To think I will just have acne forever?

[coconutdonut]

I’ve had bad skin since I was a teenager which got slightly better during my early 20’s but now at 30 it’s the worse it’s ever been and so sore. I haven’t had clear skin for at least 7 years now.

I’ve tried lots of different skincare routines from cheap to expensive to just plain old water and nothing seems to help. At best I have the odd week here and there where it’s ‘Ok’ meaning I don’t have red, angry spots and just the scars (which I can just about cover with make up)

I’ve been to the doctors and was prescribed acnecide which I ouldn’t use for very long as it made my skin extremely dry and tight and bleached my pillow

Not sure if it’s worth going back to my GP and asking for something else or just accept going to look like this forever.

Unless any one has any ‘miracle’ cures?

I had over 20 years of being fobbed off by various GPs. At age 34 I finally got to see a dermatologist and was put on Roaccutane.

It was definitely no walk in the park and can have extreme side effects, but it worked for me. Please go and see your GP.

Topical treatments will only do so much. Dianette and Yasmin definitely worked for me. Have been on them for nearly 15 years. If I stop it comes back.

Op i suffer with migraines and still went on dianette. It cleared up in months, however i did get ill, then i did get some return once they came back.
Mine cleared up when i used la roche posay and avene after a friend recommended them ( who also had tried countless things from the gp also for years).

Sorry *once i came off it

I have horrible acne. It began when I was about 18 and then went away for a few years in my early 20s. Now I'm 27 and its come back, but...

This week I have been ill and my appetite has gone out of the window. My skin has cleared up a lot so I think my usual diet has a lot to answer for.

I had dreadful acne in my late teens/20s. Adult acne is so different from the typical teenage kind, and won’t normally respond to topical treatments except on a very superficial level. You need something to address the cause of it itself, which is essentially over-production of sebum. I tried the pill first, it improved it for about two months, then nothing, except weight gain
Had roaccutane aged 25, for six months. Miracle. Very occasional spots (actually more so now which is probably perimenopausal hormones), but literally something like one a year if that. It wasn’t harsh for me, lips a bit dry but that was it. I’d go for it like a shot.

@Gah81 yes! Skin is nowhere near as good as it was on Yasmin, but that's hormones for you

Don't know if I'll get to the no make up stage like when I was on the pill but it's tonnes better than it was

We swapped from Treclin 0.025 to tretinoin 0.05 a couple of weeks ago so will see what difference that makes as well

Hard to tell on the anti ageing front as I also had some botox done

Hiya do lobby your GP for treatment it might be the answer though with any hormonal tablets you might get other side effects like putting on weight. If you haven't done so already, I would start researching skin care. Start with a blogger called Caroline hirons, she is a beautician and has lots of cheat sheets on skin to look at.

Another one saying, press your GP to rule out PCOS (normally through blood test and scan). Dianette would be a classic treatment for PCOS related acne, but you can also take Metformin (the insulin resistance medication) for PCOS. If the PCOS improves, so will the acne ime.

@t1mum3 interestingly the dermatologist I see said that metformin didn't usually make any significant improvement in skin - I take 750mg twice daily to help with ovulation and it made bugger all difference to me. I'm lean PCOS though which is more about insulin sensitivity than resistance

No question my skin was amazing on the pill and acne came roaring back once I came off it

You said you didn’t know where to start with your diet...
Give up sugar and drink 3 litres of water a day. You should see a difference in days.
I had cystic acne in my twenties and just those things helped so much.
If you’re still suffering, then get a referral to a dermatologist.

That's interesting - I've never heard of insulin sensitive PCOS before. My understanding was that lean and obese women with PCOS are insulin resistant? Why did they put you on metformin if you are insulin sensitive?

I had the same problem and was on the pill from the age of 18 until about 33 when I had to come off it for various reasons. It had been the only thing that stopped my skin from breaking out (I had previously been given antibiotics which worked but I am generally against taking antibiotics because of increasing resistance).

I was really worried about it and knew I had four months between coming off the pill and my skin starting to break out. My doctor prescribed me epiduo which is good but dries the skin out, and my dermatologist suggested Roacutane which I really didn't want to take because of the side effects.

A friend suggested that I should try giving up dairy - specifically from cows but all of it to start with. The doctor was very sceptical but I did it and haven't looked back! Cooked dairy is fine (bread, cakes etc), but I gave up all fresh milk, cream, cheese etc for about four months and then phased in sheep and goat cheese and it has been great. As an added benefit, I haven't had to use my asthma inhaler since then and its been three years! Giving up milk was tough but it was worth it.

