Hormonal acne!

Hi lavenderdust, I am 22 years old and have suffered from hormonal acne for a while now! I eat healthy, work out, etc. My acne has gotten worse as I have gotten older. The only time that it cleared up was when I was on the pill. I use the Neutrogena 3 piece system as well as 10% benzoyl peroxide at night. I am currently not on the pill and I am pregnant so I have been breaking out more than usual and it is triggering a lot of picking attacks. If you do think it is hormonal then the pill may help. I recommend talking to your primary care provider about it or seeing a dermatologist. =)

Hi lavdnerdust! I'm 23 and though my acne doesn't seem to be hormonal, I've recently accepted that my biggest problem is picking. I honestly think that my skin would be near perfect if I would stop f*cking touching it all the time!! For me what has worked the best are post-it notes on my mirror. Not only do they make it harder for me to see my face, especially when I lean forward to zoom in, I put notes on them like "Walk away" "Don't do it" "you're only making it worse"...etc. I've also forced myself to throw away any needles (used those for popping zits the "safe" way), put my tweezers in an extremely inaccessable place so I'm not tempted to grab them to pull off dry skin, etc. When I catch myself in the bathroom, I immediately look for ways to distract my fingers--writing an email, reading through these forums...anything. Naps. Cooking. Eating. At this point I'd rather be fat than have acne...it seems easier to undo a bit of weight gain!! Also, one mistake I made was buying product after product. In addition to antibiotics, a retin-a and some other anti-inflammatory cream, I accumulated numerous BP and salycilic acid products, exfoliating scrubs, masks, etc. I honestly feel that I exacerbated my skin with chemicals, plus the picking. My best advice, outside of non picking, is drinking lots of water (cliche but so true) and keeping your skincare regimin as simple as possible. Good luck.

I feel you! I have the exact same problem! Ugh, I'm 28 and had clear skin for awhile when it started popping up again when I was 26. Try to get a prescription for Aldactone, it's an anti androgen that is used to treat hormonal acne in women. If you break out around your chin, chances are that it's hormonal. I went on alcactone about 5 months ago and the breakouts got a lot better and now my main problem is that I keep picking at the damn things!! It's so frustrating I could scream! Does anything work for you to stop the obsessive picking? I just found this site today and am determined to stop!