u/National_Ant5012

I had been prescribed a steroid cream and topical minoxidil by my dermatologist for alopecia areata, I didn’t know what it was back then and used it for a couple of months before stopping. Recently I came to know that topical steroids/minoxidil thin and age the skin over just a period of a few weeks and I was on it for MONTHS.

I looked into tretinoin and saw that it actually reverses the damage caused by the steroid cream/minoxidil but this time I did my due diligence and actually researched into it and saw that there is a huge amount of anecdotes from people talking about how tretinoin damages the fat pads and causes even more wrinkles over time, this had scared me and I even made a post about this topic yesterday.

So my question to people have been on tretinoin >5 years, did you notice any loss of fat in your face or more wrinkles over the years? Thank you.

Wouldn’t we see more examples of it? Especially in long term users who used the product for more than 5-10 years? I am still on the fence about continuing tretinoin, but I’m trying to make sense of all the evidence and counter evidence, thanks.

I genuinely am so confused. On one hand I see so much praise for how tretinoin is one of the best anti-aging products out there, on the other hand I also see so much anecdotal evidence from people saying how tret ruined their faces or gave them fat loss etc. I myself started 0.025% tret every other day and do notice that my smile lines are a bit more pronounced (20M for context), not sure if it’s the tret causing or purging, but it’s not dehydration as I drink 3L of water a day + apply moisturizer there like almost twice daily. I want a concrete answer to this question tbh as there is just so much conflicting information out there, thanks.