If you are using Aldactone/Spiro, what doseage are you taking and is it working for you?


My derm prescribed me 50mgs a day and on some days I am taking 100mgs. It seems to be making my hands and lips dry. But, I have not had a new pimple since I started it. I still have several that are clearing up from before.

50 mg daily working great.

100 mgs a day works great have no complaints or no oily skin or acne in almost 19 months.

75mg (3 x 25mg spread over the day), my skin's not oily and heaps less pimples, still some old ones healing though

100mg a day. It's working really well.

100 mg/day and looking real good. Started healing within days.

50 milligrams per day! Looking great after 27 years of acne!

What side effects has everyone had if any?

Are these antibiotics? My derm. has never mentioned this drug. He keeps me on the differin, benzoclyn, and mincycline combo - which is incidentally ineffective.

bpremo i to put up with acne too for 27 years.that kinda sucks.i feel like it robbed me of my best years of my life.lacy33 and sweetgirl500 look up the post about spiro or search for sweet jade 1s post on spiro.its an anti-androgen.

50mg / day. Working perfectly! :p

Are you all being closely monitored by a doctor or not?

How bad was your acne, and how long before results? Were they 100% as far as new pimples go?

Are you all being closely monitored by a doctor or not?

I'm not being monitored, do I need to be? I'm only 25 & have never had any health probs in the past. I'm on 100mgs & have been eating lots of food daily that contain high amounts of potassium but haven't run into any problems. I thought only people with kidney ailments or diabetes or the elderly need to be monitored when their on spiro as they are most at risk for hyperkalema?

i have a doctor and my blood is being monitered.im not saying you shouldnt see a doc when taking this but even if you have a doc you must educate yourself about any med your taking.most docs will see a lot of people during the course of the day.your doctor cant be with you every second so best educate yourself about the drug your taking.

Grimey - I have begun taking spiro and my doc has suggested that we do blood tests to monitor potassium levels.

My last dermatologist didn't see a need to monitor me either, but now I am going to some other place and they want to do blood tests (great, more money I have to spend). I wish I could just keep getting my spiro without this mumbo jumbo. Oh well, they know what they're doin' to avoid a medical malpractice lawsuit.

I have been on 125 mg for 4 weeks now (since April 2nd)...I still get an occasional breakout. In fact, I woke up this morning and had 2 huge pimples (on eon my cheek and one on my chin). It isnt PMS related either because I am not scheduled for that for another 2 weeks. I have been taking the Spiro everyday w/o missing any doses at all...it is very discouraging. I know it may take a few months to work, but it is sooo hard to be patient. Anyone else still have breakouts on Spiro?

I have been on 125 mg for 4 weeks now (since April 2nd)...I still get an occasional breakout. In fact, I woke up this morning and had 2 huge pimples (on eon my cheek and one on my chin). It isnt PMS related either because I am not scheduled for that for another 2 weeks. I have been taking the Spiro everyday w/o missing any doses at all...it is very discouraging. I know it may take a few months to work, but it is sooo hard to be patient. Anyone else still have breakouts on Spiro?

Just a question, what type of acne do you have? Is it pretty mild, moderate or severe? The reason I ask is because mine was pretty severe, so if I got two pimples, even if they were huge, I didn't really call it a breakout. Before Spiro, I had more than 20 pimples all over my face, not including cysts. Now I am clear on some days and I occassionally get one or two pimples here and there. So, yes, I did see a huge difference in my severe acne. Maybe it takes longer to see an improvement in mild-moderate acne? I really don't know, but I wish you luck and I hope it starts working for you.

maybe you girls can combine spiro with low doses of estrogen?if you did that it would also be good to take one asprin a day to prevent blood clotting.for me this turned my skin around in a few weeks and its been clear since and that was just over 19 months ago.my skin was an oily goopy mess and just trying to control it was a major nightmare.i think they make premerin in .65 mgs or 1.25 mg tabs.but again if spiro is working great alone i wouldnt combine it with estrogen because of the added health risks.

