I read several great reviews on here about Spiro and was convinced it was the answer to my hormonal acne problems. After a month I didn't see much of a difference but didn't feel any negative side effects either so I asked to double my dosage to 50 mg a day. Within 5 days I started having chest pains and terrible anxiety. I had a full blown anxiety attack and even after going back down to 25 mg a day the anxiety didn't go away and my skin continued to break out. I've been on it for two and a half months and have decided to quit due to emotional health. I even had to go on anxiety meds. I'd rather go back on birth control than continue with this. If you have emotional reactions to this, don't let your doctor try to convince you it's not from the Spiro, it very well might be and you should discontinue right away.

The WORST medical decision I ever made. After the first two months of the 'initial break out' that only some doctors warn you about, I decided I couldn't take the other side effects. It was after getting off of the drug, however, that creates my biggest concern/complaint/warning for you. For the first time in my life, my hairline started to recede, and I developed more facial hair. I know it seems counterintuitive, but I asked my dermatologist about it, and he said it could be an effect of this drug. If you use this medicine, I strongly encourage you to read the potential side effects before you start the regimen. Especially considering that I was only on it for a couple of months and had such a negative response even after getting off of the drug, I feel it is necessary to warn other people.

Ive been using it for almost a month and my skin has never broken out this bad, I talked to my derm and they said it gets worse before it gets better but i dont know if i can take it anymore. Im fine with breaking out when starting a medication because i usually do but with this one my face, chest and shoulders are just covered with small itchy pimples. Before this my skin was extremely oily but now its really itchy, dry and flaky and i dont know if i should keep using it or not.

I had moderate acne so I was prescribed 100 mg a day. After two weeks I had clear skin. I didn't have any harmful effects but after two years I had irregular, almost absent periods and I started to have constant heartburn. Also, Aldactone is very expensive. Definitely its not a long-term treatment.

Unfortunately, this drug made my acne get significantly worse. Instead of getting the usual type of acne (chin, cystic) I developed closed comedones for the first time in my life on Spiro, as well as NECKNE and cysts on my back that I've never had. I was completely make-up and moisturizer free at the time, so it was NOT acne cosmetica. I've never experienced such hideous, bumpy skin as I did on this drug...I literally looked like I had grains of sand on my right cheek and the side of my forehead. Better yet, the comedones all ended up having to either be squeezed or turn into papules to go away. I still have some literally three months later. The worst of the Spiro-induced acne disappeared shortly after I quit using it. I now very rarely, if ever get cc's. TLDR: Beware if this drug gives you new, strange breakouts in places you never get acne. Do not confuse it with an 'IB'. An IB is usually in places where you are most acne prone. I've read several reviews elsewhere online where people agreed Spiro caused closed comedones or generally worsened their acne, so this is possible. I suspect Spiro adds to an underlying hormone imbalance, namely estrogen dominance, by totally turning off testosterone receptors.

Warning: long but worth it!!! I like many others here have tried and been on everything under the sun. Tried topicals, tried natural, tried prescription. After doing accutane for years and miraculously getting 'clear', I went off of it, My skin stayed clear for a while and I was honestly just super happy to not have drugs in my system. When I hit 33, something in my body went haywire and my acne flared up worse than ever before. I was devastated. Not to mention, I was recently married, started thinking about a family etc. But I was just incredibly embarrassed, most of all in front of my new hubby. Of course, I went to dr, explained that I had been on accutane before and although I was happy with the result, I was nervous about it and its side effects now. He prescribed me 25 mg. of Spiro, saying that likely this was a bout of hormonal acne at its worse, we could get on this and clear me up quick. Hindsight - I wish I had not just accepted what he said as truth and done some homework because if I had, I would have realized that there are even more potential side effects with spiro than even accutane! So fast forward a couple of months, I was up to 75mg daily and my entire outlook on life has changed' for the worse. My acne was still terrible and in addition I now had daily stomach cramps so severe I had had to stay home from work, I was nauseous nearly every day (nope! not pregnant!) and on top of it all, my sex drive was near to nothing when before I couldn't get enough of my husband. It was unbearable. Desperate for answers, I started looking up side effects for this drug and sure enough! After doing my research I was just so upset with myself for allowing someone to convince me to put something so vile into my system. Chemicals have side effects and most likely, if you start a prescription YOU WILL BE ON IT FOR LIFE. There is no 'cure' for acne so even if people here say it worked for them, it will only work if they take it. And by taking it, they are allowing some pretty terrible stuff into their bodies. Now I am no hippy and I absolutely know from experience that the natural route for acne doesn't work. But I have now drawn the line in the sand when it comes to prescriptions. No more! In my newfound vigor and pissed-off-ness, I dug in deeper to solutions. From all testimonials, benzoyl peroxide is the best bet BUT you want to find a company that doesn't have to add a lot of oils and preservatives which makes the benzoyl less effective. Once I read that, a light went off in my head. Why proactive had never worked for me, why Rodan and Fields hadn't worked, Mario Badescu, Cetaphil, Neutrogena'. you name it, I have tried it and nothing worked. But they are all HUGE and obviously their products have to have a lot of preservatives. Try getting a list of all the INactive ingredients in most big names brands. Pretty tough to find! But look out for stuff like DimethiconeAcrylates/C10-30 alkyl acrylate cross polymer, isopropyl myristate, stearic acid and well loads of other ones. The names themselves are a mouthful and that is why people ignore them. But once you know what to look for, everything starts to make more sense. I got more into researching. Finding companies that don't use preserving oils is hard to find, let me tell you! I encountered a couple and called them. Exposed nearly convinced me but the one that impressed me the most was one you probably have never heard of, Ninja Skincare. The care they took with me to fully explain what was going on with me, my body, my face was truly unreal. Based on that alone, and some pretty impressive reviews, I gave them a shot. Now, 3 months later, after 2 full years of searching, my face is clear!!!! Any time I have questions, I literally text them and get a response within an hour. I have never bought products from a company like this before and would recommend them to absolutely anyone!!! Give them a shout, you won't be disappointed!

