Teenage Acne

[kazzie29]

Hi. My fifteen year old son suffers from a bad case of acne. the dermatologist gave him a course of antibiotics which, unfortunately, did no good. She has said that he will need to take tetracycline in September which I am dubious about. My son gets depressed enough without the help of drugs. I have been wondering that  since acne is a hormonal problem, would it be a good idea for me to take him to an endocrinologist  or would this just cause another issue?  The thought of messing with his hormones scares me a little. How about a homeopathic doctor? I just need a little direction. Please help.


This discussion is related to Precocious puberty?.

[kazzie29]

Sorry to hear you are having a rough time too. You gave me food for thought, thanx

[meg52080]

Well, I don't know if what I have to say will benefit your son or not. . .but after my second child (I had developed severe nodulocystic acne while pregnant), my derm. put me on tetracycline and it didn't help at all. . .my mother-in-law is a practicing homeopath in Toronto, and she had advised on some things to do instead (i.e.silica, calendula cream) which also did not work.  I eventually went on Accutane - I have VERY mixed feelings about this med - it DID get rid of the acne. . .but the dry skin, dry eyes, bleeding lips, etc. were very painful.  In addition, it also has damaging effects on the liver and kidneys as well - my once very low cholesterol shot up about 200 pts. I now suffer from severe arthritis which I believe I can attribute to the accutane.  I also have uterine fibroids and absolute zero levels of estrogen, progesterone and testosterone and am now on hormone therapy.  In retrospect, I'm not sure what I would do now. . .take the accutane and suffer the side effects, or live with debilitating, painful acne and scars for the remainder of my life. . .hope this helps you in some way.

Meg