Advice needed! (Should I go off my second antibiotic?)

portrgirl · 06-09-2005, 01:28 AM

**yes, it's long, but I wanted to inform of my past treatments, etc**
To bring you up to speed on my acne/treatment:

Age 14 - cystic acne all over my face, especially bad on the chin.

Age 15 - went to a dermatologist and tried:
side note: the derm said my acne was hormonal and wanted me to take birth control, but my mom wouldn't let me.
1. tetracycline and topical - didn't work
2. erythomiacin and topical - found out that I'm allergic to erytho. and break out in hives
3. amoxicillian and topical clindamycin - the clind. didn't work but the amoxicillin worked GREAT. I got the occasional pimple and cyst but never like before.

Fast forward to sophomore year of college, Age 19/20 - never get pimples or cysts anymore except for one possibly right before my period. Possibly because for the previous 2 ish years I've been on birth control pills (ortho tricylin-broke me out, now desogen and it's great). However, the amox is giving me monthly yeast infections that don't go away w/ any kind of treatment. But for clear skin, I suffer.

Age 21 - Sick of the infections so I went to a derm in March. She prescribed Doxycyclin, differin cream and klaron. I decided to take a break (March 31-June 2) from the oral medications to see how my body is w/o now that it's been 5-6 years.

My skin stayed great.

At the end of May, I moved. At least two days in a row I didn't take a shower or wash my face when I woke up (which includes skipping my morning benzoyl peroxide) and by the end of the day had dirt, dust and sweat caked on . Also, 2-3 days I forgot to take the Desogen at my usual time and didn't take it until either the afternoon or night.

The result: my face broke out bad. The worst it had since I found amoxicillian. I had a total of 4 cysts on my chin, 2 on my nose and as those began to clear up, two more popped up on my chin, one on my temple and one on my forehead.

June 2, I filled my prescription for the doxycylin and took it that night. By Sunday things were clearing up and on Tuesday everything had disappeared except for the discolorations and healing spots. I've only been on doxycyclin for 6 full days.

My questions:

- Main ?: could my amoxicillin NOT have been working for the last year or so, except to give me yeast infections, and the desogen WAS?

- Is my body so easily persuaded by antibiotics that 6 days is enough for one to work?

- Was my hormonal acne thrown off it's clear path by me taking the bc pills at odd times, as well as not cleaning my face?

- Is my face reverting back to its 15-year-old self after not having the antibiotics for 2 months? (Since antibios only work by having a continuous amount in your body, and are flushed out after not taking them for 12 hours, I don't see how it could have been helping for 2 months after I stopped taking it)

babygirl2005_21 · 06-09-2005, 10:57 AM

That is alot of questions but I can answer some of them. I am on Doxy, Klaron, and Differin right now. I think your breakout could have been a result of not following your normal routine that your skin was used to and are you still on the pill or did you get off? That is how all my problems started. I had perfect clear skin until I turned 20 and decided I wanted to get off my birth control pill to lose some weight. Within 3 months after I was off my face went crazy! I am now back on the pill (Yasmin) and things seem to be getting better. My advice to you is to stick to your routine don't change things up and you will be just fine.

portrgirl · 06-09-2005, 12:44 PM

I am still on the pill. Since I was on amoxicillian for so long, and I have hormonal acne, I was thinking that maybe, just maybe, the amoxicillin had stopped being effective and BCPs were the thing helping now.

Those two months I was off an antibiotic, I used Desogen, washed my face morning and night w/ cetaphil, used benzoyl peroxide in the morning and differin at night. It worked until just a week ago.

I'm just wondering if the change in my facial routine and times that I took the pill could have made me break out because I was adding dirt, stress and wasn't giving my body the normal amount of hormose...

tscorpio24 · 06-09-2005, 01:35 PM

I think it's completely possible that the amoxcillan stopped working because your body can become resistant to antibiotics. I say stick with the birth control pills. If you're derm said your acne was hormonal when you were 15, I'm sure it's probably still hormonal. It's so important to take the birth control pills at the same time everyday so if you didn't take them at the right time, it could have thrown your body off and caused your breakout.

portrgirl · 06-09-2005, 02:20 PM

I am really hoping that that's what it is. I think that the doxycyclin might be messing with me "down there" just like the amoxicillin... I don't know which is worse, yeast infections or acne....

I'm just scared to go off the doxycyclin and break out like I did last week, even though it's only been a week of me taking it. I doubt that it started working that fast though...