Thinking about Accutane for my 22 year old daughter, whose acne - going back about 7 years - has not responded to a range of treatments. I’m aware of all the issues with Accutane and am not sure if she’d want to take it - she’s a worrier, and will think she has every side effect she reads about (she would say this herself). Pregnancy is not an issue right now. I looked up some related threads here and found a link to acne.org, but can’t find the post anymore. It’s an interesting website. Has anyone used the “Acne.org Regimen” products? How did they work?
More Accutane-experience stories also much appreciated. Thanks to all.
DS did Accutane starting after 11th grade. It was the best thing we did for his resistant acne. I wish we had done it sooner.
He did have very dry lips, and his cholesterol went up enough they prescribed Lipitor for him…birth common side effects of Accutane. We got him lip balm called Chop Saver…which was awesome. Once he stopped taking the medication, all of this went away quickly.
We were very lucky as our insurance RX coverage was excellent, and covered this completely.
My son, who is now 29, did Accutane 11 years ago. It worked great on the acne, and he was very pleased. But in his case, the chapped lips turned out to be permanent.
One of my kids did Accutane after 2 years of trying EVERYTHING else for severe early onset acne with zero success. In hindsight, I wish we had pressured our conservative dermatologist to start the Accutane earlier to avoid some scarring as well as the social issues that come with severe acne.
My child had zero problems other than some very dry skin and lips. For that reason, if you live in a cold climate, winter might not be the ideal time to start but I wouldn’t let that hold your daughter back. The acne disappeared and child’s skin looking amazing for 6 months. After that, some acne returned but much milder, more like normal teen acne as opposed to the severe acne experienced earlier.
The monthly checkups can be a pain but I understand the need to be cautious. For females, at least at the time, birth control was required. My child was very young at the time so was able to get medication with abstinence/condom use as the indicated BC methods.
For our family, Accutane was a wonder drug.
My brother used it with success as far as the acne but he the unpleasant side effect of significant depression/moodiness. It was really awful for about a year and when he went off it he was like a whole new kid.
Summer isn’t a great time for isotretinoin either (sun exposure).
Two more thumbs up for isotretinoin from me.
My kid had to be VERY careful that summer…high risk of sunburn…very high. He had a very high SPF sunscreen, wore a cap, and stayed indoors when he could.
As an aside, he started using Chop Saver about a month before he started the Accutane. He is a trumpet player, and was at a music festival all summer…needed to have his lips work! He really was lucky that the chop saver worked for him.
My kids used the 2.5 percent acne.org benzoyl peroxide twice a day and had great results. Watery stuff gets into all your pores and mechanicaly kills the germs. Have to use white towels and pillowcases because it bleaches everything!
Anxiousmom, how long did your kids use it for? and did they also use the cleanser and the moisturizer, or just the benzoyl peroxide?
Used it for years. Only used the benzoyl peroxide. Dd used aveeno lotion…she still uses some of the BP now though less often than ten years ago.
Both our kids got excellent results from Accutane treatment when they were high schoolers. It will require regular blood tests during the treatment period, however.
Our allergist has prescribed benzyl peroxide wash, so covered by our insurance. They do NOT have serious cystic acne and this works well for them, when they decide to use it. They also have doxycicline that they can take 1 pill/day for a few months when they have a very bad flareup of acne; they rarely take it as they prefer to avoid drugs whenever possible.
Accutane worked for both of my kids as well.
My daughter had great success with the acne.org regimen. We had tried Proactive, Neutrogena, and Burt’s Bees regimens but all were so strong they made her acne worse. She still uses the step 2 benzoyl peroxide product from acne.org, but doesn’t use the cleanser or moisturizer. The washing method really helped her turn her moderate acne around.
Yep, DS only needed to use it for about 4 years… DD continues to use it but not so often now. It is good stuff, and reasonably priced.
I used accutane back in the early 80s. It was the best stuff ever! Nothing worked for me, except for accutane. Only side effect for me was dry lips, which ended up being permanent for me 
I would not have any reservations about using accutane with my children after all other treatments have been tried.
OP: Has your DD tried 2.5% BP like acne.org’s product? I don’t think it is necessary to use his cleanser or moisturizer, and Trader Joe’s sells jojoba oil. IMHO, I would consider Accutane as a last resort if mild BP doesn’t work. Just remember that there’s peroxide in BP so towels, clothing, and pillowcases can inadvertently get bleached!
My son used Accutane for I think 5 months 5 years ago, his freshman year of college. His cholesterol went up and he had dry lips. His skin completely cleared up and still looks great. A year or two later he had kidney stones, not sure if it was due to Accutane or if he would have had them anyway.
All this input is much appreciated. I mentioned the Accutane to my D, because she brought up her skin. She had never heard of it but immediately refused to consider it - her not-inaccurate conclusion being that if it’s powerful enough to cause birth defects it may have other unwanted effects as well. It was a bit of a knee-jerk reaction but I know if she researched it more she would feel even more anti-.
But she did order the Acne.org skin products and will give those a good try. If anyone else has reports about those, I’d be very interested. Thanks again to all.