To tell on my friend re Accutane off internet?

[LeftMyRidingCropInTheMortuary]

Hello.
My friend has had moderate acne on chin, neck and chest since a teen. Her gp refused referral to dermatologist for Accutane due to history of depression. Friend told me she now ordered some off internet. Wibu to tell her mum? In case she goes suicidal? Shld I report to police to intercept illegal package?
Thanks.
Ps friend has tried everything else gp will prescribe apparently. What if this wld actually help her???

DS had Accutane (in the US) for 13 months. He had to have a blood test every month to examine liver function. If he had been DD he would have had to go on the pill or would have been refused the prescription, and he would have had to take a pregnancy test every month as well as the liver function blood test. The dosage he was on was tailored to suit his severity of acne.

If you know someone who is ordering it on the internet they are an idiot and should go to see a doctor immediately about coming off it safely, having blood tests done, having a pregnancy test done, and maybe getting a prescription and proper care.

Great you are standing up for yourself on here OP. The usual suspects on here , who usually gang up behind the bike sheds to sneer, jeer and put you down, are worse than any troll.

And who are the usual suspects?

In that case maybe have another talk to her, print some information off to show her. If she hasn't researched it she may be unaware of the more serious side effects and requirements for liver function tests

Thanks Dejarderoncar!

Apparently all you have to do on here to get bullied/troll hunted is:
a) have a first thread; and
b) also have a second thread;
OR
c) post a question about "down below".

:-)

the problem with these theads is ots ok if YOU want to order a un prescribed drug online - you can get berated until the cows come
Home. But when it's your mate? What can anyone here do? Expect make unworkable suggestions like calling her gp, mum, or the police of course knock yourself out with those

LeftMyRiding - I want to apologise for my hashtag troll comment earlier up the thread. It was wrong of me to incorrectly assume that based upon your recent joining and two threads in short succession.

I am happy the ladies on here have given you better advice than my ignorant comment and I also hope you've received helpful advice on your other thread.

Thanks Token.
You might be seeing a lot more of me round here so let's be friends!
:-)
PS: I now have a third thread. In Beauty. About Kim Sears' hair etc.

There are some fucking awful posts on here. Bloody nasty people.

You should see what was deleted, Twinkie!

Thanks v much to NaiceVillage - I will pass this onto friend.
And then smack her!

I was prescribed roaccutane when I was 18 for bad acne. I was on the normal dose for 16 wks plus a double dose for a further four weeks finishing off with a dose and a half for 4 more weeks. The entire time I was on this I had to also take the pill.

I was lucky enough to be under the care of two amazing consultant dermatologists at two different hospitals as I was attending uni at the time. I was fortunate enough not to suffer depression whilst on it but the actual side effects of it are immense. Within a few hours of taking my first dose my skin started to peel. I needed to apply and reapply heavy grade moisturiser whilst putting Vaseline up my nose. My lips cracked and My skin was constantly peeling. I developed eczema, my tear ducts went into overdrive so it looked as though I was constantly crying and every day I had to go to bed for a couple of hours due to the overwhelming tiredness. My bloods were taken every week and my liver was constantly monitored.

My reasons for going into such graphic detail is that there are too many serious side effects of this drug for anyone to self medicate. Plus I forgot to pick up my prescription for it once and the pharmacist said that for a small box on a private prescription it would cost thousands of pounds which makes me seriously question whether what your friend has bought is actually real.

Having said all of that it was and is the best thing that I have ever done. My self confidence increased. I no longer had abscess type boils over my face shoulders and back.
I would strongly recommend that your friend gets a second opinion. It is an expensive drug and some practices are not prepared to pay for it. I attended a Dr in Yorkshire 4 years post treatment for an unrelated medical issue and spent the entire consultation justifying my roaccutane treatment as I was (and still am )spot free. The Dr just kept asking why I had been given the treatment as it was VERY expensive. I was just extremely lucky that at the time I lived in a different part of the country where the medical professionals were more interested in the patient's welfare!!

If he had been DD he would have had to go on the pill or would have been refused the prescription

I thought in the US you were allowed to choose abstinence for your contraception.

At least that's what the iPledge guidelines state.

