Skincare please help (pic)

[Futureplanning]

I have suffered from cystic acne for years, usually about 4 lumps at a time. I've been using Zineryt from the doctor which usually helps.

I'm erupting again, so before lockdown stripped my skincare back up basics (was using la Roche posay, pixi glow, zineryt) to just using a charcoal soap and zineryt.

It looked amazing for the first few weeks, but this week I'm back to 4 massive painful lumps again, as one goes, another appears. I just don't know what to do anymore. Help please.

(I'm 40, on the mini pill)

Why hasn't your dr referred you to dermatology?. I had cystic acne and no skin care shifted it so we tried lymecycline which didn’t work so I had accutane which is a miracle drug.

The mini pill could be making it worse, I had the implant which really made me so much worse but removing it didn’t help at all.

Yes after years of thousands of £ wasted on skincare the only thing that helped for me was a derm appointment which resulted in a prescription for doxycycline.

Cerazette (contraceptive pill) cleared mine up.

Your GP should be referring you to see a dermatologist. The wait could be long but it's worth seeing an expert.

Soap is too drying on the skin. That might be causing you to break out.
Maybe go back to your old cleanser. But I perhaps wouldn’t mix pixi glow and zineryt at the same time as it could be too strong.

You can try watching YouTube videos. There are many dermatologists giving advice on what products to use.

The mini pill won't do anything for acne. Have you tried other topical treatments such as epiduo? Normally a dermatologist will want you to have tried oral antibiotics for at least 3 months before giving you isotretinoin.

Thanks everyone, I will ask for a dermatology referral, I have put up with this for 12 years. I don't know why I haven't thought to do this before.

Good for you, hopefully they’ll give you a px for antibiotics to take the heat out of the infection.

My dermatologist had no issues giving accutane, she didn’t even ask if I’d tried other treatments.

Your GP should be able to prescribe lymecycline or doxycycline which are both used for acne. Mine did. Doxy gave me bad stomach issues but lymecycline was fine.

Thanks, do you think it would be classed as bad enough, given I usually have about 4 at a time?

I mean I find it bad, but it's not like some people have it. I think that's why I've just put up with it so long, really thought I'd have grown out of it at 40 though!

I had them like that on my nose, progesterone increases skins oiliness and the bacteria can feed on that. Plus at 40 my hormones seemed to change and I got oilier, now drier at 43.

If they don’t respond to topical and oral treatments dermatology will see you. No skin care will help unfortunately, if it was as easy as using something over the counter dermatology wouldn’t see you at all but it’s difficult infection to clear in some people.

You don’t need to be covered in huge cysts leaking pus to be in need.

I’ve noticed a few women in here recently with cystic acne appearing in their 40’s.

cks.nice.org.uk/acne-vulgaris NICE guidelines, gp adhere to these. They’d have to have a really good clinical reason not to.

My dr said she frequently sits there during consultations thinking “ask me about your skin” and when she gets to the end of the consultation and says “anything else your worried about” they say no.

I think the beauty industry has done a very good job of hijacking acne as a cosmetic problem.

Thank you, once things are a bit more normal I shall make an appointment and get this sorted once and for all.

They’ll probably still be doing telephone appointments now for things like this.

Telephone appointments and ask for a referral. It might be worth asking your GP for 20% azelaic acid on prescription whilst waiting for the referral, it's NICE recommended and my dermatologist was pleased I'd tried that already.