/fa/ - Fashion

I was on Accutane twice.

Once at 17, another at 24.

I started with super super oily skin with mild-moderate papular/pustular acne, not rly scarring deep cysts like when you think of the most severe acne. I just had light skintone and got a lot of red marks easily so I wanted to get rid of it once and for all.

After 2 cycles reaching goal-doses (~130mg/kg total) I still have mild acne, occasional breakouts of a few pustules, maybe one deeper one every couple weeks to a month.

So my skin is rarely "super perfect" but within normal range of a young person in their 20s. I still produce more oil than the average person I think. Dairy products seem to trigger my acne.

I am also a doctor, so we learned that diet doesn't affect acne in med school, but the most recent research shows high glycemic index (fast digesting sugary stuff like soda, white bread, etc.) and dairy worsens acne.

Harvard med student here.

Personally took 2 courses of Accutane, met required dosage each time (120-150mg/kg), still have some mild acne. My baseline is SUPER EXTREME oily skin, I'm Asian and I Asians tend towards oilier skin, but I got like some extreme mutation or something. No doubt that was aggravating mein acne, Accutane helped that.

BUT... Accutane basically is like a temporary measure, temporary being ~2yr max of good effect. For most ppl, acne is like a 6mo-2yr ordeal anyway as their whore-moans fluctuate during puberty, so the Accutane treatment masks it and they get over it. For other ppl, acne is like a 10yr+ ordeal (i.e. for me), so it always slowly creeps back after the 'tane.

For women, hormonal approaches (birth cunt-roll, Spironolactone) work. For men, we can't take those pills unless you wanna fuck your balls up, so we don't have other options.

:(

Medical student here, my med school invented Retin-A and has one of the best derm departments in the cunt-tree.

Accutane can knock out your acne for a year or two, but it basically is a stop-gap to get you over the worst hormonal period of your acne. It doesn't "permanently cure" your acne, regardless of what you heard from some derm or read in some science article. The overall consensus is that it can suppress your oil glands for 1-5 years essentially. FOr most ppl, they woulda gotten over their acne phase by then. For unlucky ppl like me, it didn't work so easily.

I've only ever had MILD acne, but extreme extreme extreme oiliness, like it was repulsive and disgusting how wet and oily my face looked. I still now have to shower twice a day or else my hair will smell due to just sheer extreme oil production.

I took it once in 2007, a fast course of 3.5months reaching the goal cumulative dose of 120mg/kg (I hit 127 I think). Acne didn't go completely away but was controllable with topicals. Over time it got worse and oiliness increased.

So I did a 2nd course of Accutane in late 2014, reaching 135mg/kg. Just finished 3 months ago, still get occasional zits and skin is under control with Finacea (azelaic acid 15% gel). Hope it doesn't get much worse.

I had psych side effects definitely. I have fellow med student friends who took it and also got psych SFX. One of them is now on SSRIs for anxiety when she's never had that problem before. Will it cause you to kill yourself? Prly not. But it will lower your Serotonin levels and that could give you anxiety/depression symptoms. It definitely made me moodier, more irritable, etc.

Sadly there is no perfect guaranteed long-term cure for acne. I want one so bad but if my skin gets bad again I dunno what I'll do. My skin is uber sensitive so even like benzoyl peroxide causes bad scarring and hyperpigmentation.