TO me, my acne is moderate. I can get up to 5 pimples at once. I wouldnt mind so much getting a pimple here and there if they actually went away. Everytime I get a pimple, it takes forever to go away and it always scars. I am also on an antibiotic + Differin gel and BP. You would think that the combination of all of those would prevent any pimples at all? I have been doing this regimine for 4 weeks....I wonder how much longer I have to wait. THanks for your advice I appreciate it.

LOL, this is just way to funny. Years later I discover that the dosage for Spiro is on average is 50 mg to treat hirsuitism and/or acne. Yet I was taking 4x that amount for several years.

I personally consider my acne to be severe because If i stopped treatments (I've always been on some sort of treatment topical or oral), I would have various amounts of scalp acne, neck acne, ear acne, facial acne, body acne, underarm cysts, and sometimes in other places too.

I am capable of getting white heads/sugar pimples, some black heads, regular sized pimples, tiny nodules, and cysts. Not only that my skin loves to hyperpigment so I definately hated having to get the more painful stubborn cysts or nodules because they would leave marks that took 2 - 3x as long to remove (acne is only half the battle).

I've been dealing with some sort of acne for the past 17 years. It's really interesting because I never ran to my dermatologist to get a cyst reduced. I stuck it out the 1 - 3 weeks that they would last. I never did a lot of things some of you did externally, because I knew it was an internal problem. So I guess that's why I'm more knowledable about the whole endocrinological and hormonal testing aspect, but feel completely cluess when you guys talk about peels and lasers, etc ;-)

Although, I've done enough externally, racked up a enough debt on products and supplements, and it never permanently solved anything. To me, it was a complete waste of time, energy, and money and especially HOPE, to do those things, when the acne would keep coming back (anyone else felt that way). So after several attempts I finally got doctors and a great endocrinologist to listen to me.

I went on Birth Control (BC) at age 17. After 3 months, my acne had improved by 50%

I added 200mg of Spironolactone (Spiro) a few months later at age 18. My acne improved by (it's hard to remember) a total of 60% - 80% depending on the season. Meaning w/ the BC & Spiro combo, I would be my clearest (80%) for only 3 months out of the year (summer season).

Several years later, thanks to a minocycline backlash (totally pissed my skin off when I stoped), BC & Spiro weren't as effective. I was only on it for 3 months (it raises your DHT levels, but reduces inflammation) and it managed to give me my clearest skin yet of 98-99% (during the summer) with the other 2 drugs. I stopped out of fear of resistance and yeast infections, etc.

A few months of that h*ll and I cried depression to get off the BC, and with great luck I was referred to my 3rd endocrinologist. Ran practically every test in the book (had to go off of the both meds) and dx me as Insulin Resistant or Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and since they both use the same treatments, he put me on Avandia. 2mg of Avandia for a few months wasn't cutting it and so I added back in 150mg of Spiro. Together this combo gave me 70% - 85% clear skin. It still wasnt' enough.

In total I have taken Spiro for 6 years and it in combination with other drugs, has NEVER given me 100% clear skin. You guys are very lucky because it looks like your hormones aren't that imbalanced or that your skin isn't that sensitive to DHT. Even when I changed my diet and dropped the avandia, Spiro plus my customized Diet didn't give me clear skin, but close 99%. Now that I am off of Spiro, I am still 99%, but req. something similar to help with the mild hirsuitsm. That's why I'm playing around with Saw Palmetto (and glutathione) at the moment.

From personal experience, from the testimonies of others, and even medical protocols suggest this, you will always have better luck with a Diet & (minimal dose) Med or/Supplement combo than you will with medications alone. Heck, if you REALLY want it, depending on your health problems, you may able to do it purely through dietary means. It's rare if I hit 100% clear skin, because I don't follow every dietary recommendation that I know I should. Slowly but surely though I am improving my diet (I can see those changes on my face). I know I'll hit that mark just as many others that I've met and worked with on this board have.

