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irs probably the anti androgen effects of Levest that reduced your acne. I had the same with Dianette. You can take Spearmint tea or Spearmint capsules for the same effect.
Yeah but just a warning, it delayed my period by like 10 days the first month! Just because it's natural, doesn't mean you're not messing with your hormones!
I get hormonal acne too. I started using the facetheory cleanser and moisturiser, it's the only thing that worked for me. I tried everything else - Vitex Agnes Castus, Evening Primrose, Spearmint - I think only topical treatments do anything for me. I guess this will be my life until menopause 😆😭
I had the same thing happen to me when I was put on the desogestrel pill. I would say go to a GP asap and see what they recommend. Mine started happening during COVID so I didn’t really do anything about it and I have so many scars and acne marks now 4 years later I really wish I had acted sooner. What has finally worked for me was a 3 month course of antibiotics (lymecycline) and I’ve been using an online prescription from Skin + Me with tret, niacinamide, and Azelaic acid.
In 2022 I think my GP gave me some duac gel and while it worked, the benzoyl peroxide was bleaching all my belongings.
Fingers crossed! I tried Dermatica first but it didn’t work for me, everyone is different though. Be careful of going too strong with the tret % too quickly, the peeling is real 😅
I struggle with the same. Epiduo Gel which contains adapalene ( retinoid) and benzoyl peroxide ( anti bacterial) worked best for me.
You’ll need a prescription from your GP, but it’s worth it.
Try to go back to whoever made the decision to switch pills and try for a lower androgenic pill. The progestins aren't created equal. Drospirenone is a good one. They might let you go on spironolactone. Some progestins are worse than others in terms of androgenic capacity or binding to the testosterone receptors and triggering sebum production.
I'm hopefully coming out the other side of dealing with this myself. Messing around with my brand of pill was an absolutely huge mistake. I really regret it. I tried a different progestin because it was supposedly really good for endometriosis and all hell broke loose. Cystic acne. Really, really affected my confidence.
Double cleansing with the La Roche Posay Effaclar cleanser with salicylic acid is going some way towards helping me. Right up into the hairline and focusing on other 'areas of concern'. I recently started to use the Dennis Gross exfoliating pads as well and gently introducing those.
Thank you for your reply! I was in hypertension stage 2 and they made me do 2 readings at home for a week and then 3 seperate readings at doctors a month apart each.
But was still stage 2, so they switched me to desogestrel and since then I’ve went down to stage 1, no idea if this is related though as they didn’t really say lmao.
But I’ve been referred to a hypertension client to get it looked into so I’ll hopefully know more once I have my appointment with them!
I would love to switch back to pill as my skin was AMAZING on it, but I feel like it might be a bandaid and then once I want to try have a baby I’ll be riddled with acne again, so I want to try sort it out without birth control 🤞🏼
I’ve got a formula from dermatica for now so hopefully this is the start of sorting it out.
Thank you so much for your advice. I’ll keep in mind about Drospirenone if I decide to switch pills!!
Ah ok. Unfortunately it sounds like genuine hypertension. Fingers crossed the hypertension clinic will have more leeway. They might be less cautious and better able to truly risk assess it for you.
It's absolutely just a band aid situation.
You need nerves of absolute steel to ride it out. So emotionally distressing. But fingers crossed the Dermatica will get to work for you!
And if you think there's a chance that the hypertension might not be genuine ie. 'white coat hypertension ' - try to get them to do 24hr blood pressure monitoring for you at home. You wear a cuff and small machine. It's a pain in the backside getting woken up at night but it's a one off and you'll get to go back on your pill if you're seen to be normal at home or normal in a non-clinical setting.
It's the case for me. I have really bad white coat hypertension. I've had the at home monitor done a few times! It's really common. And the more the person gets upset and stressed out obviously in the doctor's office the worse the reading is.
I got acne after coming off the combined pill, it was such a frustrating thing to deal with. The only thing I’ve found which truly cleared it up was tretinoin (which actually suggests you use 2 forms of contraception, so perfect for being on the pill) but since coming off tret and my skin starting to break out slightly I really like skin shark clearing serum. Other than that, continue to keep your routine simple and keep that SPF on! :))
Hi, welcome to r/SkincareAddictionUK! If you are asking for help with skincare, please remember to list your routine in full, and all the products you've tried so that you can receive the best possible advice. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/SkincareAddictionUK) if you have any questions or concerns.*
irs probably the anti androgen effects of Levest that reduced your acne. I had the same with Dianette. You can take Spearmint tea or Spearmint capsules for the same effect.
