never been as bad as it is now. I've suffered from cystic acne since puberty and I've always kept it somewhat under control with anti-biotics, a clean diet and a ton of exercise. I've modeled for some years, and have always had to apologize for my skin. It's caused such low self esteem. I had a horrible back injury this last September, and since my skin has worsened. Rough texture, oily, and painful, and beck acne which I've never had. I'm back to work as a personal assistant, embarrassed of how I look, like my skin is all people see. Turning down modeling jobs. In a nutshell it's causing me to be severely depressed. I have a supportive boyfriend who constantly gives me words of hope. Also, All of your reviews have given me strength, so I thank you! At this point I can say Acne is a disease. I don't wish it in anyone. All I can hope is that Spiro brings me some results SOON! Il keep you all posted!

I started out on 50 mg twice daily for moderate hormonal acne. I didn't see much improvement after three months, and thought I was actually getting worse at times. The only change I noticed was decreased oil production. My derm upped by dose to 150 mg a day and after about two weeks of that, I started seeing more improvement than I did in the first three months of treatment. This pill takes time, and from my experience and what I have heard from others, it can take getting up to the higher doses to really see changes. I have now been on spiro for 5 months and my acne is 60 percent improved-- in the long run that is not very long for the results I am now seeing. If your derm starts you out on 50 or 100 mg, be patient. They have to make sure your levels are okay to tolerate the medication.

I've been taking Spiro for about a year and a half now. Before I started, I had mild-moderate acne. But it was embarrassing, because I would get big pustules or cysts sometimes and NOTHING was working. I finally went to a derm who I knew prescribed Spiro and she gave it to me right away. I started off on 50 mg, then increased to 100. It took maybe 2 months to kick in and then I was completely clear. I didn't get a single zit for a YEAR. That's amazing if you're an acne sufferer like me. I recently stopped taking it just to 'experiment' because I thought maybe I had just grown out of my acne by now. But my skin's been breaking out, so I guess it really was the Spiro working. I've started taking it again and am hoping it will work just as well. If you're a female and have tried nearly everything, I highly recommend Spiro. It's also decreased my oil production in my skin so I am not having to constantly blot my face.

I'm 30 y.o. female, had adult acne for at least 10 years but it got much worse the past 4 (grad school and moving to Louisiana climate probably didn't help). My mother had terrible acne until menopause and I was almost resigned to the same fate after spending thousands of dollars on all sorts of stuff over the years, including dermatologists, with no long-term solution. I've been on BC the whole itme which has helped minimally. I tried spiro alone for a month and saw some, but not much change. What finally worked for me has been topical tretinoin cream (1%, the strongest Rx), WITH spironolactone 100mg in the morning AND a long cycle of minacycline to clear up the rest after the initial breakout/adjustment period was over. During the 3 days before and 4 days after my period starts, I increase to 100mg in AM and 50mg PM. It took about 3-4 months to get to a clean slate but for then for the past 3 months I've finally reached a good maintenance period where I can even miss a day or two of my normal routine / meds and not have a problem- now just waiting for the scars to disappear. It used to be disaster if I so much as used a different face wash. An important note though: For 6 weeks I was taking 100 am plus 100 pm. When I went for lab check, my potassium was on the borderline level. I had eaten a persimmon the day before, which is high in potassium (I didn't realize this until I researched it after the lab results) but still, I want to reiterate the importance of lab checks until you get everything sorted out if your doctor recommends. Heart health > complexion. Anyway, I did notice diuretic effects the first week but after that either my body adjusted or I just stopped noticing the frequency of having to pee. I gained 1lb since starting it but I don't think that is due to the spiro. My breasts were a little tender at first and my husband said they were a little bigger but I can't tell. Def better to take in the AM than evening if you have a choice though because you don't want to wake up in the middle of the night unnecessarily to go to the restroom. At first, my face was embarrassingly dry but this was primarily due to the tretinoin and I knew I just had to suffer through it. Now that my skin has adjusted, another (what I consider huge) benefit of spiro is my hair is much less oily (as is my face). Before I had to wash it every 3 days; now I wash it every 7-8 (unless I sweat a lot, in which case I'm washing on principle, not b/c it's oily). I dread having to give spiro up if/when I get pregnant. You def need to maintain dr's supervision on this med though. This is a long review but hope the info is helpful!

48bf skeptical about taking spiro long term went 8 months using trin/1% anyone taken this at this age