What the hell to do when acne comes back straight after roaccutane!?

[Troton]

I’ve been on a 6 month course of roaccutane. I came off it a month ago and the cystic acne and oily skin is already come back fast.
My self esteem is absolutely squashed. What else can I do now? I’m currently using salicylic acid daily and a small amount of epiduo but really struggling to tolerate it as it burns my skin and turns it orange/red colour. I’ve also completely cut our dairy and trying to eat low sugar.
I’m really bloody miserable about it and fed up. I had to give up bf our baby to go on roaccutane and I’m so annoyed now that it’s not been the long term cure that i was led to believe. So on top of the spots I feel guilty for stopping breast feeding too :-(

I’m so sorry you feel shit. I’m afraid I don’t really have any advice but didn’t want to ignore your post.

Have you tried Differin? It’s working quite well for me so far but not a miracle. Treclin is similar but also contains clindamycin.

Have you got a good dermatologist?

Forgot to say - PLEASE don’t feel guilty for giving up bf. The two most useful cliches I heard as a new mother were “no-one gives you a medal for anything as a parent” and “raising kids is a marathon, not a sprint”. Basically there will be so much more to feel guilty about so please don’t let this get to you 😁

Have you tried Cerazette?

Please don't feel guilty, a happy mother is the most important! I would persist and go back to your dermatologist for more investigations, could it be hormonal? Good luck!

Get back in touch with your GP/dermatologist. It could be that you need a further round of roaccutane. Or that something you've tried before works now, I remember being told rosccutane would change the way my skin reacted to treatments, so something that hadn't worked before might be effective after roaccutane.

This happened to me too - 4 months after a 10 month course the acne came back with a vengeance. Ended up back on roaccutane for a year but nearly !ost my eyesight so had to come off it - acne back 2 months later.
I now have no acne by taking DIM supplement - took 3 weeks to kick in but it's been miraculous - if was hormone imbalance all along but spiro, Dianstte and Yasmin hadn't worked. I also do dairy and sugar free.

@JMAngel1 I'm due to start roaccutane next week - what on earth do you mean almost lost your eyesight? My eyes are bad anyway

Sometimes you need to take another course.

I started taking Inofolic a month ago on the recommendation of a friend who was taking it for fertility reasons (Ive already had my kids but was experiencing similar symptoms to her pcos minus the weight gain) and it cleared my persistent cystic acne all over my jaw and back in just over a week. I’d been on several rounds of antibiotics which hadn’t touched it over nearly three years so roaccutane was going to be my next fix but haven’t actually needed it. In my case I think my hormones were all over the place after having dc and I possibly suffer from something called lean pcos and this stuff has just rebalanced things. It’s about £30 a month but been worth every penny so far.

RachJ1 yes visual problems are a common side effect of roaccutane - blurred, double or tunnel.vision and reduced night vision - sometimes irreversible on stopping it. I wouldn't ever go on it again.

Go back to your dermatologist OP. You might need a longer course.
And there is nothing wrong with formula feeding. Both my kids were FF and are now fit and healthy, energetic in their 20s. Rarely, if ever, ill

I havent taken Roacutane but it would have been my next step if the Spironolactone edidn't work.

Maybe go back for a second course? I have read up on this and it isn't uncommon to need more than one round.

Lightsabre Cerazette is a progesterone only pill. This won't help clear acne, in fact it usually makes it worse.

Possibly need to keep going. My daughter has been on a low dose for a couple of years, her dermatologist said some people take a couple of low dose pills a week forever as maintenance

All different ways of managing it. Go back to the doc and they can figure out the doseage. It’s worth it in the end, good luck

Sorry for not replying sooner been a busy couple of days. I’m very reluctant to go back on roaccutane. I’m not sure we have completed our family and I don’t want to be on it long term if there’s a chance we might have another baby in the next few years.
I’ve tried all sorts of different contraceptives over the last 10-15 years and none of them seem to make any difference to my acne. I don’t think dairy free is helping either but I’ll stick it out a few more weeks.
I’ve tried differin cream and couldn’t get past the first few weeks it seemed to clog my pores and give me even more spots. I might go back and ask for the gel version though. The epiduo does get rid of spots/prevent little ones from turning into massive angry red ones but it really really burns my skin - it turns it bright orange and it peels like mad for days it looks worse than the acne and is impossible to cover up.
I’ll have a look into the infolic thing never heard of it

Also roaccutane made me very very tired and achey and my eyesight also deteriorated on it so I’m very wary of doing it again

Re - Epiduo. Stay with it - my daughter had terrible acne, for first three months her skin was worse with breakouts and the red skin and peeling were awful. However bit by bit her skin now is nearly clear. It's taken nearly eight months but hopefully acne is a distant memory ❤️

I’d go back on it, my derm said to go back for more accutane if the acne came back.

One of her nurses has been on it 3 times but has fab skin now.

I’m on my second course of Accutane and my derm told me it wasn’t unusual to need more than one course xxx