I know someone who took roaccutane (in the UK) and she was allowed to sign a contraception waiver.

No - has to be the pill, as far as I am aware. Not even a promise of condom use is accepted. Maybe it depends on the state, but nobody I know of was allowed to sign any kind of an abstinence waiver. The accurate patients I am familiar with would be teens and people at university, and therefore at risk for irresponsible sexual behaviour.

You don't have to sign a waiver in the US. You just have to choose abstinence as your primary form of contraception when you sign up to iPledge as opposed to the pill or implant, etc.

This was taken from an information leaflet

"Does a female of childbearing potential need to be on birth control or another form of contraception if she chooses abstinence? Or, is abstinence an acceptable option for iPLEDGE?

The program requirement for an FCBP is to be on two effective forms of birth control unless you choose to be abstinent. A patient choosing abstinence does not need to choose another form of birth control,
however, a secondary choice of “none” must still be entered if abstinence is listed as the primary form."

www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/DrugSafety/PostmarketDrugSafetyInformationforPatientsandProviders/UCM150729.pdf

That one was from 2006, but a more recent one from 2012 says similar

"Reminder regarding abstinence as birth control method
If you enter Abstinence into the iPLEDGE system as your primary form of birth control, you will be reminded of the iPLEDGE requirements for abstinent patients. You will also be reminded that if you do not think you can remain abstinent during your isotretinoin therapy, that you should consider using two other forms of birth control"

www.ipledgeprogram.com/documents/Whats%20New.pdf

There's also quite a few American users on the acne.org forum who have just chosen abstinence as their primary form of contraception so they don't have to take hormonal contraception.

I'm in the UK.

I was 'allowed' by my derm to use only condoms. However this was following a sensible discussion and I am 40yrs old. I can imagine that for a teen or young adult the derm would insist on a belt and braces approach to contraception given the severity of complications to the foetus arising from becoming pregnant whilst on Roacc.

I also self referred.

The cost of 1 month's Roacc was under £50. I found Sainsburys to be the cheapest place for my private prescription. However, once you total up each derm appointment, blood tests, prescription and Roacc cost, I probably spent in total about £2000.

My dd is 16 and is prescribed roaccutane , she just told the dermatologist she would not be having sex, she does not take contraception or have pregnancy tests.

Committing to not have sex with any male for the duration of your treatment and a month afterwards is an incredibly dangerous course to choose and no doctor that I am aware of among all the dermatologists the children of my friends have gone to would prescribe acutane if abstinence was the preferred choice of their patients. Drinking and unprotected sex are huge issues on university campuses, as well as rape. While the iPledge material states that an abstinence pledge suffices instead of choosing two effective forms of birth control, it also clearly favours the approach of two effective forms of birth control:

"The iPLEDGE Program Guide To Isotretinoin For Female Patients Who Can Get Pregnant explains the key information about the iPLEDGE program before, during, and after your isotretinoin treatment. Here is a general overview:

1. Learn about the iPLEDGE program and the isotretinoin side effects and risks in pregnancy.
2. Sign the Patient Information/Informed Consent forms.
3. Plan for treatment and for monthly appointments and pregnancy tests.
4. Choose 2 forms of effective birth control for the iPLEDGE program; use them all of the time.
5. Take blood or urine pregnancy tests.
6. Answer monthly educational questions to show you understand about the iPLEDGE program and about preventing pregnancy.
7. Follow requirements for pregnancy testing and follow-up after your last dose.
8. Do not donate blood during your treatment or for 1 month after your last dose.
9. Do not share isotretinoin."

The message is taken up again:
"If you have been abstinent (not having any sexual activity) and you decide to start having sexual activity, you must tell the doctor who prescribes your isotretinoin. You and your doctor must make a plan to start birth control and be sure you are not pregnant before you continue isotretinoin. One of the most common reasons that women get pregnant is that they do not avoid sexual activity when they plan to be abstinent."
^^ This is a warning about abstinence and its ineffectiveness.

The message that pregnancy must be avoided at all costs is very clear. It is also very clear that the fda thinks abstinence is a stupid choice. The emphasis on avoidance of pregnancy jumps off practically every page.

Abstinence is a choice that no rapist is going to respect, and one that can change depending on circumstances (drinking, etc).

