After 2 months on accutane my body started to release a smell bad enough to make anyone in my surrounding flinch. I can't smell it myself for some reason....
I am going to stop taking this medication and hope my smell goes back to normal. Just warning everyone who is considering taking accutane
[photo taken after sun exposure at end of month 6 on 80mg isotretinoin]
Warning/ advice if you plan to be outside or in the sun at all while on accutane. It's definitely possible but be careful.
I had a warm & sunny spring break trip™ planned on month 6 of being on accutane so I knew I would have to be super careful about sun exposure. I wanted to go scuba diving and did everything I could think of to protect my skin. I used a mineral sunscreen all over my body and then applied a chemical spray sunscreen over any exposed skin after I put on my swim shirt, sun hat, and swim bottoms. My swim shirt ended right above my wrist and I had a resort band on my left arm -- not sure if it was a mixture of the wristband rubbing off the sunscreen or the irritation of the salt water but by the evening, my wrist was totally swollen and looked like it was covered in hives (see photos). It was so itchy and painful. I layered my La Roche Posay triple lipikar moisturizer with aquaphor and lightly covered it for a few days until it healed. Thankfully it was the only skin that burned BUT I would have been miserable if I hadn't taken so many precautions -- would have been miserable if my face or the rest of my body hadn't been protected.
tldr: don't forget to put sunscreen on your wrists and hands if your shirt sleeves are kinda short
Wondering what everyone else's worst and/or unexpected side effects are. Here are mine:
- Large Milia(?) forming under the skin. One or two on my face and/or body at a time and always in the WORST places 🙃
- Eyelashes falling out in abnormal amounts 😭
- Feel tired 24/7 no matter how much I sleep
- Random upper arm pain???
- Painful cystic purge right under my jaw that not even steroids could fix
- Headaches and dry eyes/waterlines
day 15 of 10mg Accutane. Still getting 1 or 2 pimple every day, is it purging or something else? The only side effect that i have noticed is dry lips. Please suggest
Sucede que a día de hoy, la medicación me ha ayudado muchísimo con mi acné, a diferencia del resto, quiero seguir tomándola, en teoría me quedan únicamente 3 días de tratamiento, pero no llegaré a mi dosis acumulada y ese es mi temor, mi doctora me dice que este fue mi último mes, y realmente me quedé con dudas de saber por qué no me llevó a la dosis acumulada, cuando empecé el tratamiento pesaba 85kg aproximadamente, por lo que teniendo en cuenta la dosis acumulada mínima de 120mg por peso tuve que haber acumulado al menos 10.200 mg, cuando pasen los 3 días que me faltan, solo alcanzaré los 7800mg, en dos días tendré mi última cita y me gustaría así sea agregar otro mes más, ya que me genera bastante temor sufrir de una recaída, y tengo entendido que para que esto no ocurra o que las probabilidades sean más bajas, se debe alcanzar la dosis acumulada requerida.
I just stopped accutane for chronic folliculitis on my chest and it is doing very well but now I am breaking out all around my mouth.
This started a few days before stopping and it’s been about a week and it’s getting worse. I’ve never had face acne my whole life hardly ever get pimples on my face just my chest really so I’m not sure how to help this since I’m no longer taking the medication.
Aquaphore seems to clog my pores because whenever I would slug my for the dryness I would just get pimples. And drying it out seems to help but then my skin is like cracking. Whenever I do get pimples now there’s really nothing in it but a little liquid they never “pop” even though some look like they have a head.
Very frustrated because it’s only around my mouth ugh and it’s gotten worse since taking this picture. 😣
I have a dermatologist appointment in June but she’s never available before then so I have to wait she’s alway fully booked months in advance. Sorry this was so long.
I was layering everything glycolic acid retinol vitamin C masks basically anything that promised better skin. My acne didn’t improve it just got more irritated red and uneven. I was also really scared of Accutane so I kept trying to fix it myself with topicals and honestly felt like I had tried everything
At one point my routine looked like this
AM Cerave hydrating cleanser then vitamin C sometimes niacinamide sometimes even salicylic acid then La Roche Posay double repair moisturizer and EltaMD UV clear sunscreen
PM same cleanser but I was rotating and sometimes layering retinol or tretinoin glycolic acid lactic acid salicylic acid benzoyl peroxide and exfoliating masks then finishing with Cerave moisturizing cream
Looking back it was way too much and a lot of those don’t even go well together
Once I simplified things it did help calm my skin a bit but I still wasn’t where I wanted to be. Around that time I started using Thea to track my routine and it made me realize how much I was overdoing it. It showed I was using too many actives at once not giving my skin time to recover and even pointed out bad combos like retinoids with acids benzoyl peroxide with tret and constant exfoliation which was basically wrecking my skin barrier
It also suggested Accutane based on my acne type which made me finally talk to my derm and we decided to give it a shot
Since starting Accutane I’ve focused on supporting my skin instead of attacking it. I keep it simple gentle cleanser thick moisturizer multiple times a day sunscreen every morning lip balm all the time and no extra actives. The dryness and peeling are real but this has made it manageable and I still use Thea to keep track so I don’t fall back into overdoing it
Still not 100percent but thank God my skin is healing looks calmer especially around my jaw and neck so I know I’m moving in the right direction, anyone else went through the same phase of trying everythingg before finally going on Accutane?
