Coming off pill - acne?

Blingy

Hi,
I have just stopped taking yasminelle as we are thinking about ttc. Well I am actually getting my body ready for ttc. Have been on various pills for approximately 13 years in total and would never have had a regular cycle before that. Anyway the main reason I went on the pill all those years ago was to try and get rid of my extremely bad acne. Tried everything including roaccutane which didn't work. I know a baby should be more important than my acne coming back again but the thoughts of going through all that again just infuriates me. Has anyone had acne since coming off the pill? How did you treat it? Did it go again?
By the way I have an auto immune disease and doc said yesterday i should really get tested for pcos which can't be done until I'm off the pill so I think it is time just worried about being a 32 yr old with severe acne Thanks!!

meggysmom

Blingy wrote: »

Hi,
I have just stopped taking yasminelle as we are thinking about ttc. Well I am actually getting my body ready for ttc. Have been on various pills for approximately 13 years in total and would never have had a regular cycle before that. Anyway the main reason I went on the pill all those years ago was to try and get rid of my extremely bad acne. Tried everything including roaccutane which didn't work. I know a baby should be more important than my acne coming back again but the thoughts of going through all that again just infuriates me. Has anyone had acne since coming off the pill? How did you treat it? Did it go again?
By the way I have an auto immune disease and doc said yesterday i should really get tested for pcos which can't be done until I'm off the pill so I think it is time just worried about being a 32 yr old with severe acne Thanks!!

Hi blingy,i can offer a little advice although everyone is different.I have suffered with acne since a teenager so does my sister,so it is obviously a family thing.When I was on the pill it was great,very odd spot but no breakouts.It takes a while after you come off the pill to settle down and can be bad for a while.I don't have pcos but one thing I would say is whatever you do don't use the face cleansers you get in the supermarket,they are just to harsh for your skin and will only aggrivate things.Find a good salon product from a beautician.I use dermalogica,you can have free face mapping in any beautician that stocks it.They will then recommend what products suit your skin.They may offer a whole list of different products,but pick a good cleaser,toner and moisturiser and spot cream to treat the breakouts and you should be fine.It can be expensive to start off.What I did was I had a birthday coming up and asked those who would be buying me a present to buy one thing each and then you can easily manage it from there.
I guess it is one of the down sides to coming off the pill but hopefully you will have a bundle of joy that will be very worth it all:)best of luck to you:)

ttc#2- 15 months,2 months since lap and dye and fingers crossed!

Blingy

Meggysmom thanks so much for the reply. Fingers crossed it won't be too bad!

Best of luck to you too!

Mink

Hi Blingy, I too was on pills like Dianette, Yasmin etc for 10yrs+ and the reason I was on those stronger pills was bad spots on my face. They were much better while on the pill.

When I came off the pill to TTC last June/July, I'm afraid the spots came back a good bit... and when I got pregnant in November, they got a bit worse around my chin.

Now I'm about 6mths gone and my skin seems to have gotten a bit better, or at least it calmed down for the moment (touch wood).

In my opinion, creams & how you wash your face & what you eat have absolutely nothing to do with whether you'll get spots or not. You get spots for same reason I do - hormones! And they go a bit nuts when you go off the pill & then when you get pregnant.

What got me through is concealer! And no it doesn't make them worse, just practise good hygiene and you'll be fine. I once went a year without wearing a stitch of makeup when I was in my late teens and it did absolutely nothing for my spots - it was hormones and it didn't sort out til I went on the pill. I have to say that the spots did bug me and it was something I was also dreading, especially as I'm 29 going on 30. But I found that I just got on with it, used my makeup and it just doesn't bother me at this stage.

Also, I'd be a bit vain, ie; I never leave the house without make up on. So when I wash my face at night, I really see all the bright red spots all over my chin, I stick a bit of concealer on and I feel better about it. My OH doesn't know I put concealer on before bed, he'd say I was mad!

Anyway, they really stopped bothering me, I got into the excitement of TTC & then getting preggers and then baby growing etc. Re the PCOS stuff, I would get that all checked out right off the bat as soon as you are off pill. No point in TTC for a year and then finding out it's a problem that needs treatment.

Blingy

Hi Mink,
Thanks so much for your reply. Your experience sounds more like what I am expecting to be honest. Diet and beauty regime have NEVER made any difference to my skin. I tried everything. It is some sort of hormonal imbalance and I would love to get to the bottom of it.
I will see how it goes over the next few months. I think if it gets really bad again i will totally revert to feeling like a 16 yr old.
Hubby has never seen it at its worst so should be interesting!! It will be like telling the whole world I'm off the pill cause it will get so noticeable. The joys!!

meggysmom

Blingy wrote: »

Hi Mink,
Thanks so much for your reply. Your experience sounds more like what I am expecting to be honest. Diet and beauty regime have NEVER made any difference to my skin. I tried everything. It is some sort of hormonal imbalance and I would love to get to the bottom of it.
I will see how it goes over the next few months. I think if it gets really bad again i will totally revert to feeling like a 16 yr old.
Hubby has never seen it at its worst so should be interesting!! It will be like telling the whole world I'm off the pill cause it will get so noticeable. The joys!!

I too agree that diet and skin regime and all those things are not the cause at all.Mine is just totally hormonal and although there's not much I can do about that, what helps me control it I guess to where it's some way manageable and doesn't affect my life to much is that I found a great product.I found cheap supermarkets products really bad for me and as I said aggrivate the condition although does not cause it.I know everyone is different but after struggling for 12 months after coming off birth control,this is what has helped me control my skin problems:)Blingy I so understand your pain re feeling like a teenager,at 27 I went off my pill and also had braces fitted-HORROR

FunkSoulSista

Strange I was only thinking of this yesterday. I was on dianette for at least 6 years, initially for acne, came off in December. This month I noticed a few spots on face, neck and back, sudocream will be my friend!!

Mink

Yeah when it's hormonal, I just don't know how to solve it & I've never come across any sort of practitioner with any insightful input.

I guess the way we were solving it was taking artificial hormones to battle with our imbalanced ones, but I don't know a natural way of solving it.

Have an absolute crater on my cheek/chin at the moment, yuck. Still, it doesn't bother me as much now. But on top of this the baby has decided to suck all the Omega 3 out of my body to build his brain (this is okay with me!) but it's left me with leprosy skin on my face.

E45 is my friend & has seemed to calm down the horrible redness in spotty patches of my face. So if your skin gets really irritated, this cream is nice and soothing.

Best of luck TTC etc.

jen84

I don't know about diet and acne not being related. I know low g.i. diets help regulate blood sugars or something like that which are related to PCOS and also milk has high hormone levels. I can't remember exactly the facts on it but I know I read up on those links before. Anyway I know I am definitely alot clearer when I eat low G.I. and I dont drink milk, and have alpro soya yoghurts which are yummy btw Drinking loads of water really helps too!

Zineryt is a topical my doc prescribed for me me when I was about 20 and suffering acne due to PCOS. It worked very well initially but I think I just became immune to it after about 2 years but might work for you while you ttc.

Have you tried benzoyl peroxide aswell?? I use that along with a gentle cleaner (eucerin or cetaphil) and oil free moisturiser & non-comedogenic makeup. Dries out your skin at first but it kills the bacteria and is really good. I've been reading about retin-a recently aswell, sounds great, worth a google

Don't try anything expensive anyway in my opinion! Sorry for the long message, I've been thinking for years I dread ttc because I'm worried about my acne coming back but I think my regimen now is pretty good and have tried it successfully without the pill for 6 months before