Im posting this, much less as a review and more so for answers and support. I have been on spironolactone for 3 months in total. For the first 6 weeks i was on 50mg, and since january 8th, I have been on 100mg. And continuously throughout this entire 3 months I have been breaking out worse than ever. I keep sticking it out because I kept hoping that the next month would bring clear skin, but as I hit exactly 3 months on this medicine, I am extremely depressed because three months ago I got myself through the hard times by saying "middle of february and I'll be clear" and here I am sobbing every few hours over the tragedy on my face (I had to go get 8 lesions injected today, and have had 2 more pop up in the 12 hours since). I'm just wondering if this is still a result of an IB from upping my dosage to 100mg (although that was over a month ago) and if so, is it only once I've been on this final dose for a full 3 months that I might see results? And I was also wondering if people saw gradual improvements over time, or if pimples just stopped appearing all at once at a certain point. Any tips/advice/your own stories would be so appreciated. I need some hope

I have never posted on here before but feel like I am at the point to do so. I am 29 years old and battling with hormonal acne since I was 12. As we all know, it can really take a toll on your self confidence and it has made me so insecure over the years. I have tried numerous things along with everyone else and in the past Proactiv worked for me but now makes me skin burn and no longer works. Birth control also helped me but I stopped taking it when it was getting too expensive. About 6 months after I stopped my face started breaking out like crazy possibly worse than I can remember. I tried clarisonic, multiple cleansers, to no success. I finally broke down and went to the dermatologist hoping for a cure and interested in Spironolactone because of all the good reviews. She started me on Spiro 50 mg for one week then bumped me up to 100 mg daily and it has only been 2 and a half weeks since I have been on it. I am also on Atralin gel at night and Aczone in the morning. I feel like my skin is very slowly improving but it is hard to tell and I know it takes time with this medicine so I will continue to be patient. I hope for the day I can wake up and see no acne looking back at me. I seem to tolerate the medicine okay so far with no crazy side effects.

I've been on Spiro for 41 days and I'm just now seeing the results I'd hoped for. I have one pimple on my cheek but my entire face has cleared. I used to have cystic acne all around my mouth jawline and cheeks. I was on 100mg for 1 month and just bumped up to 125mg the last 10 days. I would recommend to anyone struggling with acne!! It does take time though and I am still hoping for more improvement over time.

