Oral Antibiotic
Efficacy
69%
Based on All Available Studies
Strength of Evidence
Note: Should never be used on its own and for a maximum of 3 months.
Oral Antibiotic
Acne.org’s Real World Take
Antibiotics should be used for a maximum of 3 months, provide only moderate benefit to only some people, and may lead to side effects and strains of resistant bacteria. Studies do show they can sometimes reduce severe acne in the short term, but approach with caution and stay your own advocate.
Oral Antibiotic
How to Get It
Have a dermatologist? Make an appointment to get this medication. Don't have a dermatologist? See The American Academy of Dermatology Physician Database to find one.
Used Tetracycline? Rate It:
Choose from 1 to 5 stars
September 29, 2011
Cons:
makes you feel like your going to vomit
drys your skin out
works fast, its a great product if you can handle the way it makes you feel for about an hr when you take your pill.
i used it for a month consitantly then if I felt like my face was becoming unclear i take it for about a week. must drink lots and lots of water!
August 10, 2011
Pros:
cleared up my acne very well!
Cons:
made me extremely nauseas
skin sensative to sun
had to plan my meals around the pill
I took this for a little over a year and it worked extremely well! it took about two months to COMPLETELY clear up my skin. The only problem is that once i stopped taking it, my acne came back worse than ever before.
May 17, 2011
Pros:
- clears up my acne quite quick
- no side effects for me
Cons:
none so far
I think it is important to say or skin is the same and medication and creams for different for everyone. A healthy diet makes quite a chance as well. I have always had some spots, but since I got the Mirena coil, I started to develop acne. I will get the coil taken out anyway, but in the mean time I still want to clear my acne. The GP prescribed me Tetralysal. I have been using it for 3 weeks now and it has cleared up my face quite a bit already. If I do develop the occasional spot or boil, I put Sudocrem on it(just the spot, not all over my face, cuz it seems to work the opposit from Tetralysal) and usually the next day it has almost vanished. As for cleaning my face I use sulphur soap or dead sea minerals soap. All together it works really well for me. I still have another 3 weeks to go, so will keep you guys updated. If anyone is interested in my before in after pictures, to see what it does, give me a shout.
March 29, 2011
Pros:
~Works great to clear acne
~Very cheap
Cons:
~Not a long term solution
~Not good to be on antibiotics for too long
~Causes nausea
This really works to clear your skin up quickly, but it is not a permenant solution. First of all, it's not good to be on antibiotics all the time. Secondly, your body will become immune. I was clear for about a year and then I became immune and broke out bad again. I am going back on it, and this time before I get immune, am going to switch to a different topical antibiotic. Always keep your skin guessing i guess. For the year I was on it though, I didn't have one pimple. Was super nice to have clear skin, and in conjunction with retinol all my scars cleared up-no one thought I ever had an acne problem. I'd suggest using this to get rid of your acne quick, but then after 4-8 months switch to a different therapy like Clindoxyl and Retinol. The antibiotic is key. The meds did cause a bit of nausea because you have to take it with no food...so I would take it before bed so I was already laying down. Well worth a try, but I suggest knowing your plan for afterwards-dont wait until you become immune like I did!!
July 3, 2010
Pros:
cleared up acne within 1-2 months
Cons:
remembering to take it
I had pretty bad acne and eventually I went to see a dermatologist. He prescribed me to take tetracycline twice a day. Within a month to two months, I did notice a change in my acne. Now I only get one or two pimples just around the time of my period. I tried every other product, Neutrogena, Clean&Clear, etc, but nothing helped my acne except this life saver! The only con I found with this product was remembering to take it and planning it around meals (and learning not to lay down right after I take it or I got really bad stomach aches). Once my acne cleared up I missed a few days, maybe even a month before I started to take it again. But even during the time I didn`t take it, I never broke out.
June 9, 2010
Pros:
Cleared up acne, reduced scarring, stablized skin's oil production
Cons:
Not being able to eat when i want
I'm 15, and i eat spirastically, so it was very hard for me to keep up on taking the pill twice a day. I stayed on track for a few months, but then just got lazy. And guess what! My acne came back. So tonight im taking one of those gosh darn pills. But it'll be worth it.
June 7, 2010
Pros:
Cleared up my acne almost completely within 2-3 weeks. Also seems to have helped the skin regenerate so the scarring has gone away slightly.
Cons:
When I first started I had to take it twice a day and it would mess with my eating schedule a bit. Also sometimes if I went off it for a few days-a week accidently I sometimes got a minor yeast infection upon going back on it.
I'd definitely recommend it. However, as with all antibiotics, don't stay on it for very long. I started out taking it twice a day and have, over the past 3 months, worked myself down to taking it every other night with the same results. I've also used it with topical creams, so I can attribute some of my success to those, but all in all, my acne (which has been plaguing me for years) has finally become history.
May 7, 2010
Pros:
- it cleared almost completely my face
- made my skin less red
- it's been two weeks that i have stopped using it because it gave me diarrhea so the acne came back but lightly
Cons:
- it gave me nausea sometimes, especially in the morning, for about an hour
- i couldn't eat an hour and a half before taking the antibiotic and an hour after that too so i was often really hungry especially the around the time i had the toke the dose in the night
- it gave me diarrhea, but i'm not 100% sure it's because of the antibiotic, however it can cause diarrhea and even a bacterial infection (in the stomach or a yeast infection)
- Acne comes back when you stop taking it, but
I recommend this medication to everybody, but remember it reacts differently on everybody. Some people do not experience any side effects. However, i would say that the nausea part isn't that bad and it's easy to support, it's just unpleasant. And about the diarrhea part, it's because antibiotics do not only kill the bad bacterias in your body (the ones that cause acne) but also the good ones. That's why it can f**k you bacterial flora in your stomach or in your vagina, and cause diarrhea. But what can be worst in a yeast infection or a bacterial infection in your stomach, because you'll have to take another antibiotic for that, and them come back on tetracycline. Overall, antibiotics aren't good for the immune system, that's why it's better to take the less you can. But the best part is that it cleared my face completely, while i was on it! It's just that i had to stop it, for the diarrhea to go away, and it's been 2 weeks. I have no more diarrhea but my dejection still isn't totally normal it can be very soft as it can be very hard all that in the same day. The problem is that the gynecologist told me to stop it for only 4 or 5 days, but it really isn't for me cause by day 5 i still had diarrhea. I find that weird, and i'm scared of having a bacterial infection infection in the stomach but i think that your have to have diarrhea for that which i don't have anymore.
February 6, 2010
Pros:
Cleared up my acne fast
Cons:
It did upset my stomach and I hated the whole 1 hr before and 2 -3 hrs after a meal.
I was trying different things but nothing worked my dr finally prescribed this for me to use for one month to see if it worked and it did work. Unfortunately after the month I went back and he took me off of it saying that I didn't need it.
January 8, 2010
Pros:
Free on NHS prescription, completely cleared up my acne and kept my face clear for several weeks. Not many side effects just occasional stomach aches when taking pills.
Cons:
Took a few weeks to start working and I had an initial break out for a few days at the start of the course. Have to take it on an empty stomach and it's annoying to plan your whole day around it.
Be prepared to wait a few weeks before seeing any improvement and make sure to take pills consistently.
Pros:
works fast
ckears skin