My Accutane Story

When I was looking into taking accutane I had to youtube a lot of videos, ask around, and read a lot of info. I thought I would consolidate what I've learned from taking accutane into one post. If you are thinking about taking accutane, visit a dermatologist!

For years I struggled with acne. I am of Japanese descent so oily skin comes with being asian. An excess of oil causes breakouts and especially in the T-zone (for asians). When I was a freshman my acne started to surface and it grew worse and worse as each year passed by. At that time ProActiv started to become popular so I used that. At first it didn't work at all and made my acne a lot worse. I heard that this would happen and was advised to at least try it for a month. I kept at it for a month (that was how long my ProActiv trial would last anyhow) and then my acne started to clear. For like a year or so my acne was in good control. However, my skin got used to the topical medication and started acting up again. My skin during my Sophomore, Junior and Senior year was always up and down. I never knew when it would react. At this time I just tried to make sure I got rest, ate better, and just used over the counter face wash.

I then looked further into seeing a dermatologist. I found a dermatologist in Ogden (who actually ended up being a good friend of my parent's from California, who would have thought?) who suggested I try a oral medication (an antibiotic) to get rid of my acne combined with a topical medication (I think I was using a cream that smelled sick (Benzaclin) and a purple bottled cream, Retin-A Micro). I would take the medication in the morning and at night. If I didn't eat anything with it I would become nauseous. I would wash my face in the morning with just a mild cleanser (like Neutrogena's mild facial cleanser) and then put a thin layer of Benzaclin on afterwards. Later at night I washed my face again but would apply Retin-A Micro on afterwards. I would have to wait 30 minutes though for my face to dry completely before applying Retin-A. This worked! However, like ProActiv, my skin became accustomed to the medications and stopped working. Now this is all adding up... I mean ProActiv at the time was like $50 for a month (if used sparingly) and the other medications with insurance cost about $70 for the Benzaclin and $30 for the Retin-A. The antibiotic was about $10. Not to mention doctor visits at $25 a pop. That's a whopping total of $135 a month! A month! After that stopped working I was about 19 or 20 years old. I was sick of having to deal with acne especially when my 16 year old sister hadn't had a single zit.

I had always known about accutane, but I heard only horror stories of it. So the idea of going through with accutane never occurred to me until it was the last resort. I felt like I really needed to do it despite the side effects not to mention cost. You can only get an accutane prescription from a dermatologist so the dermatologist I had for years offered accutane to me (they usually like you to try the antibiotic and topical medications before using accutane). Accutane used to be an over the counter drug until the drug administration found cases of mutated/deformed fetus in pregnancy's due to accutane consumption. So in order for clients to use accutane it must be monitored by a dermatologist. There are several protocols that clients have to go through to be eligible for accutane. Here are a few from memory:

-be over a specific weight (I never had this problem but some might)
-have your blood drawn each month (paying the $25 dermatologist fee each time)
-fast before each blood draw
-be entered into the iPledge system and be questioned each month
-drink lots of water (trust me, you'll want to)
-stay out of the sun
-have 2 forms of sexual protection (for example abstinence and birth control)

What accutane does is it suck out all the oil in your skin then redistributes the oil evenly so not one specific spot is oily or dry. Because all your oil is being sucked dry, your lips start to crack (to the point of bleeding), your joints can be sore, and your face will be super dry. This is why drinking water is a must. One go of accutane usually takes about 6 months. It's not a guarantee that it will work (especially on the first try) on some people but it works for most people. So you are making doctor's visits 6 times within a six month period, being questioned on iPledge 6 times, having 2 forms of sexual protection, staying out of the sun, drinking water, applying Aquaphor on the lips constantly, applying Cetaphil to the face, using a cream based face wash (like Neutrogena cream cleanser), eating right, sleeping well, exercising, and taking accutane both night and day- paying about $300 each month (that's with insurance people!) for the medication not to mention those $25 doctor's visits. So it's a lot... you can see why I was apprehensive about getting into this. At the time though it was worth it to me.

The dermatologist also had to warn me that I may experience joint pain, cracked lips, extremely dry skin, blurry vision (especially at night), complications in pregnancy (if I ever became pregnant during the accutane cycle), dizziness, and some other side effects I can't remember. I never experienced the dizziness and blurry vision although that may or may not be the case for you. The worse thing for me was the dry lips and skin. However, my lips never bled from being too cracked (I always carried Aquaphor with me) and my skin wasn't flaking skin everywhere from dryness. I made sure to apply Cetaphil heavy cream night and day after washing my face. I got sick a few times from fasting and having my blood drawn (but back then I wasn't used to having needles pricked in me, now I am!). Other than that after the 6 months my skin was clear! Since then I still get an occasional zit but nothing compared to what I was dealing with before.

I don't recommend this for everyone. Talk to a dermatologist and if you are young, talk to your parents about taking accutane. If you feel that it's right for you make sure you look at all the precautions.