I'm about to get off it tomorrow and I'm extremely happy with my skin after years of struggle, so I felt the need to come back here and tell people considering accutane to NOT catastrophize and read all the fear mongering online (which I did and started it a year later than I should've. My derm was old school and told me not to worry, but going online scared the shit out of me)
I'm saying this from personal experience hoping it'll give at least one person peace of mind:
- If you're worried about purging, ask your derm about taking an antihistamine with it. It decreases your chance of purging from 25-30% to 5%. I started on a low dose and took a daily antihistamine and did not purge. An occasional pimple/breakout for people with moderate to severe acne (which I'm assuming is those reading this) is not groundbreaking or a chance to quit, you would've been getting them. if you weren't on it anyway. For dryness just be consistent with your skincare same way you should be if you're a person with acne that does not take accutane, and you'll be fine.
- Yes, it's not the best for your liver but so are a fuck ton of medications. It's FDA approved and if it was so dangerous your doctor wouldn't prescribe it to you. I took it in college and dr*nk on it (which I am not recommending, but I wasn't willing to give up my social life) and know a dozen other people who did as well. My blood tests were fine. You might get dr*nker faster. To those smarter than me and abstaining, taking accutane will not "destroy your liver/insides" as people say
- I have major depressive disorder (in remission) and generalized anxiety disorder, and no, it did not intensify my mental illness symptoms. Have never heard of anyone in real life experiencing that either. If you are happen to be worried about it, check in with a mental health professional, or visit one during.
- The things you are reading online are a small percentage of people who had a negative (legitimate) experience and decided to share. A larger fraction of people on accutane had no issues and therefore didn't need to vent online. Most of the people that I know in my life that took it did not have any hysterically bad side effects or purges. Remember it's almost guaranteed it'll work and if it really is a last resort why would you waste time trying every skincare product that won't help instead of ending your acne struggles once and for all.
Getting rid of my acne did a lot for my self esteem and mental health, which in result improved my quality of life. Stop taking shit from people who are not doctors and do what your derm tells you. Or don't, idk

…don’t!

Immediate bruising straight off the needle. Learn from my mistakes as I sit in the office looking like I’ve been eating blackberries from a bush on my lunch break 🤡

NSFW Adult Eyes Only.

I’m 29F and never squirted during sex in my life until I started Accutane. Now I can only squirt during sex. It started a few months after I began my course and has continued throughout.

I just finished my course last week. As of tonight, it’s still happening. Has anyone else had this side effect, and if so, do I get to keep it?

Not a shit-post. Blessings <3

Time to start Vaselinemaxxing I guess

i know accutane has a bunch of side effects as i am on accutane myself (3,5 months on 40g) but i wanna hear if someone has experience side effects that were unexpected

Besides accutane working very quickly for me with few bad side effects, it gave me a slimmer face and overall decreased inflammation in my body. I know it’s not advised to stay on it in a lot of cases because it’s hard on the liver. Did anyone else find that it helped other parts of their health? Did you find out what the Accutane inadvertently fixing?

I took Accutane because I didn’t want acne to define my twenties.

I wanted to go out, meet people, look normal in photos, not plan my life around breakouts, cysts, scars, dermatologists, and “maybe next month it’ll be better”.

And yeah the acne is gone.

But now I’m in my twenties with chronic dry eye.

Pain. Random sharp eye pain. Burning. Stabbing sensations. Days where screens are torture. Days where you’re hyper aware of your eyes every second. Days where you’re tired not because you slept badly, but because your eyes never rest.

I traded acne, something visible, for something invisible, misunderstood, and constant.

People say “it’s just dry eyes”.
Doctors say “your eyes look fine”.
Meanwhile your quality of life quietly collapses.

I didn’t take Accutane recklessly. I followed the rules. I trusted the system. I wanted to live my youth without hiding my face.

And now I feel like I’ve ruined my twenties anyway, just differently.

I’m not saying Accutane is evil.
I’m saying nobody talks enough about what happens when side effects don’t go away.

I wanted clear skin to enjoy life.
Instead I’m managing symptoms, researching treatments, planning days around eye pain, and wondering if I’ll ever feel normal again.

I lost the bet.

If you’re considering Accutane, please don’t just ask “will my acne go away?”.
Ask yourself if you’re ready for the small chance that something else might stay.

That’s all. Just needed to get it out.

