Guys I'm considering taking Isotretinoin (Accutane) as I've had chronic papulopustlar acne for 17 years (I'm 30). Any advice or tips? I exepct to take a low dose treatment (probably 20mg a day) to keep side effects to a minimum (that's what my dermatologist said is reccomended nowadays).
Keen to hear about your experiences on the drug and whether it's worth it? and if it worked for y'all?
Thanks guys. Appreciate in advance your time for commenting/helping out.
I was on it cant remember what dosage but it was high enough I had to get blood work taken every month to make sure it didnt fuck my kidneys. But yeah it worked. You can expect it to make your acne worse at first. Then your skin will become very dry. Your lips will become chapped. So you will need lotion and shit. Does not get rid of blackheads or prevent blackheads from forming so dont expect that. Years later now and I do still get the occasional pimple but its nothing compared to the cystic acne i used to have.
my brother took that stuff a while ago. his face cleared up great, no side effects except when he drank on it he felt sicker.
He's still fuck ugly but no acne.
This is also called Accutane. Look up Accutane baldness. I had a friend that took it and his hair thinned out.
thats really helpful dude. thank you. i have papulopustlar acne so hope it will cure the painful pus filled cysts i get on my back and face.
can i ask some follow up questions please?
1. did the side effects last the entire time you were on treatment (the dry skin, chapped lips) or was it just bad at the beginning and got better as treatment progressed and you build up a tolerance?
2. did you get dry eyes? nose bleeds?
3. how long did your treatment last? I think mine will be 3-6 months at 20mg per day.
thanks again guys. really i am very grateful as i was presribed this when i was 16 (15 years ago) and my mom freaked out due to stories of depression and suicide. i wish i had taken it then as i wouldnt be so fucking scarred and disfigured now, but all i can hope for now is that it stops the cysts. then i can figure out if i can do anything about my severe scarring.
accutane, as far as i undertsand, got removed from the market in 2009. there are different generics now. but im going bald anyways so idgaf about balding. LOL
how the hell is it still legal to prescribe that shit?
just quit eating sugar immediately. switch over to an all meat diet gradually if you can't tolerate an immediate switch.
once you are all meat, add calciferous vegetables back in, then maintain this until your skin begins to improve.
experiment with returning foods to your diet one item at a time and over the course of a week to monitor the change.
also, research what foods are testosterone supporting and incorporate those. (onions for example).
completely avoid anything that inhibits testosterone, like alcohol, sugars, processed food, hydrogenated oils, etc.
derms are there to give you drugs to fix symptoms, not to solve the problem. fix your inflamed skin and blood and you will have better results than any drug is going to produce. plus the side effects of that drug are dangerous.
1. yes lasted the entire time i took it. Actually to this day my lips are still dry all the time.
2. no
3. was like 3 months but i cant remember exactly.
I had severe acne and I took roaccutane. Things cleared over time, skin got dry as fuck, which caused itchy skin (I scratched my face at night, which left temporary superficial marks). Alcohol consumption to be avoided during treatment and regular blood checks. Acne cleared all up, no lasting problems so far. If I knew about the existence of the product sooner, I'd have done it sooner
I'm also experiencing hairloss currently, idk if its related to the accutane though but yeah
how long ago did you stop treatment? so the dry lips was a permanent side effect? shit.
yeah ive had this for 17 years dude and tried everything. and i mean everything except isotretinion. this is the last thing i have to try. if it doest work, nothing will.
thanks dude thats helpful.
im 23 now and i took it like freshman year of highschool, i just use chapstick all the time its not a big deal tbh
So I know this is a really annoying option and its easier to just take medicine to try and help deal with adult acne, BUT my gf has had bad acne for a long time and she even tried using Accutane and it didn't really work for her.
She cut out dairy from her diet and her acne has since cleared up and has hardly come back at all. Acne can be a sign of a dairy intolerance. If you aren't looking at taking drugs to help, you could try adjusting your diet to see if it helps. From what she told me it can take up to 2 weeks after removing diary from your diet before you can see the effects.
thanks, but read this:tried that dude. legit this is my last option.
that's what everyone says who is not actually willing to change their diet.
not everyone's hormonal balance can handle the shit food that is made available. some people get fat, some get horrible acne. doctor's will tell you everything is fine because 99% of their clients eat shit and don't exercise.
