Accutane /side effects/please advise if you did

amother

Blush

Mon, Nov 04 2019, 6:03 am

thanks wrote:

Why 3 times? Did the first time and second time not help? Did you think you were done and it came back?

My son and my daughter did Accutane with excellent results. Lips and skin were dry during treatment. Their acne was cured?

In 9th my dermatologist was very bad. Some russian lady who let me into her room, wrote me a prescription, and yelled at me to get out. Found someone else and I tried it in 11th grade. When it came back I thought maybe I wasn't on it for enough months or the dosage wasn't correct so we tried again.

amother

Ecru

Mon, Nov 04 2019, 6:28 am

amother [ Bronze ] wrote:

A coworker if mine took it as a teen and developed celiac. She said that she was unaware at the time but it is, apparently, a known side effect.

THIS!!! depression was mentioned and a higher rate of skin cancer because it eats away the protective layer of skin. It can upset the stomach.

Skin peels, consistent facials, and sebum blocking serums are the route I would suggest. Diet and exercise and hygiene are all important. Even acne prone skin needs to be moisturized.

amother

Mon, Nov 04 2019, 8:58 am

amother [ Ecru ] wrote:

The side effects I hear get me all worried. I generally don't like taking medicine, but here it's affecting her self esteem. She hates them, can't go out shabbos, and sometimes gets painful cysts too. she has it already since before 12 and it is not improving much.

She already eats healthy, drinks water only, washes her face with special soaps, showers every day. She even took antibiotic for a year or more, which initially helped, but then wore off. I don't want to do facials as the time, cost, and scarring it leaves, is unpleasant. It is only a temporary solution.

etky

Mon, Nov 04 2019, 9:14 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I know. We had the same deliberations. We tried everything topical, antibiotics and hormones. Nothing worked except the hormones, but they raised her blood lipids sky high.
It's such a hard decision.
Did you check for PCO? If it is hormonal acne you could explore treating it that way. Most women do not react the way she did to the hormones.

amother

Ecru

Mon, Nov 04 2019, 11:52 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I’m sorry for her hurt and can understand your desire to help. My DS was put on a topical clyodamyicin and benzoyl peroxide mixture by the dermatologist. He used Differin with variable results prior to that. I feel strongly that something topical is preferred over something ingested. There are sebum blocking serums. Pore delete and Pore Control by the company The Ordinary were recommended by the dermatologist. She stresses moisturizer. Another recommendation was salicylic acid body wash and washing linen hair and pajamas more often. Hatzlacha.

I got acne in my 30s and it had an effect on my self esteem.

amother

Chartreuse

Mon, Nov 04 2019, 12:12 pm

My dd was on topical medication for years and it didn't help at all. She also drinks only water (has her entire life), and actually drinks A LOT of water every day. She also eats well.

Sometimes there is no choice but to take the accutane. We postponed it for years because we were worried, but I wish we had done it earlier. Severe acne affects self esteem and can also cause scarring.

amother

Blush

Mon, Nov 04 2019, 12:21 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Does she have PCOS at all? Because I have painful cysts too and most of my friends with bad acne who took accutane and did not have PCOS did not have cysts.

Please check out if there is a root or hormone issue at play. If so accutane will not solve anything in the long run.

As for people with celiac, it could of been anything that pushed her over to being celiac. She was probably genetically prone to getting it.

amother

Copper

Mon, Nov 04 2019, 12:30 pm

I did it twice, one in high school and one in college, probably with at least 4 years in between. I am in my 40s now.

My dermatologist put me on it after nothing else helped and I assume that's the case for your daughter as well. It is for extreme cases, it's not a first-effort medicine, and it is effective. All medications have potentially disasterous side effects, so not sure that should be more of an issue with Accutane than with anything else.

I found it to really be a wonder drug. My lips were incredibly dry--on shabbos, when I couldn't spread anything one, I would spray with lips with Pam. It worked! I also felt like my eyes were dry and I coulnd't wear my contacts as many hours of the day, but it was well worth it.

Librarian

Mon, Nov 04 2019, 2:06 pm

My son and daughter both took it as teenagers. My daughter had much improvement, no more blackheads but still some pimples. Dry lips. When my son took it a year or so later the dermatologist had me fill the prescription at a certain pharmacy that did not use generics from India. He had perfect results. He also had severely dry lips and muscle aches. The Dr. recommended vitamin E and it helped. Stay away from the generics from India - often have to repeat treatment if they are taken.

amother

Blonde

Mon, Nov 04 2019, 5:34 pm

amother [ Blush ] wrote:

What long term effects do you have?
Every medicine, even advil has terrible side effects if you read the pamphlet.
As long as you have a good doctor, gets screened, get blood tests and be safe you're good!

