Where do I start…well - like most of you, I have always suffered with spots. They have never been really awful, but they’ve pretty much always been there, mainly on my face with the odd few on my back every now and then. When I was about 20 I tried a few treatments for acne, including topical, minocycline and tetracycline. The tablets did work for a short time to some degree, but never really got rid of the big red “proper” spots, as I always called them.
As my skin wasn’t too bad, I guess I gave up worrying about it just got on with life. About 18 months ago, I noticed they were starting to get abit worse, as were my other PMT symptoms. At 24, I wasn’t massively impressed by this but did nothing thinking it would sort itself out.
Surprise surprise it didn’t, so in January of this year I took myself off to the doctors. Turns out I have polycystic ovaries, which is what was causing the additional problems each month, and, in my view, the extra spots.
The gynae wanted me to go on the pill to sort out my hormone levels, but I already have the coil and suffered significant weight gain when I used the pill in the past, so I wasn’t keen on that at all.
I decided to try some herbal remedies suggested to me by a nutritionist. They were excellent and after 3 months my period problems had pretty much vanished - amazing!! However, the spots just wouldn’t shift.
By now im 26 and feeling abit old to be worrying about all this acne malarkey, so courtesy of my lovely company BUPA scheme, I went off to visit the dermatologist.
To be honest, I was just expecting the derm to prescribe me more antibiotics. Before he could even open his mouth I was saying that he needed to convince me they would work if the underlying cause was my polycystic ovaries…blah blah….so I was completely surprised when he suggested roaccutane.
I had heard of it before, but thought it was only for people with super bad acne. But due to my age (!) and medical history, he said my skin was definitely not normal and was happy to give me a 4 month go. Im starting on 40mg and it may need to increase when I go back after 8 weeks.
He also said that he didn’t think the majority of the spots were due to polycystic ovaries. I’m abit sceptical about that but willing to give it a go!
I had to sign the form about not getting pregnant etc and he did warn me about the side effects, although not to the degree with which they have been explained on this website! And he definitely didn’t tell me I can’t wax!! (not happy about that!)