If you are going to take drugs you need to make sure that you are getting at least a liver panel done every 2 - 4 months. Spiro has lots of side effects, but it has the least dangerous of side effects compared to Flutamide (more effective). I never experienced anything behind feeling a bit tired (which is why I reduced it), a decrease in sex drive, and freg. peeing (which subsides). Now that I'm taking tons of Saw Palmetto (1620 - 3240mg day), I am not experiencing any of those symptoms (some men do though). It is supposed to be 10% more effective so I will keep you posted!

That's my 2 cents

Is it okay to take antibiotics while on spiro? Thanks

hi everyone!

i am a new member although i have been following these threads for the last week. some of you may recognize me at ********* as "malia". anywho, i am very interested in your experiences with spironolactone. it seems we are all in this endless quest to find that magic bullet. it is so great to see that something has finally helped some of you.

so far i have been on about 4 courses of Accutane, nearly all Rx meds (which seem to be too harsh for my skin), and every OTC possible. what i've found that internal treatments work best for me since i have fairly sensitive Asian skin. unfortunately, after each course of Accutane i would start breaking out in a month after i stopped...often worse than before. SweetJade's posts have educated me immensely on the effects of Accutane on insulin tolerance and i think that over the many courses, my insulin-resistance has compounded and made my acne linger longer than if i just hadn't done anything at all.

i read that spironolactone is a steroid...should we be concerned about this classification? not all steroids are bad but the fact that it is suggests that its effects/side effects may linger for a long time. i have not been to see a doctor about spiro but i have ordered it online...but i am scared that it is safe!


i'd greatly appreciate any input! thanks a bunch!

malia

it is not a steroid!!!!!!!!where did you read that from? its a potassium-sparing diuretic.an its not a good idea to order online.go see a doctor and get the blood tests.

how long to see results...any other overly hairy women out there?? in that case, how long did you see hair slowing?

Here. No showing of improvement in that area yet. Hope there will be!

has anyone ever heard of spirotene? it is supposed to be another generic name for spironolactone. and when is the best time to take it...night or day? or should the dose be split?

Hey,
For those asking about hair reduction, results aren't noticable until 3 or 6 months. Then after 1 year you should see further results. So far the BEST combination for my body hair reduction was Spiro and Diet.

Since I've stopped the spiro the hairs that fell out are growing back in. So I'm currently dabbling with the natural versons of spiro to see if they will produce the same effects, but my patience is starting to wane. I'm researching a few other things in this area and am trying to come up with a few concoctions. However, I'll give this to the end of the summer and then I'm back on Spiro (until I can start lasering some off).

The reason I'm doing that is more so out of fear & prevention. I've been lucky so far, but it's only going to get worse (I fear). Once your hair follicles are activated by DHT, they maintain their sensitivity, despite a reduction of hormones naturally as we age. So the longer you mess around (or the doctors mess with you) the more body hair you may be growing that will "always" be sensitive to DHT and continue to grow (or fall out if on your scalp).

So if you have acne, body acne, alopecia, and/or hirsutism definately think about adjusting your diet and taking Spiro (legally). IGF-1 isn't just responsible for skin cell growth but also hair growth (and increases DHT). So avoiding all you can that contain's added IGF-1 or that will boost IGF-1 in your system is a good idea. You can't eliminate all of it, but you can reduce it. Dairy, Caffeine, MSG, Saturated Fats, Hydrogenated/Partially Hydrogenated Oils, Gluten Grains for starters.

HTH =)

sweet jade:
did the hair actually fall out??...i was under the impression that it would slow hair growth but the hair had to be lasered or electrolocized for removal...i'm on 50 mg/day plus yasmin now. I've had no adverse side effects from either thus far but it's only been a week, too soon to tell...i've got another appt. with the endo in about 4 weeks and he says if i can tolerate the combo, he might consider upping the spiro...i'd like to up the spiro now, as i'm not sure the 50 mg. is enough...thanks again for all your advice.

if you girls want to know about the various lasers their is the alexandrite laser that is best for dark hair with white complections.then there is the aurora laser that works on lighter hair.then there is lightsheer that works i heard on all hair types if you add pigmentation to the hair follical before zapping for lighter hair.i just noticed by shaving the hair on my arm it growes back finer and finer.that means im still producing testosterone.if it quit growing back then i think i would be sterile because im not producing any testosterone.

