Adult Acne

I am a 25 year old female and have struggled with acne since I was 15. It took me five years of unsuccessful topical treatments and antibiotics until I finally tried acutane and it is like- a cure- you just need a doctors recomendation to a dermatologist and ask the dermatologist for acutane. Acuntane treatment was hard for me as a female because it can cause horrific birth defects and thus I was subjected to intense pregnancy testing and blood work which led to me not completing the treatment. Even with completing only four months of the treatment, my acne has been reduced from huge zits to mere blackheads, but if you complete the treatment, it really works. My advice as a very experienced acne fighter is acutane- exfoliation, daily facial washing and if you MUST pop a big zit or pimple use a sterile needle and this prevents scarring.

Chiming in on reducing adult pimples: I was on Accutane--a very low dose--about 6 or 7 years ago, in an effort to eliminate even the last remaining few pimples I got each month to help keep the picking at bay. Then I started breaking out again last year, so I was going to start it again until I learned that the federal law now requires that women get tested for pregnancy *every* month while taking it...basically because they don't trust women to use sufficient birth control to prevent preganancy (as the drug causes birth defects). (The makers of Accutane didn't draw up this rule, mind you, but rather the congress who proposed & passed the bill...) Anyway, I am totally squeamish about blood tests so my dermatologist suggested I go on Spironolactone, a very light testosterone suppressant with (for me, anyway) zero effects except for reducing oil production in skin. I started in the fall and she wants me on it for a year and it's basically totally eliminated the breakout spell I was in.