rose11

Hi all,

I have always been more of an observer of this board, but I have been having a tough time the last few months and decided to start posting regularly. And since my derm recently prescribed me spiro, I figured I might as well make a spiro journal because there isn't too much out there on this particular medication.

So a little background first...I have had acne on and off since I was 13. It was very bad in high school so I went on accutane. The accutane worked very well (my skin was SO clear!) and although the side effects were a little rough, it was worth it to me. I stayed clear for 3 years. Then in college the acne came back...so I tried some some antibiotics, cleocin-t, etc. All of these things would work for about 3-4months and then my skin would start breaking out again (usually worse than before, too!) So, I went back on accuatne, which again worked wonders for me and I was clear for a few years.

Recently, my skin started bothering me again. It definitly is not as bad as before, more like mild but very persistent. In an effort not to go back on accutane I tried a variety of things: B5 (made me break out worse), Retin-A micro (okay for skin smoothing, but leaves me red, dry and not really clear), cleocin-t again (did absolutely nothing the second time around, must be resistant), proactiv (worked really well for a few months then made me itchy and broken out), clearlight (okay, only had a few of these but it seemed to make my skin worse at the time so I stopped b/c very $$$), and then I started Yasmin.

Okay, so I started Yasmin four months ago hoping it would help me. Like I said my skin isn't so bad, but it is very persistant and I think the years of acne have made me a little disillusioned about how bad things are. Almost immediately, I started breaking out---like bad, bad breakouts, all over my face in places I do not breakout any more (like forehead, chest, hairline, etc.) I figuered it must be the initial breakout so I struggled through. The weird part is that I would totally clear up on the placebo pills, I mean really clear. And after taking the first active pill, the next morning I would have a tons of breakouts!! So...I decided I would ditch the Yasmin after four complete months. This was about a week or so ago. I saw my derm and explained everything about the Yasmin and he said that it has that effect on some people where it just makes you break out. He decided to put me on 100mg of spiro and change me to orthocept.

Although Yasmin has a little spiro in it, he said the 100mg of spiro should NOT cause an initial breakout or make things worse (we'll see about that!) So that brings us up to date. I finished my last Yasmin pill this past Saturday, and have taken about 12 spiro pills. My breakouts are still here and some cysts brought out by the Yasmin are healing. But this is normally the week I start to really clear, so if I do not clear up by the weekend the spiro is probably the culprit.

best wishes to everyone.