Furthermore, women who refuse to use effective birth control while on accutane do others a huge disservice. If they get pregnant and choose abortion that means accutane will become a target of anti abortion campaigners and it is not too far fetched to expect that accutane will one day not be available to women in states where abortion is restricted by scarcity of clinics or difficulty in getting appointments or other hurdles, or even unavailable to any women at all.

This sort of selfishness will ruin it for all women and girls one day. Stupid American women sitting on their rights not to be 'dictated to' by their paternalistic, condescending, controlling [insert cliche of choice] doctors, blah blah blah.. .

Rape is never the victim's fault mathanxiety. I've been raped before and it certainly wasn't my fault.

Can we please not turn this into another victim blaming thread please?

The thing is though, how would you actually know whether someone was using contraception or not? There is no way to tell whether a woman is using hormonal contraception, even through a blood test, as the hormones are too easily mixed up with ones a woman has naturally.

It seems very odd to me to not take someone's word for it when she says she will not have sex but at the same time have no problem taking someone's word for it when they say they are going to use contraception. What's the difference?

And what happens when a woman does use contraception but ends up pregnant anyway? Would you still judge her for being stupid and selfish? Would you just assume she was lying about using contraception? And then judge her even more?

I took roaccutane about five years ago now. Prior to starting treatment I had already been on the pill anyways even though at the time I had never been sexually active and had no plans to have sex. I took the pill to help my heavy periods and as I had no problems with it I was happy to continue taking it throughout my course of treatment.

About a month into treatment I was raped. I was still on the pill at the time and I always took it correctly -- at the same time every day and never missed one. However my contraception failed and I did end up falling pregnant as a result.

I did have an abortion but the amount of judgement I got was unbelievable. Even my own dermatologist questioned me non-stop about it -- "are you sure you were really on the pill?", "are you sure you took it correctly?", "are you really sure you did this, that, blah blah blah". All of this questioning came with lots of raised eyebrows and lots of "hmms". It was clear she didn't believe me. I also had similar from other HCP's.

It was a horrible time for me. I was already going through enough as it was and the last thing I needed was all the disbelief and judgement.

Obviously I ended up pregnant which means I was still added to the statistics of women who fell pregnant whilst taking roaccutane. And as AFAIK they don't categorise those stats by saying this % was raped and not on contraception, this % was raped but her contraception failed, this % was just plain careless. It all gets lumped in together.

Then of course I terminated which probably meant I was added to some other statistic. I am sure there were lots of people who judged without knowing what had really happened.

I did everything I could to stop getting pregnant and I didn't even want to have sex in the first place but that didn't work.

It pisses me off that situations likes mine aren't taken into consideration and I just get lumped together with women who slept around and were careless with contraception. I doubt I'm the only woman in the world who was careful with contraception and might not even have wanted sex but ended up pregnant anyway.

Saying that I and other women in my situation might make roaccutane a target of anti abortion campaigners is offensive and hurtful. As is saying that we will be responsible if it gets withdrawn completely or just withdrawn from women, etc.

There is already so much victim blaming when it comes to rape. I still kind of blame myself for it sometimes but know deep down it wasn't my fault. It took me a long time to realise that however.

Adding even more blame and trying to guilt people by saying "it is your fault if it gets withdrawn. It doesn't matter that you were just unlucky and in the wrong place at the wrong time, it is still your fault and you will be held responsible" is just not on.

Sorry that was long . A lot longer than I meant it to be.

I should add that I do understand where the arguments about rape come from. I just think we should be more careful how it's put across and how it's dealt with when it happens.

Also AFAIK you aren't meant to drink whilst on roaccutane. I was told that I shouldn't drink alcohol no matter what.

Of course it is never the victim's fault. I do not know where I said that..

Maybe read a little more closely?

Refusal to use two effective forms of contraception and opting to use abstinence instead leads to abortion because abstinence tends not to happen despite the best intentions of those who say they will abstain. In the US where abortion is legal but still hotly debated, if accutane seems to lead to abortion then prescription of accutane to females of childbearing age will come under scrutiny. It has already attracted the attention of the loony anti-contraception fringe, to judge from the acne.org forums.