Dianette for acne (also posted in Style & Beauty)

[Localher0]

Does anyone have experience of how long this takes to actually have an effect on acne? Asking for my daughter who has just started it as a last resort. She can't take roaccutane so that's a hard no. She's tried everything up till now and nothing has worked, although spironolactone worked for a while and then stopped. She's only 19 and it's really getting her down.

My sister used spironolactone and this worked well for her. This was after going to the Gp on and off for years. Despite asking for a dermatologist appointment she never got one. She eventually saw a very expensive dermatologist privately who was great and prescribed her spironolactone and a number of different creams to use morning/night and this has helped to keep her acne at bay.

I used Dianette for acne all through my 20s - this was 25 years ago when it was the best thing available as roaccutane hadn’t come along yet. It improved but didn’t totally control my acne. I had better control when taking a low dose antibiotic alongside. Hope it helps your daughter. She has my sympathy, I know how distressing it can be. My acne (PCOS related) did eventually more or less go away after the birth of my first child. And now ( mid fifties) I am often told I look younger than I am, and I take the lack of wrinkles as payback for all those earlier excruciating years.

It got rid of mine. I can’t remember exactly how long it took sorry. Not that long though. I also used a couple drops of tea tree oil on a moistened (water) cotton pad. Clean pillow case at night.

The Acnecide range is good and use a Non comedogenic spf cream.

It helped me a little but didn't cure it - as soon as I came off a couple of years ahead of knowing I wanted a baby (so around age 30) my cystic acne was back.
It won't cut it alone but I've just started using 47 Skin and it's the only topical thing that's ever helped. I'm 40 now.

It was perfect for me. Then I had a migraine and they took me off it

Neither dianette nor spirolactone worked for me. Sorry OP.

Yasmin worked amazingly well for me

Change her pillow case every night too - silk ones are the best.

I've also got the wild mint skin care range (5 step) and it's been a game changer for me

I had mine in the late 1980s before anything else was available. It took three months to work for me, but after that my skin was great.

It worked very well for my acne which was due to PCOS but it seems to have triggered horrendous migraines which I still suffer with 3 years after I stopped taking it. Maybe I was just unlucky but I really regret going near it.

Thanks all - will keep you posted. She's only 2 and a half weeks in but there hasn't been a huge improvement yet - just got to be patient I guess...... She did try some cream from Skin + me but reacted really badly and her face was so sore. She says she can't use the retinoids/duac as they make her skin so sore - poor thing as I'm sure they would help. Apparently there is a spironolactone cream available in the US but not yet here so Really hope it comes over soon as she did have a course of oral spironolactone last year but ended up on 150mg daily and it suddenly stopped working :-( so she stopped it over Xmas. We have an appointment with a different private dermatologist in a few weeks so will report back with the outcome.

Quick update. Back to GP as she was in such a state about her skin. He was AMAZING really took the time to talk through all her health issues. He thinks she has PCOS - something I've wondered about for a while. He says she needs at least 2 months of dianette to see a result but also gave her a course of antibiotics and wants to see her in a month. So right now it's watch and wait.....

The best skin I ever had was on dianette. I had to stop due to migraines though.

Your DD also has my sympathies; PCOS is a shit condition to deal with if it is present and can lead to all sorts of problems.

She may well get on ok with the Dianette; its also often given to women presenting with PCOS due to its anti androgenic qualities. However, it can only be taken for a limited time.

She should have an internal ultrasound scan done to see what her ovaries look like; either the dermatologist and or the GP can arrange this. To my mind this should have already been arranged. If the ovaries are polycystic this is the underlying cause. Have a read too of Verity's website to do with all things PCOS.

The cause needs to be determined as well as treating the symptoms.

Thanks @AttilaTheMeerkat that website is very helpful. She had a scan a few years ago that showed enlarged ovaries but at the time didn't have all the other symptoms. They have developed over the past 12-18 months. I'll request a new scan if needed.

A "normal" sized ovary is about the size of a walnut. Another ultrasound scan should be considered to assess the current size and shape of her ovaries; polycystic ovaries often have a "ring of pearls" appearance to them. Some of these cystic follicles can be dormant, others release hormones and some may contain an egg. These cystic follicles do disappear, only to be replaced by other cystic follicles.