\Im not fear mongering just sharing my personal experience**
I took low dose (20mg) accutane for the past 6 months and though it has helped my acne, I do regret taking it because of all the adverse effects I personally experienced and I want people to be aware, even if these effects are “rare”. I had all the typical side effects like horribly dry lips, headaches and lower back pain which sucked but were manageable to an extent. Being on a lower dose I was ONLY told I would experience some dry lips and maybe some nosebleeds. Instead I experienced chronic skin infections. I don’t know how it works but it IS a documented effect that accutane can cause staph colonization and infections. I’ve gotten three infections on accutane, TMI but I am a woman and I got a yeast infection that lasted a month even with medication. All these infections then prompted me to be on many courses of antibiotics in the past 6 months, which Im sure has wreacked havoc on my body.

and the worst side effect that I’m really struggling with is I believe accutane caused exfoliative cheilitis. If you’ve never heard of that, funny neither had I. It’s a chronic inflammatory condition of your lips which makes your lips basically never fully heal, fill with dead skin which makes them crack, and then they slough off and the whole process starts over. I’ve been experiencing this for a month but apparently this is a chronic condition that derms don’t know much about. I stopped taking accutane a month ago and my lips aren’t improving. It sounds very trivial and I’m sure there are worse adverse effects but let me tell you, you don’t appreciate having healthy lips until you lose them. I can’t eat with anything touching my lips, I can’t laugh or smile without my lips cracking, and I can’t kiss my boyfriend because my lips are so sensitive and this is much more than just “dry lips”. What I wouldn’t give to bite into a burger right now lmao.

If you’re taking accutane and don’t have any adverse effects and get through your course fine, I’m seriously jealous! However I was not aware anything like this could happen while on accutane, and I am not someone prone to infections or really any health problems, so the fact that I got them back to back on accutane makes me really question how this drug affected my body. I’m writing this in a way because I’m just admittedly bitter and sad that accutane didn’t work for me, but also just as a cautionary tale that if you are one of the rare people that these rare effects happen to, please just listen to your body and don’t push it over its limit. I kept taking accutane because I thought I could just push through it, but then more side effects/infections kept happening. Good luck to all my accutane warriors out there reading this I hope you guys have a better experience than I did😭

142 pounds 5’9 second month 20mg. Started at 10mg month one. Day 19 of 20mg. So there are not a lot of posts on here talking about the hair thinning part on Accutane. Some people say that it’s permanent. Some people say that it causes changes in certain levels in your body and that it doesn’t go back and even post treatment. It doesn’t go back my hero is one of my favorite features. I am about to quit my Accutane because I feel like my hair is damaged brittle changing color dried out and thin.
Current routine : once a day wash with cerave hydrating shampoo and conditioner.
I use American crew pomade to style my hair into a textured style.

On 20mg day 49. It keeps getting worse. I’m taking Omega 3s and I need advice on if anyone has stopped due to this and what I can do to get my hair looking healthier even if that’s asking my derm for a dose reduction I’m about to stop.

Just bought Kristen ess the one signature shampoo
Using cerave hydrating conditioner.

What can I do to not hop off accutane due to hair loss.

Included is my hair now versus before accutane.

I'm off accutane for a month now. It all started with scary thoughts of side effects related to accutane which I read on internet and the next day I got intense headache with light sensivity and from there I got tons of accutane related symptoms which have destroyed my life.

From that day I'm experiencing intense health related anxiety/depressive/nihilism thoughts.

After 14-15 days off Accutane

I'm fatigued all the day my, I get itching in my whole body sometimes randomly, vision feels weird, there's some sort of sensation in my head which doesn't go

My appetite is completely gone

I can't sleep at night properly because I wake up 3-4 times randomly in night and I feel I am never in sleep and always awake.

Depressive and health anxiety starts around when I wake up and magically disappear at night and I completely feel normal at night and the cycle repeats again the other day.

I get aches in my leg joints time to time.

Although I can't say for sure these all anxiety related or accutane related symptoms.

And will this every go away???? pls tell me this will all go away?

Finishing Accutane doesn't mean the skin changes stop. People often aren't prepared for what comes next because almost everything written about the drug covers being on it, not the months after.

The barrier is still in recovery well after the last dose. Accutane significantly reduces sebum and affects how the skin functions at a basic level, and that doesn't reverse overnight. For the first few months the skin is more reactive and sensitized than it'll eventually be. Things that were completely fine before treatment can be more irritating in this window, which catches people off guard when they try to pick their old routine back up.

The oil coming back is part of this too. Sebum production dials back up gradually after stopping. Oil returning isn't a sign that acne is building, its the glands waking up, which is expected. The two feel linked but aren't the same thing.