The first half of what you wrote is true, and the second half is not. It’s true that many medications, including Advil, have terrible side effects. I would think twice before taking any of them. Especially since they don’t actually “treat” or “cure” anything, they just stop the symptoms from happening. I would much rather get to the root of what’s happening inside the body that’s causing these symptoms. You can heal your body instead of throwing meds in that may solve one problem, but damage your other organs at the same time.

amother

Mon, Nov 04 2019, 7:20 pm

amother [ Blonde ] wrote:

You know for a fact that it does damage to other organs? I'm concerned about that, esp when I hear from a lot if ppl that did it and are so happy.

According to the dermatologist, he said it's considered safe aside of dryness and possible depression/anxiety. He said it's not sure even if they're linked together. I would def monitor it and do the nec. bloodwork.

My daughter is aware of everything, and may still back out before the first try (next month)

amother

Blonde

Mon, Nov 04 2019, 8:41 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Yes I know for a fact. It’s written in the official package insert. In known side effects, almost every organ is listed. These are side effects that enough real people have reported from use of this drug, that they have to list it in their packaging. There are probably many more side effects or people suffering from these side effects that never reported it too.

https://www.accessdata.fda.gov.....l.pdf

Some of the parts of the body that have been affected are: brain (neurological and psychiatric side effects), liver, pancreas, bones, hearing, vision, intestines, etc. Plus the widely known damage it can do during pregnancy (why does it cause so many birth defects to babies? What is it doing to US??).

Figure out the cause of the acne and you can treat naturally with diet and lifestyle changes, based on the cause (hormone imbalance, food sensitivities, leaky gut, etc.)

ETA: the people who are so happy with it may develop problems years later that are related to having taken accutane and never think to attribute it to that.

amother

Mon, Nov 04 2019, 9:55 pm

I do appreciate your input.

We seriously tried everything.
Antibiotics
Every type of topical cream
Probiotics
She eats a healthy variety with very little junk. Drinks only water.
She is not overweight or hairy (PCOS)
Her cycles are exact.
I believe it's genetic, And although she has worse than I did, I suffered a lot from it. Even though my face is cleared up (finally) I still get a big cyst here and there. I'm always watching what I eat, since I am sensitive to many things. In the summer I break out more. I really don't want my daughter to go thru what I did.
My neighbor mentioned to me that she and her sister both had bad acne. Her sister did accutane, she not. Her sisters skin is gorgeous, and she stayed with many scars Sad

There's gotta be a way out of this. None of her schoolmates have it like that.

amother

Blush

Mon, Nov 04 2019, 11:01 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

There's gotta be a way out of this. None of her schoolmates have it like that.

I really say you should give it a try. Be'emet. People have side effects from any medication. People get hurt from using epidural. If the doctor misses a bit you could be paralyzed for life!
I don't know anyone who had any lasting effects. The one person I know was was suicidal the feelings were ONLY when she was on the pill. When she stopped it all went away.

There's always a one percent. For anything. We do our best. Do you know the chances of getting hurt in a car accident every day? Yet we take a car to everywhere.

This is affecting your DD and her self esteem, and it's a drug that does work and you are both responsible, will listen to your doctors, share your concerns, do the bloodwork - go for it! The person saying to not do it is probably one of those people who does everything naturally type.

They do bloodwork and checkups to make sure there are no side effects and if there are will stop treatment immediately.

amother

Tue, Nov 05 2019, 6:13 am

amother [ Blonde ] wrote:

This link has all the risks I already saw in the pamphlet the dr gave me. The birth defects are only for those that get pregnant ON it. Another reason why I want to do it now before she gets married.

It also mentions that Accutane is for those that antibiotics is not responding to them, which is the case with my dd.

I wanted to hear from those who actually used it years ago, and saw any bad side effects from it other than dryness, moody, etc..

amother

Brown

Tue, Nov 05 2019, 6:15 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Yes. I was on it and became severely depressed for several years. I don't wish those years on anyone.

amother

Blonde

Tue, Nov 05 2019, 4:29 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

There's gotta be a way out of this. None of her schoolmates have it like that.

There are other causes of acne, and antibiotics wouldn’t have worked for any of these -
-Could be a distressed liver (if this is the case there are supplements to support the liver, like milk thistle and dandelion, etc)
-could be due to hormone imbalance (there are many other types of hormone imbalance other than just PCOS)- you could do salivary hormone testing to find out what’s going on.
-could be food sensitivity or intolerance that you don’t know about (even if it’s a “healthy” food, if your body developed a sensitivity to it then it will cause problems). Could also be the more common food sensitivities like gluten and dairy.
-could be worsened by environmental toxins and hormone disruptors like air fresheners, artificial fragrance, chemicals in typical laundry detergents and dryer sheets, cleaning supplies, etc.)
-could be leaky gut or compromised gut health (especially if she was on antibiotics multiple times)

There are so many more things to try before Accutane. And the difference is that any of these other methods will actually work to HEAL the body, whereas accutane takes a huge toll on the body (even if you don’t notice serious side effects, the body is working hard to process it and eliminate it from the body) and for many people it also has many damaging side effects.