@t1mum3 PCOS is at heart an endocrine disorder, even if it's insulin sensitivity rather than full blown insulin resistance

I was put on metformin during IVF to try and mitigate the increased risk of miscarriage due to PCOS - my LH levels were very high, even though my androgen levels were normal (though when diagnosed I still scored 3/3 of the Rotterdam criteria, as I had clinical signs of hyperandrogenism ie acne)

My miscarriages weren't due to PCOS so the met won't have made any difference either way. When we stopped fertility treatment we decided to keep me on the met in case it helped me to ovulate naturally, and avoid the need to take provera. I won't ever be pregnant as my womb is too damaged to carry, so there's no massive case for taking it, but I do just in case it does make any difference to my skin (and if I could have some semblance of a natural cycle then so much the better)

I'm sorry for your losses

I haven't RTFT but I have suffered with my skin all my life also (I'm 35) except for when I was pregnant. Until a few weeks ago. I stopped all the expensive skincare and swapped for a cheap antibacterial soap which I used twice a day, and my GP has prescribed Zinyert to apply twice a day too. No stinging or tightness, it's fine.

I have zero spots!

Mine is hormone related (PCOS) and I'm astonished. It's cleared right up.

I agree with looking at your diet and especially giving up dairy, it has been a complete game changer for me. Bread, dairy and soya are all triggers for me and I will inevitably have a breakout if I have one of those things. Also I came off the pill. For the first couple of months my hormones were completely screwy and I had loads of spots, but once my body had recalibrated itself to 'the new normal' my skin started clearing up and now I might get one, short lived, spot once every 3 months. Nothing like the painful cysts that never came to a head and lasted weeks like before.

Acne is a signal that something is wrong inside your body so you need to find the trigger to fix it. Just rubbing different creams on the outside of your skin is not going to fix the underlying issues.

Good luck

I don't think diet is always a thing ( none of the doctors ive seen have said its related to that either) i had a better diet when i had acne ( forever drinking water, barely junk food) now my skin is fantastic and i certainly haven't cut out anything,

My acne has just about gone as I've hit the menopause. I wish I'd tried roaccutane. I believe it's more readily prescribed now though it has to be via a consultant.

Speak to your GP and say this can't go on. Though you may well get tight dry skin with roaccutane, you might want to persist with the cream. In my case the cream was a bit effective but the acne was only kept at bay, not really cured. White pillow cases and an old white towel were useful at that point.

Sorry, should say the progesterone only pill also helped a lot but killed my libido stone dead.

Dianette worked more or less for me, but doctors are reluctant to prescribe it now. Yasmin is the sort of replacement pill that can help sort out acne, but made me feel incredibly light headed and didn't really work on my skin.

A US doctor prescribed me spironolactone, which was a wonder drug for me. It can have side-effects (like any drug) but I love spiro and recommend exploring it to any woman who has cystic acne

My sister suffered with terrible acne until she took Roaccutane at the age of 38. It was absolutely a miracle for her, and she'd tried everything else to no avail. It was so severe that she would ring in sick to work sometimes, just because she couldn't face leaving the house. She was too embarrassed to see her GP for far, far too long, I think because she thought she'd be nagged about her smoking and weight. As it was, they couldn't have been kinder and referred her to a dermatologist without her having to push for it.

I have acne and have done since I was a teen. I think Roaccutane (sp) should be for severe acne or acne that is causing mental health problems, etc. It can cause awful side effects to should be a last resort.

I have pitted scarring and 1 spot most of the time but after trying everything under the sun, the only thing that cleared my skin was the US Proactiv. It CANNOT be the UK or EU version, as this has different ingredients. I used to order mine from the US via eBay but now have a relative send from Canada. I can't be without it...I stopped and tried something new early last year and within 2 weeks, I had severe acne all over my face (I'm talking 50+ spots on my face).
It really is brilliant but you have to stick to it twice a day, every single day. It starts working right away and doesn't do that 'gets worse before it gets better' crap like the antibiotic ointments etc from the gp.

Do you use foundation? I can only use bareminerals. I obviously never sleep in it and never let myself sweat with it on, so remove before a bath, etc.
Mine is also hormonal but if I am strict with the proactiv, it helps :)

Oh and I cannot drink Pepsi or coke or I know I will get a big outbreak of cysts...have you tried cutting out sodas?

What's your budget like? I would 100% recommend going to see an actual dermatologist (private) - GPs have such a wide range of scope, going to see a specialist will really help. Do some research and if you don't live in a particularly 'cosmopolitan' area, travel into to a big city.