I have been battling with breakouts and mild/moderate acne for the past 2 years, and it seemed t be getting worse and worse. I am currently 19 going on 20 and never have I ever dealt with any breakouts in my early-mid teen years, even when I was going through puberty all I would get is the occasional pimple or two, otherwise my skin was flawless. Right when my senior year of high school started I started breaking out like crazy (I was going through an awful break up at the time but it was still bad) I looked "hive-y". I thought it was just me being stressed out, when I started noticing irregular periods and hair growth in places it should not be growing. YIKES! I still thought it was just my hormones being wacky and that they would work themselves out after I started college. However, they obviously did not. By the middle of my freshman year in college I was having a mental break down, I couldn't figure out why or how I was breaking out all of the time. The last time I could remember my face being pimple free was when I was 15?! Shouldn't I be done breaking out by now?! So I came back home this summer and talked to my parents. They figured it was time for me to see a doctor. I met up with 3 different doctors, the first 2 of whom were woman, and of course they just threw the birth control pill on me. Which I will not get into, but I am very much so against for many reasons I clearly will not waste my time with here. Long story short all it does is "cover-up" the symptoms. The third and final doctor I met up with an amazing endocrinologist/gynecologist who from what I've heard, knew his stuff. He knew I had PCOS by the blood work and from what I told him. I have elevated testosterone levels (almost twice the normal amount a woman should have) and weird LSH and FSH levels. He prescribed provera for 5 days of the month to take to help regulate my period and "restart" my menstrual cycle. He also prescribed me Spironolactone at 25 mg a day to help with my excessive hair growth and mild/moderate ace/pimples. I also would like to add that I am 5'8 and only about 125/130 lbs. I am considered someone with a "lean" case of PCOS. For the past 3 weeks and 5 days now I've been taking it, and at first, I had the typical head-aches, bloating, some diarrhea randomly, a little bit of nausea, and moderate insomnia (waking up for a good 2 hours in the middle of the night and struggling going back to sleep, thanks Netflix) by the 2nd week my skin was finally going back to being "flawless" I still had a pimple or two, and some scars from picking (which I am guilty of). The side-effects were going away and all I noticed was how I was peeing a little bit more and was a little bit more thirsty. I felt as if the medication was finally working. Entering my 3rd week I was thirsty, but it was just a dry-mouth kind of thirsty. Then out of nowhere, BAM, I broke out all over again! That was frustrating because I didn't know how or why my skin was going backwards. But, by doing some research on the oh-so-friendly internet, most people suffer from "initial-breakouts" meaning it basically gets better before it gets worse. Which in my case, made complete sense. My skin, as of today is on the near end of week 3. It just feels oily and is recovering from my initial break-out earlier this week. My blackheads/pores on my nose feel clogged and gross. I am so terrified that my skin is going to stay stuck like this all over again, or that this medication is just "done" working and is going backwards. Or that I should be on a higher dosage and that my doctor was wrong in telling me I don't need a "higher" one. I also would like to add that my hair has been shedding a little bit more than normal, it feels as if it's slowing down finally but I'm still a little worried about that awful side effect. I just hope I'm not alone in all of this craziness. Or that initial break-outs go away, or if my skin is stuck. I'll keep ya'll updated. I guess my problem is I'm just so darn impatient.

I used to have very clear, porcelain-like skin, until my junior year of high school when I started getting minor breakouts. I went to a derm, and she gave me clindamycin lotion and minocycline 50mg 2x Daily. It worked really well and my acne cleared up. Since my acne wasn't THAT bad, I would forget to take a pill here and there and eventually stopped getting refills of my prescriptions. I had occasional acne but nothing extreme. When I went off to college, I had persistent mild-moderate acne that I couldn't get rid of. It started after I began shaving my upper lip, and I thought it was just razor burn/bumps that would go away after a few days but they didn't. In addition to my pimples I had all these little bumps around the sides of my mouth. I didn't make time to go to a derm until the summer after my freshman year of college (this summer). My derm kind of sucks, but once you get referred to once it's hard to go to any others. I made an apt with her and she walked into the room to see me and immediately stated in a grave tone "Oh, that's not good" right when she looked at my face. As if my confidence was not already shot, having gross uncontrollable bumps all over my face. She said it looked more like perioral dermatis then acne vulgaris and she quickly wrote me a script for minocycline and clindamycin again, the same dosage as before. Out of desperation, I took my pills and applied the lotion exactly as directed, but after the first month I noticed no changes. I came back to my derm after the first month desperate for something different. The day of my apt (before my apt) I was googling about birth controls used to control acne (I've been on cryselle for a few years for PCOS) only to find that my birth control PROMOTES ANDROGENS and therefore is BAD FOR ACNE. I thought all birth controls helped with preventing acne, but I guess I was wrong. Anyways, I went to my derm apt that day and told her about my newfound knowledge about my birth control. She said she doesn't prescribe that type of medicine but suggested I stay on the BCPs I'm currently taking and begin taking Spiro 50mg 1x Daily and continue with the Clindamycin. I didn't want to start taking yet another medication if it wasn't necessary, but I was desperate for clearer skin. I've been taking Spiro for a month now, and my skin is really clearing up. I didn't notice a TERRIBLE initial breakout, I got a few pimples, but nothing worth freaking out over (even though after reading all of these posts, I was REALLY freaking out.) And after like 3.5 weeks, I started getting clearer. It was kind of crazy. It was like one day my skin was producing pimples like normal, and the next day it just wasn't. My skin was actually a little on the dry side this morning. All of my old pimples are healing and all of those pesky little bumps around my mouth are GONE. As for the side effects, I didn't really notice anything besides the dry mouth and the increase in urine output. That's a small price to pay for the confidence that accompanies clear skin. I plan to update this as I continue taking spiro.