"tried everything." you didn't honestly try fixing your hormonal balance. you probably tried cutting a food or adding a food in while maintaining a shit diet overall.
but yeah, w/e. eat some pills.
I'm 25 now, used it when I was 19. Acne has been gone since then and I'd do it again.
I did get back pain from it, because it causes dehydration - that went away like 2 months after stopping. My skin has been permanently dryer, but it's not bad at all. It's mostly my hands, and my face after washing with soap. I just moisturize my face and I'm good.
While on it - use eucerin aquaphor for your lips. Also I put it on a cotton swab and put it in inside my nose, your nose will get much dryer than everything else and thats the #1 worst thing people suffer from on it. It can get bad if u don't moisturize ur nose.
Everything has risks, including this so it doesn't go the same for everyone. They are minimal though, and it's very effective in getting rid of acne. Gotta do blood tests every month, e z tho.
also, its best absorbed with fatty foods. So fast food, milk, foods with butter etc..
genetics is huge in acne. Exercising and diet is to cure acne by reducing inflamation, but that doesn't matter if your genes are bad enough.
you just sound like you're being a dick because you couldn't afford it or something.
The diet poster is right.
Try eating nothing but meat and fish, before you start on this poison.
dude just leave. this isnt helpful commentry. im 30, had this since i was 13. my grandad had it. my mom had it. its genetic. ive tried everything under the sun. i went vegan for 18 months and that didnt work. no diary for almsot 2 years. 6 courses of minocycline over the years. benzoyl peroxide. chnage bedsheets every day. no chocolate. everything.
when i say this is my last option, i mean it. dont be so quick to judge.
I had bad acne as a teen. Accutane made my skin and hair look like that of an 80 year old and I would get a cold or the flu once a month while on it.
After trying a bunch of creams and pills and peeling my face with Retin-A several times I read something about using coconut oil. It’s high in linoleic acid which is naturally found in your skin and one idea of why some people get bad acne is because their skin is unusually low in linoleic acid. Anyway, I started rubbing coconut oil on my face after every shower and after about 3 or 4 months my skin looked great and my acne hasn’t come back at all. Been using it for 6 years. Also, I’m not one of those people that believes coconut oil is some kind of panacea and I just buy the unscented cheap coconut oil used for cooking.
being a dick because society tells people there's nothing wrong with eating shit and everything can be solved with a pill.
i wish someone would have been a dick to me and told me that shit when i was young and super self conscious about my acne.
thank you , friend. really appreciate it. im just fed up of the contsant pain. bloody tshirts and sheets. and fear of taking my shirt off in public. acne has caused me so much mental anguish over the years , and i tried everything to avoid takign accutane. but 17 years is a long time to live with it.
thanks for taking the time to share your experience.
I took accutane twice in my late teens. It was life changing. My issues cleared up well after the first round but came back some after about nine months. The second round made all the difference. My self confidence improved and I felt better as a person.
It's really uncomfortable while on it, but it's so insanely worth it.
Good luck going bald idiot
vegan is a dumb option. it's a health fad diet.
you need to be doing an auto-immune disorder diet, as i described. only meat until you adjust to being able to digest more fats and proteins than you are used to, then you can experiment to expand your diet.
pure meat with nothing is the ONLY food that will not have any allergic, auto-immune, or inflammatory impact on you, regardless of your genetics.
it might be a pain to adjust to it at first though if you don't normally get a lot of fats in your current diet (which you probably don't).
until you have tried an auto-immune diet for completely controlling your inflammation, you HAVENT tried "everything," so don't give me that shit.
or just go take pills if that's what you already convinced yourself you need to do.
you could never change your bedsheets ever and never wash your face and have 0 acne on the correct diet.
Won't be able to join the military. They won't touch anyone who has used it before. No telling what sort of bowel disease a person will have after using, even years after they stop using it, so the military won't risk signing them up.
tldr: Deciding to take accutane was one of the most important and pivotal decisions of my life.
