Hormonal Acne Control

Pharma
1

Hi everyone,

As I have been battling white cystic acne all my life and I recently been tinkering around the idea of battling the condition hormonally. I produce a LOT of oil on the face and back daily and have a lot of these small pimples that are non-inflammatory.

From what I have gathered, the main culprit in sebum production by sebocytes is DHT and to a lesser extent androgens in general. Birth Control works well to prevent this mechanism of action by occupying the receptor site with progestins. At least this is my understanding of it.

My question is has anyone had positive experiences in solely reducing acne by using a low dose 5-alpha reductase inhibitor and, if so, what they did procedurally and if there are any side effects to doing so long term.

I figured that this forum would be the best place to ask. If this is too newb of question please direct me to where I can do more research.

Best (and hoping to not get flamed lol)

Ahu

2

How old are you ?

3

Have you tried accutane?

5

[quote]pushharder wrote:
Try MT-II. I’m serious.[/quote]

This is your new “foam roll that shit.”

LOL

6

of he has cycstic acne hes likely been placed on accutane before.

If anything reducing DHT would lead to estrogen issues which would cause acne FAR more aggressively.

I would give a low dose AI a try with the accutane before I tried something with such a god awful track record and long list of shattered endocrine systems, like DHT inhibitors.

Try controlling estrogen first before you mess with you DHT, it is extremely important to the body, its you main androgen in non muscle tissues, its what makes you male.

8

[quote]pushharder wrote:

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:

[quote]pushharder wrote:
Try MT-II. I’m serious.[/quote]

This is your new “foam roll that shit.”

LOL[/quote]

You think a guy like me would kid around???

I really have noticed that the MT-II seeeeeeems to help with the acne. And it’s not just because one is getting more sun although that certainly does factor in.
[/quote]

I was only kidding.

I actually plan on trying melanotan fairly soon.

10

[quote]pushharder wrote:

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:

[quote]pushharder wrote:

[quote]rrjc5488 wrote:

[quote]pushharder wrote:
Try MT-II. I’m serious.[/quote]

This is your new “foam roll that shit.”

LOL[/quote]

You think a guy like me would kid around???

I really have noticed that the MT-II seeeeeeems to help with the acne. And it’s not just because one is getting more sun although that certainly does factor in.
[/quote]

I was only kidding.

I actually plan on trying melanotan fairly soon.[/quote]

Well then you might just be an acne-free bronzed Hawaiian warrior…like me![/quote]

Haha.

I was thinking to get the one that has the libido improvements and use it off cycle. I figured the skin clearing plus libido boost would be perfect for PCT, as really that’s the only time I get acne/low libido.

Plus, being tan doesn’t hurt. hah

11

Do you use AAS?
I had cystic acne on my chest whilst using 200mg test eth per week, I was using 1mg adex a week and Bonez advised me to up the dosage to 0.5mg eod, this worked a treat and I dropped back down to 1mg a week after it cleared up.
good luck

12

[quote]Westclock wrote:
of he has cycstic acne hes likely been placed on accutane before.

If anything reducing DHT would lead to estrogen issues which would cause acne FAR more aggressively.

I would give a low dose AI a try with the accutane before I tried something with such a god awful track record and long list of shattered endocrine systems, like DHT inhibitors.

Try controlling estrogen first before you mess with you DHT, it is extremely important to the body, its you main androgen in non muscle tissues, its what makes you male.[/quote]

Based on my experience with a relatively short bout with cystic acne (about 3-4 months) I agree with this. In my case it was estrogen levels getting out of whack.

Before you take ANY hormone or “hormone influencer” get blood tests done. Get your free T, E2, prolactin etc tested. Having a baseline to compare to is important if you want to figure out how much of what drug you’d need.

How old are you

13

[quote]BONEZ217 wrote:

[quote]Westclock wrote:
of he has cycstic acne hes likely been placed on accutane before.

If anything reducing DHT would lead to estrogen issues which would cause acne FAR more aggressively.

I would give a low dose AI a try with the accutane before I tried something with such a god awful track record and long list of shattered endocrine systems, like DHT inhibitors.

Try controlling estrogen first before you mess with you DHT, it is extremely important to the body, its you main androgen in non muscle tissues, its what makes you male.[/quote]

Based on my experience with a relatively short bout with cystic acne (about 3-4 months) I agree with this. In my case it was estrogen levels getting out of whack.

Before you take ANY hormone or “hormone influencer” get blood tests done. Get your free T, E2, prolactin etc tested. Having a baseline to compare to is important if you want to figure out how much of what drug you’d need.

How old are you [/quote]

My apologies for not responding to this until now BONEZ… I am currently 22.

I have had the this version of acne since the beginning of high school which is understandable given the timeframe but having to wait 8 years til this shit goes away is ridiculous.

I have used all the OTC stuff in the past for at least 10 wks to assess their effectiveness in lesion count. While subjective, I could not tell a difference. I have not used accutane before due to the conservative nature of it’s prescription but I have also been contemplating it’s use. But as I said, I’d rather tackle the problem at the root which seems to be given the symptoms excessive sebum production.

I have seen that LEF does a complete hormonal panel and so I will look into that first. If anyone has a better place to get such a test, I’m all ears. When I get the results, I will then post the relevant values and see what my options are from there.

Thanks to everyone else that chimed in.

P.S. Push, I’m curious as to why MT-II. Maybe just to mask the visibility of the lesions?

14

[quote]samgold wrote:
Do you use AAS?
I had cystic acne on my chest whilst using 200mg test eth per week, I was using 1mg adex a week and Bonez advised me to up the dosage to 0.5mg eod, this worked a treat and I dropped back down to 1mg a week after it cleared up.
good luck[/quote]

Hi Samgold,

Zero AAS.

Didn’t want to leave this ignored.

15

last night i saw a comercial that said accutane has been discontinued. is this true?

16

[quote]Work_For_It wrote:
last night i saw a comercial that said accutane has been discontinued. is this true?[/quote]

Mfrs other than Roche still sell isotretinoin in the US.

While “Accutane” is used somewhat generically to describe isotretinoin, it’s actually the name for the Roche product, which I believe Roche removed from the market.

17

I had moderate-severe cystic acne during my teenage years, and accutane/isotretinoin was the greatest thing to ever happen to me (even moreso than AAS, which come a close 2nd). It totally salvaged (or rather, allowed me to have) a social/sex life. It has a bit of a scary rep on the internets but if used under doctor’s supervision your pretty damn safe.

18

[quote]GGlife wrote:
I had moderate-severe cystic acne during my teenage years, and accutane/isotretinoin was the greatest thing to ever happen to me (even moreso than AAS, which come a close 2nd). It totally salvaged (or rather, allowed me to have) a social/sex life. It has a bit of a scary rep on the internets but if used under doctor’s supervision your pretty damn safe. [/quote]

Me too my friend. It is kindof a bitch sometimes though. Now that I look back on it, it was like having all of the bad sides you could get from an AAS, without the great strength gains haha.

Accutane really is a miracle worker though. Haven’t personally had any acne in years…and at one point it was fairly bad