Hi it's my first post on here after reading various sites on Acne over the past few days - I found this one via a link from acne.org...

Basically I'm 23 yrs old, female and have had cystic Acne occurences since I was about 16, prior to that I had the usual teen Acne "t-zone" problem...

At 16 I was given Fucidin H to treat some infected whiteheads which helped as it brought down the inflammation (it contains Hydrocortisone) and also helped to expell the fluid within... Following that topical application I was given Diannette Oral Contraceptive and after a 3 day course found myself laying on the floor unable to move... so back to the drawing board....

I was prescribed various topical benzoyl peroxide washes and creams - quinoderm/panoxyl = vary little benefit but plenty of bleached towels and redness to the skin....

Soon after I became pregnant with my first child, during which time I wasn't able to take any treatment for my skin, but developed malasma/raised inflamed acne over the t-zone area...

After the birth of my daughter I was referred for the first time to a dermatologist who after unsucessful courses of Antibiotics (Oxytetracyline, Erythromyacin, Doxycycline, Minocycline, Lymecycline) trialled me on a low dosage of Isotretinoin (Roaccutane)....

Roaccutane - This caused me to have quite severe mood swings, Depression and the advised muscle aches, dry skin, cracked lips etc... HOWEVER, it did get my skin under control and for the past year, although I've still suffered with the odd blemish and red underskin marks, I've been able to use a light foundation to live a fairly normal life (although I don't feel that comfortable wearing make-up in general).

Well the situation now is (Yeah, You guessed it...) It's Back! :(

This time the cysts aren;t on the cheek area, they've migrated to the jawline/neck (in particular I've never had any on my neck before)....there are 4 on the left side of my neck "pulse-point" area and half a dozen on the opposite side in the same place, I've also noticed the odd one appears every so often in a random place, a month ago it was just under my eyebrow and now I have 2 one on my temple and the other above my lip. They appear just before my monthly period and with only 30 days to heal, the next batch arrive and so this has gone on for the past 3 months.

I've also noticed facial hair growth - although not thick, I get the odd wirey critter, the worst part is the fact it's dark but fine hair on light skin...I've been epilating to remove it and shaving my upper lip as this hurts too much with the epilator.

I've seen my Family Doctor and Dermatologist in the past couple of weeks,

had blood tests done for diabetes (as I was concerned it could be caused my insulin resistance) this came back negative

had blood taken last week for pcos, hormones, thyroid etc - waiting these coming back

and got a pelvic ultrasound scheduled for this weekend all in the vain hope of finding some underlying cause to this horrible disease..

The Derm injected 4 cysts with hydrocortisone - this really hurt which is saying something after childbirth - perhaps my pain tolerance is lower these days :) and he also prescribed me another course of Isotret to be taken for the next 4 months after which point he'll review it. I haven't started taking it yet, wanted to consider my options and get all the test results back.

Since February I've been on a fairly meat-free diet, I don't drink sodas, take a multi-vitamin supplement..

I just don't know what else to do - I'm hoping maybe someone on here has had a similar experience and will share some wisdom...

thanks for reading xx