My Holistic Approach to Treating Hormonal Acne
14 responses
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Thank you so much Jessica. This post comes at a great time for me–I just recently came off of birth control and spironolactone and my adult acne has reared its ugly head worse than ever.
It’s so hard to make sense of the skincare “rules”, especially since our skin is so unique to us. Some people tell you that you should be using an acid every single day (should we also consider it exfoliating even though it’s chemical?). Some people say you have to wash your face 2x a day, others say only 1x a day. Plus there is the eternal allure of new products that promise skincare perfection. It feels frustrating to constantly have a battle with your skin and let it define your self worth as adults. It’s always really refreshing to hear how others are managing it all, so thank you. I look forward to reading your post on coming off hormonal birth control.
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Great post! I swear I could read about skincare forever (even as I sit here eating cheese ?). I’m curious to see how your vivace treatment goes! When you mentioned it on stories I thought for sure you were going for fraxel- which sounds sort of terrifying. Good luck and thanks for putting all of this together!
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I am 1 year shy away from my 30s and I want to find different methods to treat my skin better. This post has helped me tremendously, thank you.
Great, great blog post! I visit your site everyday and just really love the consistency/quality of your work. ^_^
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This post is so helpful! You are definitely not alone in the hormonal acne department. I struggled with acne for over a decade and tried literally everything, even Accutane and nothing did the trick. It wasn’t until last year when we were struggling with infertility and I got the gut feeling that it was due to a hormonal imbalance that I cleared my skin as a byproduct! The steps I took to balance my hormones in hopes of getting pregnant actually cleared my skin!
I can’t even explain how much better I feel about myself now that my skin is clear (I still have blackheads, some fine lines appearing, and the occasional breakout – but I finally feel like a “normal person” being able to complain about my one breakout whereas before it was just my entire face.
If there’s anything I can recommend in addition to what you’re already doing, it’s to read the book WomanCode by Alissa Vitti. It is so well-researched but she writes in plain English explaining how our female hormonal system works. It is eye-opening and so fascinating. If your acne is truly hormonal, I think it would be a super beneficial read simply to understand the process of what is going on in your body. That knowledge eliminates a lot of the trial and error and also for me, it just made me feel so much more empowered having the knowledge of what was actually going on inside this body I live in every day. Can’t recommend it enough!
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This post is so helpful! You are definitely not alone in the hormonal acne department. I struggled with acne for over a decade and tried literally everything, even Accutane and nothing did the trick. It wasn’t until last year when we were struggling with infertility and I got the gut feeling that it was due to a hormonal imbalance that I cleared my skin as a byproduct! The steps I took to balance my hormones in hopes of getting pregnant actually cleared my skin!
I can’t even explain how much better I feel about myself now that my skin is clear (I still have blackheads, some fine lines appearing, and the occasional breakout – but I finally feel like a “normal person” being able to complain about my one breakout whereas before it was just my entire face.
If there’s anything I can recommend in addition to what you’re already doing, it’s to read the book WomanCode by Alissa Vitti. It is so well-researched but she writes in plain English explaining how our female hormonal system works. It is eye-opening and so fascinating. If your acne is truly hormonal, I think it would be a super beneficial read simply to understand the process of what is going on in your body. In the end it’s not our skin we are trying to fix, it’s actually our hormones (which are showing up on our skin). That knowledge eliminates a lot of the trial and error and also for me, it just made me feel so much more empowered having the knowledge of what was actually going on inside this body I live in every day. Can’t recommend it enough!
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Thank you for the recommendation. I’ve actually had a few people suggest that book, I am going to order it today! xx
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Hi, thank you so much for your post. I would maybe stop using Good Genes in the morning, I don’t think it s a good idea to combine lactic acid with vitamin c. You could maybe alternate it with P50 in the night if you want to use them both. And please please write the pill post!
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Love this! I can’t believe you don’t use an oil or moisturizer daily, but I completely agree you do what works for your skin. Plus, you regularly get facials, so if you were doing something too off your facialist would advise you. I looked up Sunday Riley CEO & it does have Sweet Orange, oil so in summer I could see how that is enough. I follow close to the same routine & my skin is slowly getting better, so this is encouraging. Anyways, the point in leaving this comment is to recommend a little weight moisturizer for winter if you don’t want an oil somedays. The moisturizer is OSEA Blemish Balm. When I’m dry I do a pump mixed with either my Odacite Pimple oil serum or Odacite Oily/Acne Prone oil serum. For a super gentle/non-drying manual exfoliation, Odacite has a Jojoba bead exfoliant if you want to try something new when you finish what you have. I searched far & wide for the lowest irritation manual exfoliant & Odacite won for me. I also love their Synergie 4 Mask. It’s a clay mask, so I add a few drops of an oil (usually my Odacite Pimple serum) to it to make it more hydrating. Anyways, enough products talk. Thanks for the CEO serum recommendation! I can’t use silicones (even my makeup is silicone free) & she doesn’t use a silicone in her vitamin C serum. Definitely looking for a good serum to help with scars & melasma. Thanks so much!
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I LOVED this post! I’ve struggled with acne since I was 12/13 and still do (although it has changed over the years)!. The struggle is real and I really enjoyed reading your approach to handling it. 🙂
xx, Jillian
https://rhymeandreason-jillian.com -
My husband swapped non-organic dairy out and only eats organic dairy and it did the trick! So you might not have to swear it off all together. Apparently organic dairy uses cows that aren’t pumped with as many hormones
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Love seeing posts like this, thank you for sharing! Not be bashing products or anything, but would like to see what hasn’t worked for you/what products you weren’t crazy about and why. I recently stopped birth control, tried switching things up with my skin care products, and am now at the point that I just started using benzoyl peroxide again today because nothing else is working.
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God I’ve gone through so many I can’t think of any off the top of my head but I know basically anything I used specifically for acne (like treatments) made it worse. It was really the combo of skin products and diet that helped my skin. And I think it also balanced out after I went off the pill.
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I’m a guy in my mid-30s and have had adult acne my entire adult life. I’ve tried it all from expensive subscriptions to prescriptions. Let’s say I’ve taken a 20-year journey to finally find a product that truly works called dermalmd serum for acne. I use the face wash and dermalmd acne serum and haven’t had a zit since starting about a month ago. Booyah!
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I am so glad I discovered blemish remover dermalmd serum! I’ve been dealing with embarrassing adult acne for the past few months and the alternative products only seemed to be making it worse. I don’t know if it is the essential oils or what however after just a couple days of the usage of it the redness began going down.
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