Isotretinoin is the most powerful acne medication
that can only be prescribed by a qualified dermatologist- It’s a harsh harsh drug that’s basically last resort for acne, basically if creams / lotions / tablets from the doctor all are unsuccessful. 

 

 So.... 

 i got put on Accutane (also known as Roaccutane or Isotretinoin) In December 2013.. After having tried EVERYTHING at the doctors for skin, such as antibiotics, acne creams, I even had this roll on thing that you rolled onto your face and it was meant to get rid of your spots. Nothing worked so i gottransferred to the dermotologist,which is where my journey begins…..
Okay so going to the dermo they examine your skin and blady blady blaaaa, now onto the interesting stuff. 
 

Girls, you NEED to be on a form of contraceptive method. They WILL NOT allow you onto this acne treatment without being on something to stop you getting pregnant- doesn’t matter if you’re not sexually active because the chances are – which is what happened to me – they wont believe you.

 So I had to go on the pill before getting the accutane which is annoying but i stopped taking the pill as it completely fucked my periods… sorry to scare you all but its the truth JUST DONT TELL THEM IF YOU DO THAT BECAUSE I WAS NAUGHTY AND SAID I WAS STILL ON IT.. it works but im not advising that.. and if you are sexually active which i was not, then don’t bother lying nor risking it. Just go on some sort of sexual protection because if you do get pregnant it can seriously damage your baby.

 

Right so here i am on the pill ready for my treatment, you have to get blood tests to check everythings okay then i got put onto 10mg of it. 

.. Straight away, honestly, i saw no difference atall ...

But then that’s just me being impatient, i wanted my spots gone as soon as i took the first tablet but that’s just not going to work unfortunately. You have to go the dermo every 3-4 weeks for a pregnancy test, blood test (to check your body is coping with the medication) and for your review. They’ll tell you how your skin is doing, and what they have chosen to do eg up your dosage, keep it the same or lower it. 

Each time I went my dosage has increasily went up from 10, to 20, to 40, to 50 then lastly to 60mg. The max dosage you can go on all depends on your weight so don’t be disappointed if you can’t go on 60 because that just means you’re not heavy enough.

 

The Real Stuff –  SIDE EFFECTS 

I would say after about 2 months of being on these tablets is where the real side effects started kicking in.

 At first i was experiencing just usual side effects but nothing to worry about, just my lips were a tiny bit dry and my hair didn’t get greasy as much (these tablets stop your oil glands) 

However that all changed what it seems like within a few days- honestly i’m not trying to scare any of you but i’m telling the complete truth. 

 

My Lips: 
Okay they went absolutely ridiculous, in the sense that my lips peeled every single night the whole layer

of my lips would come off because i used to hate the look of hanging off skin so id pull it off and yeah..

lips = red raw.. They need constant vaseline, carmex, whatever you can get. Im not exaggerating when

i say just how bad they got because it got the stage where wearing lipstick was not an option because

it would look all lumpy. 

If you speak to your Dermo, they will help you and give you what you need. I got prescribed a steroid

cream for my lips that really helped clear them up however isn’t a long term solution. That isn’t because

i didnt take care of my lips, because i did. its purely the Accuntane. Logically the accutane stops your

oils so yeah of course youre going to get very dry, which leads on to my next point 

  In this photo you can see how dry my lips are- you know when you get sun burn on your forehead

and your skin goes all tight and almost as if you have a sheet of plastic over it? That’s what

accutane does to your lips- they always bled as you can see in the photos and it was probably

the worst side effect I got from the tablets.
 

 

My Face:
In general, my face was dry before the accutane so saying it got dry might be a bit bias. It did get dryer than it was before the accutane, but however not as dry as my lips. Flakey bits of my skin will fall off.. especially around spots. but that happened before the accutane it just got a tiny bit worse. So overall, nothing dramatic with the dry skin just extra moisturiser is needed. (Again, the dermo will perscribe you with this if you ask for it. I used to go home from the dermo with a whole bag full of products, it felt like christmas!)