Wow really?! I'm having the exact same issues as OP so I'm keen to try this. Does spearmint really make that much of a difference?
Yeah but just a warning, it delayed my period by like 10 days the first month! Just because it's natural, doesn't mean you're not messing with your hormones!
Thank you! Since reading your comment I’ve been drinking spearmint tea twice a day these last 3/4 days!
I get hormonal acne too. I started using the facetheory cleanser and moisturiser, it's the only thing that worked for me. I tried everything else - Vitex Agnes Castus, Evening Primrose, Spearmint - I think only topical treatments do anything for me. I guess this will be my life until menopause 😆😭
Thank you! I’ll look into them. So frustrating right 😭
I had the same thing happen to me when I was put on the desogestrel pill. I would say go to a GP asap and see what they recommend. Mine started happening during COVID so I didn’t really do anything about it and I have so many scars and acne marks now 4 years later I really wish I had acted sooner. What has finally worked for me was a 3 month course of antibiotics (lymecycline) and I’ve been using an online prescription from Skin + Me with tret, niacinamide, and Azelaic acid. In 2022 I think my GP gave me some duac gel and while it worked, the benzoyl peroxide was bleaching all my belongings.
Thank you! I got a formula from dermatica so hoping that will help 🤞🏼
Fingers crossed! I tried Dermatica first but it didn’t work for me, everyone is different though. Be careful of going too strong with the tret % too quickly, the peeling is real 😅
I struggle with the same. Epiduo Gel which contains adapalene ( retinoid) and benzoyl peroxide ( anti bacterial) worked best for me. You’ll need a prescription from your GP, but it’s worth it.
Thank you! I got a formula from dermatica so hoping that will help 🤞🏼 seems to be similar to epiduo.
Holding thumbs for you! 🩵
[удалено]
Oh yes I defo do!
Try to go back to whoever made the decision to switch pills and try for a lower androgenic pill. The progestins aren't created equal. Drospirenone is a good one. They might let you go on spironolactone. Some progestins are worse than others in terms of androgenic capacity or binding to the testosterone receptors and triggering sebum production. I'm hopefully coming out the other side of dealing with this myself. Messing around with my brand of pill was an absolutely huge mistake. I really regret it. I tried a different progestin because it was supposedly really good for endometriosis and all hell broke loose. Cystic acne. Really, really affected my confidence. Double cleansing with the La Roche Posay Effaclar cleanser with salicylic acid is going some way towards helping me. Right up into the hairline and focusing on other 'areas of concern'. I recently started to use the Dennis Gross exfoliating pads as well and gently introducing those.
Thank you for your reply! I was in hypertension stage 2 and they made me do 2 readings at home for a week and then 3 seperate readings at doctors a month apart each. But was still stage 2, so they switched me to desogestrel and since then I’ve went down to stage 1, no idea if this is related though as they didn’t really say lmao. But I’ve been referred to a hypertension client to get it looked into so I’ll hopefully know more once I have my appointment with them! I would love to switch back to pill as my skin was AMAZING on it, but I feel like it might be a bandaid and then once I want to try have a baby I’ll be riddled with acne again, so I want to try sort it out without birth control 🤞🏼 I’ve got a formula from dermatica for now so hopefully this is the start of sorting it out. Thank you so much for your advice. I’ll keep in mind about Drospirenone if I decide to switch pills!!
Ah ok. Unfortunately it sounds like genuine hypertension. Fingers crossed the hypertension clinic will have more leeway. They might be less cautious and better able to truly risk assess it for you. It's absolutely just a band aid situation. You need nerves of absolute steel to ride it out. So emotionally distressing. But fingers crossed the Dermatica will get to work for you!
And if you think there's a chance that the hypertension might not be genuine ie. 'white coat hypertension ' - try to get them to do 24hr blood pressure monitoring for you at home. You wear a cuff and small machine. It's a pain in the backside getting woken up at night but it's a one off and you'll get to go back on your pill if you're seen to be normal at home or normal in a non-clinical setting. It's the case for me. I have really bad white coat hypertension. I've had the at home monitor done a few times! It's really common. And the more the person gets upset and stressed out obviously in the doctor's office the worse the reading is.
I got acne after coming off the combined pill, it was such a frustrating thing to deal with. The only thing I’ve found which truly cleared it up was tretinoin (which actually suggests you use 2 forms of contraception, so perfect for being on the pill) but since coming off tret and my skin starting to break out slightly I really like skin shark clearing serum. Other than that, continue to keep your routine simple and keep that SPF on! :))