PCOS and Acne

[x_babyphat_x]

Hi everyone, I have a severe case of acne caused by PCOS, I’ve taken the drug Tetracyclin, however, once I take the last pill about a week goes by and they re appear. I’ve also taken the famous Accutane, and just depressed me. Not only are they big, red, and ugly but they are more like tumors. I try to poke them with a needle every now and then and that nasty, smelly white stuff comes out. But they keep coming back. Is there anything else I can do to help my problem. By the way, these things are soooo painful that I can’t even sleep at night most of the time I don’t want anything to come close to my face. PLEASE HELP ME FIND A SOLUTION TO THIS PAIN. THANK YOU.

[saira2]

Originally Posted by x_babyphat_x

Hi everyone, I have a severe case of acne caused by PCOS, I’ve taken the drug Tetracyclin, however, once I take the last pill about a week goes by and they re appear. I’ve also taken the famous Accutane, and just depressed me. Not only are they big, red, and ugly but they are more like tumors. I try to poke them with a needle every now and then and that nasty, smelly white stuff comes out. But they keep coming back. Is there anything else I can do to help my problem. By the way, these things are soooo painful that I can’t even sleep at night most of the time I don’t want anything to come close to my face. PLEASE HELP ME FIND A SOLUTION TO THIS PAIN. THANK YOU.

First of all, I sympathize with you. I have dealt with cystic acne for years (mainly on the chin due to hormonal acne) so I know what you are going thru. What I'm currently on is called spirnolactone. It's helped in the hormonal aspect of my acne although I do get cysts still. Have you asked your doctor about this medication? If you read the web, alot of women who have PCOS take spiro. Can I ask you, what kind of tests did you take to know you have it? I have chin acne, facial hair but regular periods. I know PCOS is known for the chin acne and excess facial hair and irregular periods . I have considered doing accutane so I don't have to be on anymore medication (i take 100mg a day of spiro) so I wanted to find out your opinion on accutane. Did the accutane make you depressed? Anyways, check out the spiro. It has helped me for over a year.

[Susannah]

You might also want to try saw palmetto. It binds with the testosterone in your system, so will reduce how much you have floating around, which is why PCOS has a tendency to cause acne. I had acne from PCOS and it stopped once I started taking saw palmetto and I went on the South Beach diet. Everything I've read about PCOS seems to indicate that insulin spikes are really the underlying evil, and the South Beach diet is specifically for reducing the spikes of sugar and insulin, so I figured, hey why not give it a try. Now, my face is clear, and my periods have come back after being gone for 3 years.

[SweetJade1]

Hey =)
There's several ways you can tackle this problem. The first thing you need to know is whether your PCOS is caused by a Progesterone Defficiency or Insulin Resistance. I think both can be cured the same way, but if you don't want to change your diet, then you might want to figure that out.

Prometheus and I, were both dx as PCOS, although I claim Insulin Resistant because I don't have any of the typical "symptoms". I'm underwieght and with regular cycles. My only hormonal problems were TERRIBLE menstrual cramps, mild hirsutism, hairloss/retention, and of course....Acne (anywhere you can imagine). If you read around this board you will see that both of us, as well as others, used diet to get rid of most of hormonal problems, including greatly reducing or eliminating our acne!

Dietary changes was THE most effective thing I ever did for myself and I've been on everything but accutane! I tried Birth Control - Sprionolactone for 3 years and Avandia- Spironolactone for a little over a year. I've actually been on Spiro for nearly 6 years, but finally dropped it about 2 months ago. Now the only thing I am using to treat myself is my diet.

Aside from the prescriptions I mentioned above, women with PCOS are sometimes misdiagnosed and actually have NCCAH (Non-classical congential adrenal hyperplasia). The symptoms are very similar, but under hormonal tests they will find that you are lacking an enzyme neccessary to make cortisol. This of course would throw your hormones off and increase your testosterone, because your body would keep trying to produce cortisol, which keeps increasing your other hormones. The treatment for this is a glucocorticoid, such as Dexamethasone.


Otherwise, if you have PCOS due to a progesterone defficiency, you would just take progesterone to balance things out. If this is what you need, you tell them you want micronized progesterone (forget the name), no SYNTHETIC crap ;-) Or you can use Natural Progesterone Cream (NPC) to fix things. If that makes you uncomfortable you can take Vitex (chaste tree berry), which apparently balances things out, buy telling your brain to increase progesterone production =)

Now, some people breakout from progesterone cream or vitex and it's probably because they don't need it. Progesterone is anti-androgenic and also has the ability to convert itself into one of the Estrogens or Androgens (don't want more male hormones). Yet, one poster realized that she was PCOS and reduced her copper levels and used NPC to get clear and regulate her menstrual cycles.

There's lots of Insulin balancing supplements, such as NAC, ALA, Fish Oils, Milk Thistle, etc. Plus, as others mentioned, there's also the thought of taking Saw Palmetto, Nettle, or Beta sito-sterol as anti-androgens. Unfortunately for me, I've taken 1800mg of Saw Palmetto for months, while on Avandia-Spiro, and it didn't improve my acne at all. LOL, and that's interesting because most people, male and female, report improvements in the 200 - 600mg range. So my guess is that since I was already taking spiro and it's the herbal equivalent, it wasn't going to do anymore for me, than Spiro did. ;-)

That brings up a good point, that if you are Insulin Resistant (most people are), medication nor supplements, can fully replace what a proper hormonally balanced healthy diet can. It's like taking cholesterol lowering drugs, but you are still eating foods that increase your cholesterol levels....it's counter productive. Well, at least thats how my story was and it appears to run this way for a few others.

Yet, whatever you decide to do, know that they all have the potential and have achieved such results as eliminating acne, regulating menstrual cycles, eliminating menstrual pain, reducing hirsutism, lowering weight, shrinking ovarian cysts, and I think the most wonderful of all for those that had problems, given women the ability to concieve.
.

[x_babyphat_x]

Thank you Saira2,
Well the first test was done because I was trying to get pregnant, I've really never had a regular period, I have skin tags and the acne is soo severe. I went to my obgyn and had a blood test performed. The blood test revealed that it was in fact PCOS. Fortunately I concieved my beautiful daughter Lexy in March of 2001, I was on 250 mg of Clomid. A year before that I tried the Accutane. I personally would not suggest the accutane, when I began taking it I broke out so bad that I did not even go to work for 2-3 weeks, (I lost my job). Then after the 4-6 week I began to notice a difference, however once the medication was finished within 6 months my breakouts where even worse and they became even more painful. More times than not I was feeling very agitated, and sad. All I wanted to do was cry and sleep. I would not even go out to get the mail. I didn’t want to be around anyone.
After I did some research on the Accutane I realized that I had been feeling like that because of the medication. Of course everyone has a different reaction to this med, however I’ve heard more horror stories than good. I also read an article where a lady had taken accutane for 2 years straight, and she was extremely happy with it, unfortunately a few years later she began having liver problems, according to her Dr. it was caused by the Accutane. So I strongly vote against it, but like I said, some people have different reactions to it. Good Luck and hope everything goes good with you…