This is my first time posting but I just really need some type of motivation and hope someone out there can relate my case, I've been on Accutane for about 7 weeks and my acne was mild but since I started I had a huge purge and I feel it won't stop getting worse. I think I got Acne fulminans but I don't have the joint pain that comes with it.
The first photo is a week on accutane
Second and third are in the middle
And the last one is about 2 days ago
Any comments you guys have are greatly appreciated, thank you
38yrs old, 145lbs, 60mg for first 13 months, 30mg for last 5 months. Finished course in mid-March. I hope it sticks!!
so i stopped using accutane cus it was fucking up my mental health and also my hair kept falling out
and not gonna lie im literally balding rn even tho i stopped months ago
is there any pills/gummy products that i can use to get my hair back? my hair used to be really thick btw
please suggest me something fellas
ive been getting super tiny pimples about three or four times a month. should i ask to stay on it longer or is this normal? i included my before pictures for reference as well^
I’ve always had dandruff and the accutane is making it 100x worse. Head and shoulders did not ever work for me. Does anyone have tips on things that worked for them??
I am about 11 weeks into my accutane course and currently using cetaphil daily moisturizer spf50. I re apply every 2 hours but I work outside daily , and with summer approaching, I am wondering if that’s a strong enough sunscreen. If not what should I be looking for/or any product recommendations.
I wear minimal makeup. But, I really need to moisturize my face 4 times a day. How are other people coping with this situation while wearing makeup?
Also, another random question I have. I purged on month 1 and now my skin is clear aside from a few pimples. Am I out of the woods for purging?
Still get some acne, getting it check today by the dermatologist. I got acne on my shoulders and chest. Get acne on my face quite a bit, but nothing compared to before accutane.
So we hear a lot about the notorious “Ozempic face,” but what about “Accutane face”? 😆
I don’t feel like I look like myself anymore, it’s honestly kind of uncanny. My face just feels different in a way I can’t really explain.
And omg my lips are like 3x the size they were before starting this. I knew dryness was a side effect, but I wasn’t prepared for this level.
Anyone else experiencing this?
Also any suggestions for seriously inflamed, raw lips? Aquaphor and Vaseline aren’t really cutting it anymore…
I’m about a year or more post accutane and have had some weird health issues pop up that i was wondering if anyone could relate to.
I took accutane for about nine months at a low dose and in the months following stopping i developed frequent chalazions/cysts on both eyes. They have since been treated with IPL and one surgical removal, though i still suffer from small flare ups and chronic dry eyes about 6 months after treatment for that.
However, in the past 5 months i’ve have a new health issue pop up. The lymph nodes in my neck have been swollen to varying degrees for months and, while getting seen for these, it was discovered that i have nodules on my thyroid. It does not appear to be serious but my doctor and i have agreed on further testing and monitoring to be safe.
I am not looking for any medical advice, i am being seen and monitored for all the issues i’ve discussed. I was just wondering if anyone else had any similar issues post accutane.
I know a lot of people like to take a ton of progress pics, and while there’s nothing wrong with that, I’ve found that when you’re constantly taking pics and updates you’ll end up hyperfixating on your skin too much, and that’s never a good thing on this drug. If you’re feeling disappointed in your progress, or depressed, I really think it’d help to maybe take a pic once a month, or just not at all and let the process work. Ever since I’ve stopped taking pics and analyzing every little detail my mental has improved a lot. People don’t see you from the phone camera, and they’re not going to notice those small imperfections. So just sit back trust the process and at the end it will surely be improved!
Hi all! I know everyone’s accutane journey is different. I guess I’m just looking for some validation here! I’ve been on accutane for 6 months going on my 7th. I started on 30 mg for 2 months and then increased to 40 mg. I’ve been on 40 since then. I weigh 108 lb (5’3”). My skin is definitely better but I’m still getting 2-3 active breakouts each month. I’m just finding myself very irritated because my wedding is in September and I’ve been up front with my derm since the beginning that I’m hoping to be done by the end of May latest. That likely won’t happen, so I’m shooting for the end of June. The mental side effects haven’t been great and I really don’t want to have to experience not feeling like me for my wedding (or engagement but here we are lol). Besides the wedding, has any one else had a similar experience? Did going up on your dose for the last few months help anyone clear some stubborn last breakouts? How do you stay sane and how do you not get discouraged when you have a “deadline” like a wedding? Thank you guys