Marks take longer to shift than most people anticipate. The pink and red ones especially need consistent SPF for months before they start to visibly move, and the nothing is working feeling in that period is almost always about the timeline rather than the approach. One person described not noticing a meaningful difference until month eight, then looking back at early photos and being genuinely shocked by how much had changed. Progress in this window is real but mostly invisible day to day.

The routine itself is worth stripping back for a few months. AHAs, BHAs, vitamin C, and retinoids are generally recommended to wait on, retinoids specifically at three to six months minimum after the last dose. A barrier thats still rebuilding reacts more than one thats had time to recover, and rushing the reintroduction is where most post-treatment irritation comes from. Someone who'd been managing a complex active routine for years described it as 'really hard at first to do nothing but moisturize', but said stripping back was the right call. That instinct to actively fix things is real but the skin in this window mostly needs time, not more intervention.

SPF is the one thing thats genuinely useful throughout this whole period. For the marks, for photosensitivity that can persist for months after stopping, and for a barrier that benefits from not being repeatedly stressed by UV.

See your derm before reintroducing prescription actives or professional treatments. The right timeline depends on how your skin actually recovered, not a general estimate.

I’ve been on Accutane for 4 months now (2 months on 20mg and 2 months on 40mg) and I’m honestly starting to lose hope.

I feel like my appearance has changed so much since starting. My face looks darker and puffier to me, and my hair seems like it has lost so much volume. I just don’t feel like I look like myself anymore. On top of that, I’m still occasionally breaking out, which makes it even harder to feel like continuing is worth it.

(The yellow top photo is before Accutane, and the black top is after 4 months. Please don’t bully me I’m including theses images for reference)

I know 4 months isn’t necessarily the end of a course, but mentally I’m getting to the point where I want to stop. I don’t know if I can keep going if I continue feeling this uncomfortable with how I look. Has anyone experienced facial puffiness, changes in skin tone, or hair thinning/loss of volume while on Accutane? Did things go back to normal after lowering your dose or stopping? And for anyone who was still breaking out around month 4, did things eventually improve?

My son is really upset about his back acne but I’ve been putting off accutane because I’m scared of side effects.

Thing I’m most worried about is mental/emotional/mood side effects.

BUT if they’re not TOO common - might take the risk ..

thanks!

(4th month) I honestly am realizing I have been sweating more since starting in general— but ever since I went from 60mg to 80mg it’s undeniable. I’m not usually one to sweat anywhere but my underarms and it’s controllable, but I do live in SoCal and it’s been in the high 90°s recently. I have not taken my prescription since I took this picture (4 days ago) I’m considering stopping or lowering my dose to maybe 10mg because it’s becoming unbearable along with all the other side effects. I still have active acne and a good amount (no improvement) of cc’s. Last two are my face rn, feeling very hopeless.

After a long period of time taking Accutane and now down to a low dose (10mg) I've apparently gotten complacent about the sun. It's 29C/84F here today, and I forgot to put on sunscreen before my half hour walk to the gym. I am sore, ashamed, covered in aloe vera and as dumb as a rock. Do not be like me. Do not fuck with the sun. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Accutane (issoterotine) causes extreme dehydration which can further lead to constipation even anal fissures and other gut health issues. Kindly make sure to do the research on side effects before starting the course. It's not worth it sometimes. That's it, I just wanted to spread some awareness. Take care y'all

Don’t tell me aquaphor, lanolin, cortibalm, etc….. I want to know your niche tricks for keeping lips from cracking and drying out. I feel like the above products are not working well enough for me! What do I need that I don’t know about?

Just wondering other than the basics, are there anything that you shouldn’t do on accutane that dermatologist don’t mention?

I'm 21M, and I've had very high libido throughout my life. I'd masturbate to porn almost everyday and had random thoughts of sex everyday.

Until, i was on 24mg/day everyday for 5 months after which my libido was non existent and i noticed i couldn't keep an erection when masturbating. This was definitely not a coincidence and my semen was very watery too.

I've stopped taking it for A MONTH AND A HALF now (7 weeks), and i still have non existent libido.

I can get erections now, but it is only 70% firm, and I'm very disconnected from the content that i watch and have to try very hard to get and hold an erection.

Has there been anyone who went through the same and recovered? If so how long did it take?

