Healing Hormonal Acne

I found it fitting for my first blog entry to discuss skin care and how I healed my (incredibly stubborn!) hormonal acne. To me, the most important thing on your face that can make a huge impact on your looks is your skin. You could have the most perfect eye makeup and perfectly done hair, but if your skin isn’t looking up to par. Lucky me, I was blessed with super oily skin (thanks dad!) that I honestly can’t remember being completely clear for over ten years. I’ve always, always struggled with my skin.

 

A little background: I started getting acne in middle school. Probably sixth or seventh grade when I was about 12. My skin was extremely oily, I thought it was bad then but it really wasn't. I only ever got acne on my T-zone (forehead, nose, chin). I had body acne too, mostly on my shoulders and lower back. This was probably the worst part for me. This continued all through high school. I hated that my friends could run around in their tank tops and bathing suits while I was all covered up because I was too embarrassed for anyone to see my acne. I used Clean and Clear, Clearasil, Neutrogena…any drug store brand of face wash, toner, cream, or mask you could think of. Nothing worked.  I went to the doctor who prescribed me antibiotics, prescription strength benzoyl peroxide washes, and put me on birth control pills. Things would help a little bit. But me, being the naïve teenager that I was, wasn’t consistent enough to try anything long enough for it to work long term. After learning to live with it, as I reached the end of high school, my hormones stopped raging and things calmed down a bit. I thought things were bad then, but little did I know this was just the tip of the iceberg.

 

A couple of years go by and my skin is pretty consistent. Breakouts here and there, still never completely clear, but nothing I couldn’t handle. I was 22 years old and in a toxic relationship and things started to go awry. After three years of dating, I found out that my first love, the person who meant more to me than anything, slept with his ex girlfriend and lied to my face about it (more on that later). All the stress and emotional breakdowns took its toll on my face. My skin erupted. Huge, painful cysts started popping up all over my chin and down my neck. I started breaking out all over my cheeks, I’d never had a breakout of my cheeks before, ever. It didn’t help that I’m an emotional eater, so I started stuffing my face with nothing but sugar and junk food which made things even worse.

 

 I started trying anything and everything I thought would help my skin, all of the drug store brands I had tried in the past, skin masks, peels. Proactiv helped a bit but not only did it made my skin incredibly dry, red and irritated, it bleached every sheet, pillow case, and towel I owned. I finally booked an appointment with a dermatologist who prescribed me retin a, or tretinoin, cream. I had used it in the past but it didn't do anything so I wasn't holding out much hope. But recent research had me come across a pill called spironolactone, it's actually meant for high blood pressure and other issues but its also a androgen blocker and helps to balance hormones. The combination of the two, retin-a and spironolactone, actually worked. It took time, but it worked.

 

 

 

Retin-a is basically Vitamin A in a cream form. It helps to increase cell turnover. So basically, it makes your skin produce skin cells faster and slough off the bad/dead skin cells, revealing nice new (and acne free!) skin underneath. And as an added bonus, it's also the only FDA approved cream proven to prevent/fade fine lines and wrinkles! The only thing with retin a is you have to be patient! Patience, patience, patience! This cream takes a LONG time to work, but when it does, its completely worth it! The directions say it takes about 8-12 weeks before you notice any changes in your skin, it took me about 16 weeks. I wanted to quit soo many times, but I stuck with it. You'll notice redness, peeling, dryness, but don't stop. What really helped me, was reading all of the reviews on acne.org. If you've never been there, go! There's so much awesome information there. I listened to everyone who said over and over again to be patient and keep with it. I did and it definitely paid off.

Spironolactone is an androgen blocker. Androgens are hormones, like testosterone, that create acne. The spironolactone blocks the androgens from being absorbed by your cells. It took a couple weeks for me to notice a difference once I started taking the pills but once I did I noticed alot of changes. My hair was less oily, my skin less oily, and I even lost a couple pounds as its a diuretic as well. Within about 5 months, my skin was almost completely clear.

The last step that helped in clearing up my hormonal acne was a change in my face wash. For years, all I used was face cleansers that were meant for acne prone skin all filled with harsh chemicals like benzoyl peroxide and salicylic acid. In the end, these cleansers do more hurt than good. Your skin gets so dried out and irritated by these chemicals that your skin tries to overcompensate by producing more oil which, in turn, creates more acne. I decided to try the ever so popular Purity by Philosophy. This cleanser is my holy grail! Not only does it clean my makeup and all the dirt of my face great, but it makes my skin feel hydrated and balanced.

If you are suffering from hormonal acne, please do yourself a favor and give one, or all, of these products a try! If you have hormonal acne, topical creams or washes won't help. You need to help your skin from the inside out and solve the problem that is causing it!