BUT, my skin was SO much more sensitive since i first started the  Accutane. my skin has always been sensitive in the sense if i put certain products on it, my face will go red and rashy (i’m allergic to alot of fragranced products) But it had never been that bad. For instance, I got my eyebrows waxed about half a year ago, first time since i had started accutane, a whole layer of skin came off and my eyebrows were bleeding and red for 2 days. it sort of looked like a burn but that has NEVER happened to me before, its because the accutane thins your skin and makes it fragile. Maybe that’s just me because of my baby-sensitive skin but i’m just sharing my experience, it doesn’t mean it will happen to you. 

Can i just add the sensitivity does not last as i’m updating this article now, i’ve been off the tablets for about 5 months and my skin is fine. No sensitivitiy atall, it’s just during your treatment you may experience what i did.

 

My Body: 
Being completely honest i had experienced no side effects with my body until 3 months in. 

My hands, they got stupidly dry and i actually had to go the doctors and get cream because where they were flaking off and so itchy they was bright red and looked like i had a bad case of eczema. My hands gained control soon after, they were still dry and if i was to scratch them then skin will fall off like little flakes which didn’t happen before however they was no longer bright red after getting cream from the doctors and the dermo.  Again i may add i’m off the tablets and have been for months andmy hands have been completely normal ever since.

The rest of my body never experienced anything apart from one thing i’ve found that i came up in random rashes all over my body occasionally. I would say about once a month/every 2 months this happened. II don’t know if this had anything to do with the accutane but i’d been getting random bursts of what looks like heat rash all over my arms, legs, hands and belly. Don’t let this scare you because I couldn’t say to you whether it was the accutane or not but i will keep this updated to whether my rashes stop once my accutane course ends. 

*UPDATE- the rashes did stop and i never did get them ever again, and do not suspect i will either:)

 

Moods:
Accutane is known for being a mood alternater and for some people a side effect includes getting random mood swings and feeling depressed. I had never experienced a low mood or anything along the lines of depression during my treatment of accutane, my mood stayed the same as it was before i went on the tablets, and i never once felt suicidal.. I know that’s a big big side effect that bearly ANYONE experiences so don’t think “i cant go on this medication it will make me want to kill myself” because it’s something stupid like 1 in 10,000 people experience this. (it will say all in the leaflet)

SO.. Does it actually clear your skin up? 

Long story short, HELL YES!!!!!! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Look at that before and after photo of my forehead, the top is the beginning of my acne and the bottom is after! not a spot to be seen, just a shiny freckley head haha

Accutane does indeed clear your skin up. The time taken to do it will differ depending on how long your body takes to adapt to the pills but the maximum anyone has ever been on it is two courses. (6 months each)
My dermo said to me.... 
“your skin will clear up within the fist course, if it doesn’t, then you can undergo a second course”
i was unhappy and said but i don’t want to be on it for a year and he said “don’t worry, hardly anyone goes onto a second course because the first course is so powerful it does the job. Only people with severe bodily and facial acne go on a second course and that’s only sometimes”

 

I have finished my course of accutane and have been for about 5 months, i last wrote this article when i was coming towards the end of it with 2 months left to go and this is what i wrote:

 “i still have another 2 months left of accutane and my skin is basically already clear. I had HUNDREDS of under the skin spots. It wasn’t big red spots like most people with acne get, it was a few red ones but mostly bumpy horrible skin where the spots would just sit on the surface of my face and gather. I do have photos from before and I will be adding them on here if that’s what people want to see- like a before and after photo. 

I currently have NO under the skin spots anymore and my face is smooth underneath which is a majorrrrr thing for me. I get a few red spots but that’s only occassionally and theyre not like normal spots, theyre more just red marks with fluid in them (watery) rather than big white heads”

 

So in conclusion, if you want to go on Accutane because of your skin then i would say go for it. At times during my teatment i did think “I wish i never went on this” because of the side effects I got and they was quite severe in comparsion to some people who get none. I never gave up with my treatment, i was on them for 6 months and i think its worth having dry lips and skin temporarily in order to have soft smooth blemish free skin for the rest of your life in my opinion. 

If you have any worries or concerns about Accutane just speak to your Dermotologist because they will have answered a million questions on it before, and if you don’t like the side effects you get then it’s simple just stop your course and stop taking the pills. 

Thank you for reading *if any of you could be bothered to read the whole thing) and i hope this helped you to decide whether or not to give Accutane a try! :)