How bad do you think hormonal acne needs to be before seeing a GP?

[skincaring]

I'm 25 and have had hormonal acne for around two years now. At its worst (around a year ago) I was getting a new spot every day, now at its best I'm getting a spot around once a week aside from the occasional flare-ups. The spots are painful, hard lumps under the skin that never rise to the surface (I've Googled them and the term is 'nodules'). They take around 5 days to stop hurting and then it takes a while for the lump and redness to fully disappear. I only get them on my chin and jawline.

Right now I have two breakouts but they are really red and swollen and painful. It seems over the top to be complaining about just two spots but I am fed up of my chin always feeling bruised and sore.

I use an over-the-counter retinaldehyde which helps but still doesn't stop them. I am meticulous with my skincare and I know it's nothing I'm doing skincare-wise to cause them.

Do you think they are at the point where I should speak to my GP or just grin and bare it? I know the NHS is busy at the moment and this isn't important.

I feel for you. I had horrid hormonal acne in my early twenties. Yes it’s not cancer, but it can really affect your self esteem and I found it so depressing. I eventually went to see my GP and she put me on the pill. I have reservations about being on hormonal contraception for too long now but at the time i needed it and it balanced my hormones enough to clear the whole thing up. I don’t know if they even use the pill these days.

I would suggest you try to to. I have a couple of scars from my acne. Not to frighten you, they’re not awful, but I sometimes wish I hadn’t been too ashamed to ask for help earlier.

Best of luck

Ring them, they’ll probably write a prescription for you to collect.
Don’t let it get worse because acne treatments can take quite awhile to work.
Dianette is a good contraceptive pill to take for acne. Tea tree oil is also good. Good luck

Ring them as per above and get put on the pill. My daughter did that and it made a huge difference.

Go now, you don’t have to be bad to get help. All acne’s hormonal, what else could it be?, kids don’t get it even if they go to bed mucky they don’t wake up with acne because they lack sex hormones.

Thank you for your replies. Unfortunately I can't go on the pill due to an health condition I have so I'm not sure whether it is even worth contacting my GP?

Definitely go to the GP! There are other treatment routes than the pill, including antibiotics and roaccutane (yours doesn’t sound bad enough for the latter but the former may help).

Additionally anticonception is changi by no improving all the time and there might be a pill you haven’t tried yet.

I was suffering horrendously with the same thing a while go (sounds over the top but it did really get me down and was so so so painful) and I’m all clear now. See your GP!

The pills only one option, the cause doesn’t matter it’s the treatment that cures you. They cure men without putting them on the pill.

I’ve got pcos & clear skin.

cks.nice.org.uk/topics/acne-vulgaris/management/primary-care-management/

Vitamin A really helped me but what seems to have stopped the nodule type spots is having babies.
It would be quite an extreme course of action though.

Not half!. “Mummy why did you want me?” “Well my skin was really playing up and I had ml accrued so I thought sod it it’s worth a try and here you are son”.

I'm a similar age and in a similar position, my skins really getting me down at the minute. Dianette worked amazingly for me but came off it to TTC and my skin is horrible. Definitely give your GP a call there are plenty of options available for you to try, they may just to a telephone call and you can send over some photos (that's what I did). I've been given benzoyl peroxide which I would not recommend, it's so strong and made my skin so itchy and dry to the point it's really flaking so I'm back to square one. But if you aren't ttc or pregnant there are lots of different options.

Definitely go to your GP. It makes me really angry that other skin conditions are treated very seriously with hospital appointments given but acne is not even though it can be very painful and upsetting.

I had very nodules like you described and found that Azelaic Acid was great at taking down the swelling and helping them go quicker. It's a very good anti inflammatory. (Sorry because I know you will probably get lots of skincare recommendations and that's not what you've asked for!)

And I also agree with Scarlett about Benzoyl Peroxide. It will get rid of spots but I found it very damaging to my skin barrier which caused more problems.

I suffered from this from age 27 til menopause. Like you I couldn't take the pill and my doctor gave me antibiotics that I took daily for years. The spots were so painful I had to take paracetamol and I was so self conscious having spots as an adult. This was years ago now so treatment has probably moved on. Definitely speak to your dr.

I was put on tetracycline for mine and it worked brilliantly, made me feel a bit sick all the time though but it was worth it for the change to my skin.

Thank you all, I will contact my GP. :)

Hi OP,

I'm in my 20s and had great skin in my teens but bad acne in the last few years. No amount of fancy or simple skin care, water, healthy eating etc has helped.

It's definitely worth a chat with your GP, I'm on week 2 of Duac which my GP prescribed over a video appointment and it's helped a huge amount. Prior to Duac I was on EpiDuo but it actually made my skin much worse as I had a bad reaction.

Roaccutane is a tablet you can be prescribed which I've heard amazing things about but I can't take it as I'm pregnant but as soon as I'm not I'm asking for it!

I should add if you are prescribed Duac it does dry out your skin and my skin is dry anyway so always put moisturiser on before and after the Duac