I’m 21 F
Edit: I also have body acne which bothers me a little less but is still frustrating. Also, my derm also recommended doing a glycolic acid exfoliation once or twice a week but she recommended Dr. Dennis peel pads and they’re literally 94 dollars so that’s off the table for me though I did get a glycolic acid cleanser to wash with in addition to my other face washing that I leave sit so it can work more
I can’t be on spironolactone because of a hormonal issue which is frustratingly causing the acne to begin with, and I am bipolar and I really don’t think it’s safe for me to risk the psychiatric side effects of accutane. I’m very sensitive to medication side effects and very prone to depression and to me it’s just not worth the risk.
I tried a round of doxycycline, then was using topical clindamycin, and tretinoin, which basically did absolutely nothing. My daily face wash morning and night is benyzol per my dermatologist instructions and it does help because if I dont use it it it’s 10x worse, but it’s not good. I use a basic cetaphil moisturizer after all that morning and night, and in the morning I also use a mineral sunscreen cause I read mineral was better for acne and I definitely cannot be walking around with all these chemicals and not use sunscreen.
I’ve got a lot of clogged pores that just make my skin bumpy on my cheeks and a healthy amount of puss filled spots all over and some lovely cystic acne to top it off on my cheeks and jawline and especially on my neck.
I was just prescribed Winlevi since I can’t use an androgen blocker systemically, and I got my tretinoin dose increased, and I stopped the clindamycin (all changes are what my derm said to do).
I’m just really frustrated though, because my derm keeps insinuating that spironolactone would be best or accutane, she isn’t pushing accutane and said herself that spironolactone isn’t the move for me/wouldn’t be safe but she keeps kind of saying stuff that makes me think topical treatments aren’t going to help me. She’s really nice and she’s trying but I’m assuming that she’s decided we’re sort of stuck with my treatment where we are since I can’t use the gold standard meds.
Has anyone had luck with hormonal acne without taking any medications? I’m really feeling at my wits end, obviously most people here can understand how horrible and self conscious it makes you feel. My brothers wedding is coming up and I’m feeling terrible about going because I don’t want my face in all the photos to be covered in acne.
Ironically my brother also had horrible acne but he was able to take accutane so that kind of makes me feel worse. It’s definitely genetics cause my mom suffered it for years until she was like well into her 30s.