As we can all see the incredible 5 star reviews obviously means this works for some women. But for myself it wasn't even close to being a pleasant experience. Im not exaggerating , I had to pee ALL the time. I drank a ton of water because I had a terribly dry mouth . I also had no appetite ( I normally LOVE food) . My cycle this month was the worst I had in my entire life, I had a migraine , vomited and cramps like no other. I went back to my dermatologist and she said this is clearly not the drug for me. I am already feeling better and only been off of it for 3 days. ( for those of you wondering about more detail as to what dosage and how long I was on it : I was on 25mg for 2 weeks, 50mg for 2 weeks and then 75mg for a week before stopping it.) I wouldn't recommend this because #1 my experience and #2 you'll have to be on this for life if it does end up working for you, at first i didn't really think that far ahead as I really just want my skin to be clearer but I really would prefer not to be on a pill for the rest of my life that messes with my body the way it did. But its worked for so many women so its always worth a try if you want to.

I took Spiro for 7 months. It took me from mild/moderate acne to disfiguring acne. I am 28 yrs old, I hv both cystic acne & white heads/black heads. I also have EXTREMELY oily skin. My Derm said Spiro would be perfect for me. I "purged" for an entire 7 months. Spiro seems to work for wayyyy more ppl than it doesn't so by no means do I want to discourage anyone from trying it, however, after 7 months it just appeared that it didn't work for me.

ADVICE/INSIGHT WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED! I have been on spironolactone for 2 months now. Here is what my experience has been like: new breakouts every day (one pimple at a time, sometimes clumps), horrible mood swings, some depression, acne in places I've never had it before, slower healing skin, darkening of all the hyperpygmentation on my face, nausea, and that's just to name a few. Heres some background information about me: I am a 21 year old college student. I always had good skin, probably one pimple on my face normally, if not clear. Around my 21st birthday I began to get ugly, long lasting deep pimples (not cysts but under the skin) around my period. My derm prescribed me this and from the 2nd week I took it the breakouts started. Deep cysts, followed now by just pimples popping up everywhere. I can't keep up with my skin and the stress it has caused me. Tomorrow I am going to my derm and I am going to try Bactrim for a few months to combat the breakouts I will probably get from getting off the medication. I also started aczone which has helped prevent new breakouts so far. I believe spiro was too strong of a medication for me to be put on. It fluctuated my hormones so severly that I am not sure if I will ever feel/look normal again. My advice, if you are young (25 and below), your hormones may not need another factor effecting them. I am hoping the best for this antibiotic but if not I am doing a low dose round of accutane. I apologize if I seem negative, however this has been the roughest 2-3 months of my life, I have little self confidence and I find myself avoiding going to class, seeing friends, and even seeing my boyfriend. I am sure for PCOS and older women, this drug is a miracle worker. However for me, it amplified the awful hormonal imbalances that I am facing at this time in my life. If you have had a similiar experience, or are my age and having these problems, please reach out. I also understand this medication can take up to 6 months to work, however my skin has already completely changed from it. I can hardly keep my pores unclogged, and while it has cut my oil production in half, my skin looks like a hyper pigmented mess and still produces acne (cystic included). Again, I apologize for the negativity and I hope all of us can find a way to manage our acne.

The medication I took was called ALDACTONE which is the same thing I highly do not recommend this!!! Be extremely careful with this medication. I took it for a period of 9 months. First three months now that I look back I didn't realise just how clear my skin was, probably the clearest since I first started to get acne. After the three month mark things went downhill. My acne came back worse and since then it's been over a year since I still have acne to this day, it never went away and I'm stilling struggling to get rid of it. But that isn't the worse part. I developed severe depression from this medication, I know some people don't believe medication gives people depression although I never had depression before taking this and I've still got it a year and a half later. It got so bad I was becoming suicidal. The depression was not from the acne just to note, I started getting depression before my acne got worse. Due to depression I put in a lot of weight and still have not lost it. On top of all that I started having lighter periods and then eventually they just stopped. Also I'm losing hair currently, not sure if this is related to long term side effects from this medication I didn't look into this medication before I took it and I have never regretted anything more in my life. Taking this medication for such a long time I can easy say was the worst decision of my life. Please please be extremely careful.