<p>I took my 17 year old daugher to the dermatologist to treat her acne. We’ve tried various face creams without much success. She prescribed a different face cream and suggested low dose birth control pills to combat the hormonal aspect of the acne. I’ve heard of this, but never gave much thought to doing it. </p>
<p>I am going to call her regular doctor before I start her on them, but I’m wondering if others have done this. Did it work?</p>
<p>I’ve heard of young women using birth control pills to control acne. D’s skin improved when she was on them (even though her main goal was birth control). S started taking Accutane (but not sure if your D’s condition warrants it and there are severe birth defects if she takes it while pregnant). Not that she’s pregnant or anything, but she should be aware of the side effects.</p>
<p>My skin was never better than when I was pregnant, but I don’t expect that you want to try that option instead. ;-)</p>
<p>A good friend of mine took Accutane in high school, and every time she went to renew her prescription they made her fill out a survey stating two forms of birth control she was using so they knew she was unlikely to get pregnant and suffer the birth defects.</p>
<p>I know several people who used birth control to control acne, and some who just saw it as an added benefit when they started taking it for the “normal” reasons.</p>
<p>I think birth control pills are supposed to be most effective on acne on the jaw area. They worked for my oldest D, although she was put on Yasmin, which they no longer prescribe for acne because of blood clot issues. My youngest D has more acne on her forehead, so she has not tried birth control pills for that.</p>
<p>Many of my friends’ daughters were first prescribed Birth Control while my only boy who got acne was first prescribed an antibiotic (after the cleaning and cream regimen which only made it worse). I would never jump to Accutane unless absolutely necessary. One of my friends had a D who ultimately did end up using Accutane and it worked, but she did not do this until she had exhausted other possibilities. BC worked quite well for many of my friends other than the one. If I had a D I would have started with BC bills first before antibiotics and definitely before Accutane. Why kill a spider with a sledgehammer if you don’t need to. You don’t see many kids with the horrible acne and scarring like i used to back in the early 70s when I was in high school so the physicians and derms are getting pretty good at battling it.</p>
<p>D tried the antibiotics, several prescriptions (pills and creams). The birth control worked. I wish we had tried it sooner.</p>
<p>I would like my daughter to consider the BC pill for acne, but she is concerned about weight gain (already a bit of an issue). Has this been a problem for anyone going this route?</p>