Glad the website was helpful.

Just thought I'd pop by to give a little update. After +2 months of dianette and over a month of antibiotics her acne is worse!! We both think that she's been fighting the acne battle since having her mirena put in. Whilst it has done a brilliant job stopping her awful periods her skin got bad and she put on loads of weight. So the decision has been made to take it out!! There's no point taking more and more drugs to counter act it's effect. I'll let you know how it goes 🤞🤞🤞

@Localher0 my internal alarm bells are ringing with what you've posted. It sounds very much like your DD has PCOS which needs to be properly diagnosed. Having a coil is treating a symptom, taking Dianette for acne is also treating a symptom. You can't test for PCOS whilst on any hormonal contraceptive. Diagnosis via blood tests and a scan is needed. You can suffer with the syndrome without having polycystic ovaries so a scan alone isn't enough and can be affected by taking Dianette. DD was diagnosed at 15 - massively irregular periods, severe acne, majorly greasy hair, small amount of hair growth. I'm incredibly grateful to the GP who listened to the shopping list of issues and could connect the dots (I had never heard of PCOS at the time). Correct eating and exercise can massively help stop some of the major negative effects of PCOS like huge weight gain. It's a hormone one much like peri/menopause - understanding is key.

and to answer your initial question about how long it took to see any acne benefits from taking Dianette it was months in DD's case (possibly 6 months+). The severe greasy hair on the other hand disappeared almost overnight (in reality probably after the first month).

Oh your poor DD, having had PCOS - undiagnosed till I had troubles TTC in my 30s - I do sympathise. Agree if that's what's at the root of her problems it needs to be handled more holistically. For me, an appropriate oral contraceptive helped a lot (when I wasn't TTC, obviously) - dianette helped my acne but made me depressed, Marvelon seemed to suit me well, I took that till I was 50.

Thanks @notquitesoyoung for sharing your thoughts and experiences with your DD. Wrt to PCOS - it's a suspicion at the moment and is complicated by the fact that 3 of the symptoms have really got worse since having the mirena and it could just be that she is super sensitive to the progesterone. Before the mirena the GYN did a scan and didn't think she had PCOS but I know that diagnosis doesn't just go on scan alone.
So the plan now is to remove the mirena and review in 6/8 weeks. Meanwhile she'll stay on dianette and antibiotics in the hope that the acne starts to clear.
I don't think I could persuade her to come off the OCP for a definitive blood test - she's about to go to Uni and desperately wants her skin to be better.

@Localher0 has she tried Epiduo for her acne? It's topical and it's best to read up on using - DD had a reaction the first time she used it but hadn't read or watched YouTube videos on ways to use. It strips everything of colour (bedding, towels, PJ's) but it really helped along with the Dianette. Completely understand how desperate DD must be to sort before uni.

Hi, OP - Dianette did work for me, but I couldn't tell you how long it took now, it was 20+ years ago. I would have happily stayed on it, but my GP was unhappy at me being on such a high dose pill for so long.

I also found that Mirena gave me awful acne, and I had it taken out for the same reason - which made me sad as I otherwise loved it. I've been told several times by various medical professionals that Mirena shouldn't cause skin problems, so perhaps it was a coincidence that they radically worsened when it went in, and cleared up when it came out🤔

The other thing that did work really well for me was Zineryt topical lotion, which I used periodically whenever it was really bad, until my skin eventually cleared up in perimenopause, confirming my suspicions that it was all hormonal.

Yes @notquitesoyoung she's had Epiduo for a while now but finds it really hard to tolerate so uses it every few days (I think) she's currently on oral lymecycline, topical azelaic acid and dianette - none of which have touched it yet!

PS I have also had a mirena which gave me such bad recurrent thrush I could hardly have sex at all. GP at the time said it shouldn't be the cause but she'd seen a few patients with the same issue. I had it whipped out and have had thrush once in the past 18 years!
I'm trying to remember if the weird acne I had in my early 20s was when I was on the mini pill - so maybe there is a progesterone sensitivity in the family.....???