SweetJade - question on OC

skimom · 06-01-2004, 10:44 PM

Hi, my daughter has completed two months on Trinessa which is the generic orthotricyclen and now she has started the 3rd pack. I think she's much worse, especially on her forehead and hair line. Today I got her the real orthotricyclen because I've heard that Trinessa might not work as well. Do you think we'll be starting all over again waiting for orthotricyclen to kick in or do you think Trinessa may have done some good hormonally even though it's not evident? They say it's therapeutically equal to orthotricyclen. I just have my doubts. She cleared the first month and then exploded the second basically. She's still recovering from that and still breaking out. She seems to be handling it well. She's so sweet. Either that or she's in denial. We have a dermatologist appointment on Monday but I'm not sure I should go there or just beg our GP for spiro. She was not receptive the first time I asked for it because she wanted to see what OC would do. Sometimes I'm just tempted to order it on-line but I know that's dangerous. Just venting and looking for direction and opinions. Thank you.

skimom · 06-02-2004, 09:24 PM

Is our expert in the house?

SweetJade1 · 06-03-2004, 11:01 PM

Skimom
LOL, that's far too kind of you. I'm definately not the BC expert, but I've had my share of it. I personally didn't do well on Demulen (would spot), but when I switched to Tri-levlen, no problems. It never caused me to breakout.

As for the generics, they may not be using as pure an active product, and so it's possible that it's not as effective. I've also heard that Orthotricyclen caused some females to breakout worse too. So which is it, I don't know, it does take about 3 months to see how it's effecting your hormones (do you know her Testosterone & Free Testosterone levels) but maybe you have an idea now that she's on the name Brand.

If it turns out to not be effective, BC reduced my Free Testosterone levels by 50%, then you can move her on to a DHT inhibitor. I did Spiro when I was 18, wish it had been sooner, and that reduced my levels another 30%. So with an 80% reduction, I was maybe 60% - 75% clear 9 months of the year and only 80 - 85% clear during the other 3 months (summertime). I followed that course for 3 years and then moved on to better things. ;-) Other females on this board though followed a similar path, Diane -35 or taking Spiro & a BC and ended being 100% clear.

I believe in a variety of treatments, since this is the route your interested in, you may want to push for another general doctor or go straight to an Endocrinologist. I was lucky that I got prescribed the Spiro from a regular doctor, but I had a prior Endocrinology consultation where it was suggested that I could, if I wasn't getting the results I wanted. If you go that route, you should be able to find out more about her hormonal situation.

I know several males had to order spiro illegally and I'm not thrilled with that. Some members here are allergic to sulpha drugs and so have had negative reactions to Spiro. I've met more that it's helped, than hurt (side effect wise), but you definately want to be able to have her blood work monitored, especially during the first couple of months. Hopefully this is something that will go away with time. I suppose a good indicator is to look at your family and your husband's family. Does acne run on either side and if so, did it go beyond puberty?

Bye for now

skimom · 06-04-2004, 07:36 PM

Thanks for replying. She never got any levels checked. We had a referral for that but she was always too busy and hates doctor's offices. I am taking her for a consultation with a derm on Monday. I hear he has a new machine that is used monthly and it cleared my friend's son up so we'll see about that. Sulpha drugs actually work very well for her. Bactrim, which is a sulpha drug, cleared her up nicely for a long time. Maybe I should mention that to him. I will also consider an endocrinologist. I wrote a long sob letter to my GP hoping she'd call me with an endocrinology appt. referral but she didn't. Sometimes I just want to bypass HMO's entirely.

I had acne between the ages of 17-30 on and off. I'm 50 and will still get pimples if I eat too much chocolate or junk in general. I'm usually pretty careful about what goes in me though. It's nothing that I can't handle now. My acne was really bad between 17 and 20 at which time I took ortho novum and it cleared me immediately. Within one week. It was a miracle for me. The OC's were stronger in the late 70's. I took premarin after I started getting migraine headaches on ortho novum and that worked for me too. Her dad had just normal breakouts and actually still gets them from time to time.

I find it frustrating that some people do so well on orthotricyclen and some other's do not. Some people clear with yasmin and some do not. A skin care consultant we went to swore to me that it didn't matter AT ALL which one you took and that they all work the same. I didn't try to argue with her. We're in magic month 3 of trinessa/ortho now and that's why I'm getting a derm involved. Someone needs to be monitoring her progress. She seems to be more patient with this process than I am bless her little heart.