Spironalactone, another vote. I only had to stay on it for 90 days.

I had normal puberty acne as a teen (forehead, t-zone) and then it went away on its own in my late teens. In my early 30s, acne came back (cheek, jawline). I did try antibiotics, changed birth control (had to change back), nothing really worked. The acne was mild- 3-5 new pimples a week. It's still annoying to deal with it. It was never severe enough to go the accutane route.

I noticed that it was more severe when I didn't sleep enough/was stressed, consumed dairy, fatty foods, didn't take off make up at night (that's a given). Now I make sure that I sleep at least 8 hrs a night, cut out dairy for the most part (maybe I have cheese/dairy based ice cream a couple times a year), mostly vegetarian (lean meats/seafood 3-4x a week), and I do 45-60 mins heavy cardio at least 5 days a week. About the exercise, something about sweating seems to help purge the toxins from my skin and obviously, it's a de-stressor.

It's not perfect. I still break out, maybe one pimple every weekish. But it goes very quickly. My skin overall looks and feels better.

I had acne like this and I quit drinking and it cleared up. Apparently, drinking causes hormonal changes in women that can cause acne and worse (breast cancer).

Did you get your hormones tested? Something is off balance.

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all. Yep, I've been on Retin A, about 5 different types of hormonal birth control, and took collagen supplements earlier this year but found they did nothing. Nada.

Spironolactone I haven't tried. Will look in to it!

It works!

Anonymous wrote:What about spironolactone?

I don't take it anymore for health reasons, but as a despairing woman aged 40 this was the only thing that cleared up almost instantly cannot believe more folks don't know about it! Now try to eat a low sugar high potassium diet!

Anonymous wrote:Thanks all. Yep, I've been on Retin A, about 5 different types of hormonal birth control, and took collagen supplements earlier this year but found they did nothing. Nada.

Spironolactone I haven't tried. Will look in to it!

OP again. I should add that I also have some back and shoulder acne occasionally.

Thanks all. Yep, I've been on Retin A, about 5 different types of hormonal birth control, and took collagen supplements earlier this year but found they did nothing. Nada.

Spironolactone I haven't tried. Will look in to it!

Spironolactone. I had acne as you described, tried everything including accutane. It’s hormonal. Spiro is the only thing that worked. Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:Have you tried Retin A? It’s worth it. I used it in my early 20s and again in my 40s for hormonal acne. And it’s good for wrinkles, too. I’ve also started taking collagen supplements and it’s made a noticeable difference in my skin overall. I buy it at Costco.

This

What about spironolactone?

One more thing. My acne got a lot better when my doctor changed my birth control pills to Yaz. Check with your GYN in addition to your dermatologist to tackle this.

Why haven’t you asked the derm for accurate rather than waiting for them to suggest it?

Have you tried Retin A? It’s worth it. I used it in my early 20s and again in my 40s for hormonal acne. And it’s good for wrinkles, too. I’ve also started taking collagen supplements and it’s made a noticeable difference in my skin overall. I buy it at Costco.

So I have dealt with acne since about age 15. In my teens it was on my forehead mostly. It's slowly migrated down and now that I'm middle aged it's mostly on my chin and jawline. If you'd told me at 20 that I'd STILL be dealing with acne in 20 years, I'd probably have had a psychotic break. I'm so worn down by feeling disfigured all the time. I can't enjoy summer because my makeup melts off.

It doesn't correlate with my menstrual cycle. I've tried everything (differin, tea tree oil, proactiv, antibiotics, diet changes, and more) but my acne isn't really severe enough for accutane. No derm has suggested it. The only thing that ever touched it was doxycycline, but that's a very strong antibiotic and I can't be on that forever. My derm prescribed me low dose doxy and it did NOTHING.

What the hell is causing my acne? Do I just get to feel gross for the rest of my life? Is it hormonal? How do I get my hormones balanced? Is it possible they've been off for decades? My acne was better during pregnancy.

Thanks for any insight.