Chicken1,
Yes the hairs do fall out. The hair goes through 3 phases of growth (not an expert here) but eventually they will die out (and fall out). My fastest results were from waxing or plucking. Those hairs would grow back finer and finer and one day they stopped. The density of area of hair growth also thinned out on my skin and the remaininig hairs were a bit lighter or finer. Although, there's other areas that I never did anything to, and those hairs fell out on their own accord.

I don't know how much spiro is needed for you but the more you take, the more it should work. However there is an increased chance of side effects the larger your dosage is. All I know is that Spiro was helpful, but by far was no miracle cure for my acne or hirsutism. Yet with it combined with my customized diet, it provided the best results in reducing/preventing unwanted body hair. Depending on where the hair was that was a 25% - 90% reduction. Unfortunately it does nothing for improving the hair growth on my head.

HTH

P.S. Joeh thanks for the info on lasers. That's currently my task. In the distant future, my Daddy actually said he'd pay for it!

no problem sweet jade!

by the way sweet jade why do people think if you get acne along the jaw line its hormonal when my skin cleared on my body it was everywhere.i think acne for the most part is all hormonal no matter if it on your back or on your jaw.and most people dont know its testosterone thats causing your sebasious glands to produce too much sebum.

Hi I'm a new user of Aldactone, and I was wondering if anyone who is using it currently uses anything else with aldactone? I'm currently still using Clean and Clear Acne Advantage Kit with aldactone and I'm not sure if I should stop using it or not. Any advice would be helpful:)

Thankyou

sidraz7 - keep using your acne regimine, I wouldn't change until your clear.
I did have to add more moisturizer 2 months in w/aldactone skin is finally drying out. I am also taking doxycycline to help it along since I had an initial breakout and still getting a few more pimples. No more cysts though, not one since I started taking the aldactone - up to 100mg now, my dr. gradually increased my dose starting at 25mg. Hoping that one more month and I can quit the antibiotic, don't like taking it, and the aldactone will do it's job.
Good luck.

has anyone on here been on yasmin (NOT yaz) and Spironolactone(aldactone) at the same time? would you recommend taking both of these medicines together to help with acne and irregular periods? I'm already on Aldactone and have been for about 3months, but now I have really weird periods and I've heard that taking Yasmin should help with that but I'm not sure. any advice would be appreciated =)

has anyone on here been on yasmin (NOT yaz) and Spironolactone(aldactone) at the same time? would you recommend taking both of these medicines together to help with acne and irregular periods? I'm already on Aldactone and have been for about 3months, but now I have really weird periods and I've heard that taking Yasmin should help with that but I'm not sure. any advice would be appreciated =)

My daughter is on both and doing well. Yes, the Yasmin should get you regulated. She has had no problems with irregular periods on that combo.

I'm taking 50 mgs of spiro a day and have been for 6 weeks. It has improved my skin by maybe 40-50%, but I'm still waiting for it to get better. (Im also taking solodyn and I take seasonique birth control daily) Should I give up on Spiro and start accutane or should I wait this out? How long does Spiro take to work completely?

You can read about the amazing results from Spiro all on this site. This is what I do know... Accutane is great at drying up the excess sebum (oil) that you produce in excess. Accutane can't stop the oil completly if your hormones have too much testerone. Now... Spiro on the other hand is an androgen blocker.. meaning that Spiro goes directly to why you have excess facial hair, excess oil, and all that goes along with out of balance hormones likely due to excess testerone.. Commonly known as PCOS. Testing is important, but I can bet if you look it up and you have the symptoms, then you probably have it. I recommend a good doctor and testing and get to the cause first. Spiro takes around 5 months to be all clear and normally 100mgs work, but not so much under that dosage. Although some do and I guess it depends on severity. With Accutane, it is a 5 or 6 month cycle, but Spiro is continuous to keep the testerone leveled out.Hope this helps. Good Luck