follow up to my Oct. post about treating adolescent girl's acne with b.c. pills

[CTyankee]

My 16 yr. old granddaughter has been on the birth control pills since early October. Her skin has made a sudden and rather stunning improvement just a week ago! This was after a very depressing turn for the worst right after she started the pills. While her skin is not totally clear, the improvement is awesome. Both her dermatologist and her pediatrician had recommended them.

We are all relieved, to say the least. It was worth the try in her case!

[pnwmom]

1. Glad it worked, CTyankee.

Acne is such a hard thing for a teen -- and it happens at the most self-conscious time of their lives.

[CTyankee]

2. And she was starting at a new school this fall, to boot!

So this was a double whammy.

Now, if we can just stabilize her on her Adderol...there is a shortage of it!

[kestrel91316]

3. I started on BCP at age 17 when I started college, for birth control purposes.

I was very pleased at one of the most noticeable side effects: acne control.

I also loved how it knocked my period cramps down to almost nonexistent.

I stayed on them for decades and have never regretted it, lol.

[CTyankee]

4. my granddaughter is away at boarding school so, altho I doubt that she is sexually active, it's

kind of a relief in a way knowing she has that protection "just in case."

[Warpy]

5. The improvement is usually quite dramatic but it does take a while

for the estrogen/aldosterone balance shift to make it all the way to sebaceous glands.

[CTyankee]

6. some people said it might not happen. I'm just glad it did!

She lived thru it...the poor kid, it got worse before it got better, but now she looks a lot better!

[MineralMan]

7. That was a very popular reason to start the pill back in the

early 1960s. My high school girlfriend started taking it before it was widely prescribed to teens. The doctor recommended it for her acne, which was vanishingly minor. I believe there was a "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" factor in play there. She said the doctor asked her if she was "fooling around with boys," then prescribed the birth control pill for her "acne" when she admitted that "maybe" she was, "a little." The year was 1963. In California, condoms couldn't be sold to anyone under the age of 21, and they were "for the prevention of disease only." Uff da!