u/Dmirbrcu

About 3 months ago I tried adding tretinoin into my routine (no real reason, my skin was actually stable before this). Shortly after, I started getting a few small red bumps around my mouth/chin area. I assumed it was just irritation breakout, so I stopped using it.

Since then I’ve tried to calm things down with mostly cica to repair barrier but it hasn’t really gone away. Sometimes it looks less noticeable, but it never fully clears and seems to flare randomly.

I’ve never had acne like this before and it was very localized around mouth but it seems spreading now.
Not sure if this is PD or smt else.

Could this be perioral dermatitis? Or does it sound more like hormonal acne?

For context I have PCO so I know hormones can play a role, but it feels odd that this suddenly showed up at 30 and in this specific area right after starting tret.

Would really appreciate any insights or similar experiences if you’ve dealt with something like this and figured out what it was or how to treat it.