I'm a 24 year old female. My acne has always been considered moderate to a dermatologist, but of course to me it felt severe. In the last few years my acne became worse than when I was a teenager. My zits were cystic, more numerous, and relentless. Unfortunately, my skin had a great effect on my attitude and my mood. Whether my day was good or bad was highly dependent on the degree to which I was breaking out. I had tried antibiotics, birth control, topicals like proactive, retin-a (of varying strengths), reducing my dairy consumption, becoming a vegetarian, and much more and with nothing to show. I think the constant nuclear warfare on my face in fact worsened my skin and caused further irritation. My mom emailed me with an epiphany one day. She recalled after her pregnancy with me she was prescribed a water pill to help her with some horrible cystic acne she was experiencing. She said it cleared her up almost immediately. I made an appointment with my doctor shortly after and was prescribed 25mg of spironolactone daily. The doctor was slightly hesitant, and she made sure to run through the list of every other prescription available (all of which I had tried) before agreeing to prescribe me this pill. I began this medication in March and it is August now and I truly could not be more pleased. My skin is not only clear but it is predictable. I don't dread looking in the mirror each morning only to discover 3 new massive zits. My skin is stable. I am not without some occasional small pimples of course, but they are small and infrequent. I'm not embarrassed to be seen without thick layers of foundation and I'm not afraid of humidity or sweating my make-up off. I'm so thankful to have found this medication. I only wish my mom had recalled her experience sooner! (Note: I do take this in conjunction with birth control. The birth control pill never did the trick for me but it is possible the combination of these two medications are giving me the ultimate effect)

Did not have any effect on acne, caused extreme dryness/thirst, low blood pressure, and weight gain. Avoid, avoid!

My dermatologist prescribed Spironolactone 25mg because I have a history of Liver disease and he said this pill is "water based" and wouldn't cause any damage to my liver. However, he said I couldn't get pregnant because of the serious birth defects in the male fetus, so I didn't want to have any babies back them and started taking Spironolactone. My acne was gone, my face wasn't oily at all. I had pretty nice skin and I didn't have a "purging" stage at all. Acne just started clearing up. I was the happiest until I had irregularities with my periods. I was scared, but I didn't know what was causing it until my dermatologist explained the pill could be the reason. He suggested to go back on antibiotics and give Spironolactone a break. Then, my nightmare began again. So far I've tried Solodyn, Doryx and now I'm on Bactrim. My acne slowly started to come back. I have huge pimples and I've had huge cysts on the side of my cheeks that without thinking it too much, I have my derm inject some cortisone on them because those suckers hurt (not to mention the fact that they look disgusting.) I recommend it (Spironolactone,) but maybe it is a good idea to take breaks because some side effects can become more serious. In my case, I would like to get pregnant within this year, so definitely I can't take it.

I am now 22 turning 23. I have acne (painful zits) since I was in 4th,5th grade, through out the years, the places that I had acne changed, I have had acne that were majorly on my forehead, or just on my cheek. As I become older, I had acne almost all over my face. I've tried almost every over-the-counter products and I took two different kinds of BCP before, no luck. I also tried acupuncture, no luck. Donating blood, no luck. The list can go on and on.

This is a great product for anyone suffering from hormonal acne. I have been using Spironolactone for about 3 months now and my face is about 80% cleared up. I occasionally get a pimple here and there due lack of sleep or poor diet but I am very pleased with the results so far. Will continue to use until my prescription runs out. I am a bit hesitant taking pills but I am hoping that this will be a very short term solution at attacking my acne.