I had moderate but absolutely gay cystic adult acne until I was 27. Started when I was 19 after having never had any, save for the occasional one or two zits in high school. Tried different medications (doxycycline, clindamycin, different prescription gels), diets, spent so much fucking money on the best essential oil moisturizers, face treatments etc. Nothing worked. I was always afraid of Accutane because of the potential side effects/risks, but I was wasting my life avoiding people, places and experiences because of my acne, so I decided I had nothing to lose.
I was given the same dose as you. Some people say the acne gets worse before it gets better. I have really sensitive skin and my acne started to clear up almost immediate (after 1 week I noticed results - no new cysts). After two weeks all existing cysts had receded and I was left with just hyperpigmentation. After 1 month, face was completely smooth and hyperpigmentation was starting to fade. After 4 month treatment, my face was unrecognizable. Truly one of the happiest periods of my life. I'm 5 years in and while I still get occasional zits, acne and oil is not something that really crosses my mind anymore. I wash my face with water and cetaphyl at night, put on nivea moisturizer, and that's it. No retarded, tedious morning and night routines, no agonizing over my appearance anymore.
The monthly bloodtests are a pain in the ass, as is the no drinking and avoiding the sun, and make sure to always have a lip balm on you at all times because your lips will get dry, but you should be fine. Again, I don't like encouraging people to take it because of the potential risks (of which you're obviously well aware), but I took the same dosage as you and it changed my life for the better in so many ways. Sorry for the wall of text.
already going bald. im 30. but my wife prefers bald heads, so its no bother. ive had a shaved head for 5 years.
i can see we're not going to agree. but thats ok. dont get so angry bro, theres no need. in any case, appreciate you taking the time to share your views (even if i disagree). but yeah, maybe others will try it and it will work for them. thanks and wishing you the best.
LOL. why would I join the military? mid career professional here dude, no need for that shit
People telling you to just eat better and exercise simply don't understand what genetic cystic acne is. Human skin cells die all the time and people with good skin genetics slough those dead skin cells off and they are replaced with new health skin cells. People with genetic acne simply don't efficiently slough dead skin cells off and their sebaceous glands simultaneously produce too much oil. A constantly oily face due to overactive sebaceous glands and poor skin sloughing means persistent acne that you have no control over. Isotretinoin is the only acne treatment that changes sebaceous and skin sloughing activity. Everything else just addresses symptoms.
I took it twice and am an Army veteran.
>but the biggest drawback? it’s going to fuck up your mind. some people kill themself because they can’t handle it. the best way to describe it is the drug slowly hollows out who you are as a person. the drug somehow erodes your habits and who you are, until you finally submit to its hold of discomfort. you’ll have outburst of rage as your personality is slowly stripped.
Thats bullshit, it's a risk, but it's one of the least common reported effects of the drug. It didn't effect my mind at all.
WOW. This is very envouraging to hear. Thanks dude. Thanks for taking the time to write this. Yeah I've just finished my 6th course of Minocycline (for 2 months) and within 6 days my cysts have come back. which is why I've now decided to take Isotrotenin.
Liek you, I was scared of the stories and side effects and so was my mom when I was a teenager. looking back, I wish I had taken it as it might have stopped me getting so many scars on my back. I look like a burn victim.
have you had scars from your acne? if yes, now that your acne is relativly fixed have you discussed anything with your derm on fixing scars?
thanks again. I feel like my case is simialr to yours so hopefully the 20mg a day for 4 months will work.
it's not about not having the option to join the military.
it's about the fact that the drug is so sketchy that the military can't risk letting people who have used it join.
should tell you something about the drug.
take flight lessons
i am very strong minded and have chronic cystic paupulopustular acne. i'm not worried about this on my mental health since I've been through some shit in my life and dealt with it just fine.
do you wear glasses? then you a sketchy motherfucker.
you a 5 foot tall man? you a sketchy mother fucker.
retarded. argument is retarded.
i’m reporting what i see in patients first hand, but yeah your single experience is probably more indicative. retard
so true. thanks man. genetics plays a huge part in my acne. my grandad had it until he died (in his 60's). accutane wasnt around when he was oyunger so he just used to do saunas every day. he installed one in every house he ever lived in. the humidity and steam was the only thing that helped manage his acne.
whats your source? It's one of it's rarest side effects of it, and it's unproven.