I'm 24 and I've struggled with acne and cynical acne since puberty. And, as I've gotten older, it has only gotten worse. Most of the acne was concentrated on my cheeks, jawline, chin, and neck. I started on 25mgs for the first three months. There was quite a bit of improvement, but I still had some breakouts. It seemed like with every period cycle I would breakout out before my period, but then after, it would be much clearer than before. At my three month dermatologist appointment, they upped me to 50mg. Now, after six months on this stuff I'm completely acne free! And, it has been YEARS since my face has been this clear. I'm also on Aczone in the morning and Epiduo Forte at night. At the beginning, I did stuffer a few side effects like low blood pressure/dizziness and loss of appetite. But, by taking the medication at night, it reduced the side effects to practically nothing. If you're struggling with hormonal acne, I'd really give this a go. It's helped me out tremendously. It takes awhile complete clarity, but the results are definitely worth it.

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.

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 cannot really give a full review, since I've only been on it for barely a week..but these reviews keep me hopeful. I'm a 25 year old female, and while I've always struggled with mild to moderate acne, my face recently broke out in the worst hormonal acne I have ever had. It started off as a few cysts on my chin, then went to my right side of my face, and then to my left. It was horrible. I'm still breaking out, but I feel like my skin may be starting to calm down. I was also out on a birth control for acne, called Estrostep. I've read a lot of mixed reviews for it, but I'm hoping it helps when paired with the spiro. Wish me luck!

I was put on spironolactone when I was 18, but my acne was not hormonal then like it is now so it wasn't effective. I am 22 and have been battling acne throughout college. Its been a nightmare having to deal with something I thought you only had to deal with in high school. My acne has changed throughout this time, at first it was everywhere, but now it is hormonal, limited to my jaw line and chin. I also speculate that I have PCOS since I have never had a regular period, have abnormal hair growth, acne (obviously), among other symptoms. I started taking spiro about a month and a half ago. At first I did experience side effects at 100mg/day; irregular heart beat, muscle weakness, fatigue, diarrhea, dehydration, but after week two things calmed down and now I don't have any side effects at all unless I don't drink enough water. I also did lose about 8 lbs (which is awesome!) I assume it was just water weight. At about week two I had the rumored "initial break-out." It was not horrible, but much worse than my acne was before, almost cystic-like and very tender and painful. This lasted about two weeks and then suddenly it stopped and now my skin is clearing up! Apart from the spots leftover from my last break-out (hopefully the last one forever apart from the occasional blemish which I can deal with) my pores look very small, my skin is glowing, hair on my face and body doesn't grow as fast, the weight loss was a surprise (no I haven't gained it back like some other people), and my skin feels soft. I must recommend that to make this medicine work optimally that you eat healthy, cut out all dairy, salty/sugary foods, and caffeine, exercise, keep your hands off your face, RELAX (reduce stress), and drink LOTS and LOTS of water! My routine is very basic; Cetaphil cleanser, CeraVe AM/PM, occasionally I will use Neutrogena benzoyl peroxide topical, Make-Up - IT Cosmetics Illumination Powder. I will update once more time has gone by. All in all I highly recommend for people with hormonal acne! Specifically if you have elevated testosterone levels or have PCOS.

Hello Everyone, I started Spiro three months ago, prescribed by my dermatologist for androgentic alopecia. I'm 59 years of age and had been losing my hair for four years with an accelerations when I had my last period at age 56. All of my bald spots have filled in or are beginning to fill in, with very grey hair and I don't care. I began dying my hair when I was 28 when grey first appeared. I am so thankful to have signs of hair growing and the fact that it's grey is insignificant. However, what I am nost surprised to see is that once again, I my face is once again showing its dewy side. The last time I glowed naturally this way, I was still having my menstraul cycles. My complexion is awesome and a very pleasant side affect of taking spiro.

I've had acne my whole life and when I hit my late 20's it got bad, cystic acne bad. Spironolactone is the ONLY thing that has ever kept me clear long term. I also don't eat junk food or eat wheat, gluten and really any kind of grain which I know helps. I waited until enough time has passed that I could be 100% totally sure this works before I wrote a review and now I can positively say it works. I've been completely clear for 8 months now. However, I've been on it for about 1.5 years. It took 8 months, almost 9 for it to really work so if you get on it you might have to be patient. But once you get clear all the waiting is worth it and you won't care, you'll just be happy it worked. I'm so glad I tried this before accutane. Highly recommend it. I take 150mg/day, but originally started out at 75mg and after crying in my Dr's office about my skin, I got her to up my scrip to 150mg. I probably wasn't on the full dose of 150mg until about 3 months in.

I used Spiro for 8 months and had great success. I had to ease into the full dose of 100 mg. I started with 25mg and each month took more and more. The bad thing about this medication is just that, you cannot use it without any side effects. My mouth was more dry than usual and I got constipated easily. If I didn't get enough water that day I would get headaches and sometimes a slight ring in my ears. Now don't get me wrong, all of these mild side effects were bearable and better than the crippling cystic acne I once had but then I decided to dig deeper. In the past 4 yrs ( I developed cystic acne at age 30) I seen 5 different dermatologists. All of which said this condition came from a hormone imbalance for which they did not fully understand. They only can recommend medications to mask the effects but can not cure it. So I thought and thought and thought about this. Finally a light bulb went off. What do I eat everyday that has hormones. Meat and dairy. Even hormone free meat and dairy has natural hormones from the animal. Not to mention cholesterol. Once I came to this realization I thought how can I live without meat or dairy. I searched for support. It was then I adopted a whole-food plant based diet. For my protein I eat tofu and beans. I eat many different vegetables and yummy fruit. I eat soy ice cream and almond milk. After 1 month of eating this way I seen the remaining acne disappear. I decided to slowly get off the spironolacton. I will admit I was very scared. After 3 months of weaning myself off my skin was flawlessly glowing. Not only that I lost 7 lbs, my skin was softer and I for the first time in several years felt free of developing a huge cyst. It is 6 months later and I continue with my whole-food plant based diet. No meat and no dairy. My skin is glowing and I take NO medication. This change has been the best thing I could have ever done. If you want to try this watch the movie Forks Over Knives also check out you local vegan society online to find cooking classes. There are many books available. Also a great blog: she glows.

Birth control made my hormonal acne 10x worse than it had ever been, even after taking it for half a year. I take 50mg of spiro every day and now I am finishing my first month - my skin is way noticeably clearer. Less and less breakouts every day, and they go away much faster. The dehydration isn't even enough for it to bother me, and drinking water is good for your skin anyways. Using this as a supplement for Ortho Tri Cyclen, and also using Aczone as a topical which has worked wonders.

Mild acne since my teens. Now 27 moderate-severe after everything Iv taken &applied to my skin. Spiro in combo with retin a &benzaclin made my skin amazingly clear. my skin broke out immediately after i went off. lost job/insurance bc of downsizing. Pharmacy charged $100/mo for this rx. paid $30 w insurance. couldn't afford that plus $180 for retin a $130 for benzaclin a month. Would recommend this to anyone w hormonal acne. See cons for side effects to consider