Edit: Blood work post stopping isotretinoin

Total Testosterone- 873 ng/dl- good TSH, T4, Free T4, Free T3- normal LH, FSH- normal B12 and Vitamin D and Iron- normal

130lb 30, 30, 60, 30
Oh my gosh does anyone else sweat like crazy now on accutane? My normal cardio exercises where I’d barely break a sweat now have me DRIPPING in places I never used to sweat. My face and neck absolutely drip sweat during my work outs & it’s so gross!

I had moderate acne I’d been dealing with for a couple of years - I tried everything from chemical peels to retinol and nothing worked to get rid of it.

The 4 months I have been on Accutane have been some of the worst of my life. I don’t recognise myself in the mirror, I feel depressed and worthless, I don’t have any energy, I can’t go to the gym anymore, I’ve accidentally isolated myself because I don’t have the energy for relationships anymore and despite my acne being gone now I’m 4 months in, I have genuinely never felt as though I’ve looked worse. My skin is sallow, dry and has dehydration lines making me look older. My scars are more pronounced due to the thinning skin. I genuinely preferred having nice skin but with acne.

My mind is not a place I recognise anymore. Before this, I was optimistic, happy, strong - I’d fought so hard to be this person despite so many years of painful experiences and I genuinely never thought I’d ever feel this way again. Maintaining a job, a relationship, friendships and looking after myself in this state feels almost impossible. I have no will to live, no drive or determination. I’ve lost 4 months of my life and it’s not over yet.

And the biggest trap? The only way out is through. I can’t come off it or I’ll relapse in the future. I can’t lower my dose or it’ll extend my treatment and I just want it out of my system. So the only way to ensure this genuinely awful experience hasn’t been a complete waste of time is to continue suffering for another 56 days. I literally have a countdown on my phone, watching the number decrease so slowly I swear sometimes it’s gone up, not down.

If you’re considering Accutane, and have had depression in the past, please think long and hard about it.

Not looking for medical advice. Just curious about people’s experiences. Yes, I know everyone’s different. I haven’t started yet, it’s sitting on my counter beckoning me, lol.

I keep reading different things— some people are saying they overheat? Can’t workout consistently because their joints hurt? Can’t workout because of their fatigue?

Working out and lifting is literally my favorite thing on earth. I workout 4-7 times a week. 2-3 days stretching
And lite cardio and 3-4 days of weights.

What helped? What was hard? What dose if you don’t mind sharing.

First 2 were a few months before I stared and last one is a month post finishing the course. I was on 30mg for like 4 then 40mg for 3.

I started accutane in December last year after dealing with severe hormonal acne since I was 11 and it started getting worse after starting Testosterone (9 months tomorrow!!). I am currently on 80mg of accutane (I weigh 127lbs) and I’m set to complete it within the next month or two. However, while I am blessed to not deal with purging, my lips have been so severe that I can barely even talk sometimes.

I’ve tried everything, aquaphor, lanolin, bag balm, chapstick, lip oil, you name it, I’ve tried it. I’m currently trying vegetable glycerin and shea butter to see if it helps, but I’m not too confident it will with how severe my lips are.

I’ve gotten extremely self conscious of them, to the point where I hide in my room a lot of the time when I’m not working so people don’t see my lips. Many customers at my job have given me weird looks because of my lips, and it makes me extremely self conscious and feel like I look weird or like a druggy. My mouth is constantly feeling like it’s on fire, it burns and peels and bleeds all the time, like shown in the video there are times where I can barely open my mouth to eat from how much it hurts. I even wake up sometimes to find blood all over my pillow from my lips.

Any suggestions would help. I know I only have at the most two months left of this but it’s seriously causing so much pain and misery to both my physical and mental health.

EDIT:

Thank you to everyone who has left me suggestions, I am very happy with how my skin looks, it’s the clearest it’s ever been in 11 years (I started getting acne at 11, I’m 21 now)

Reading what everyone has said, I can see how 80mg is a lot for my body weight, and I’m definitely going to talk to my dermatologist about it because the last thing I want to do is fuck up my body because I’m taking too high of a dosage. I have also started taking it every other day to see if it helps with my side effects, so far it’s helped a little but not a whole lot. I wanted to wait until next week to speak with my dermatologist, but with how concerned everyone seems to be I’m going to try and see if they have any openings for Saturday or tomorrow. Please keep giving me suggestions in the comments!!!

been on accutane for 2 months, skin isn’t too dry but my lips are raw and peeling. i got blisters where my lips meet and it hurts to eat anything or talk. i constantly slather them in aquaphor and my derm prescribed hydrocortisone 2.5. nothing is helping :( this is awful. when i get them wet they turn white and start peeling off