Joey M.D.

I used to have bad acne in my early to middle twenties.  Yes, twenties!  Most people have their worst acne during their teens but I had mine in my twenties.  Maybe it has something to do with being in medical school and clerkship.  All the stress and lack of sleep finally manifested itself in masses of ugly acne.

Ask me about the usual Acne Treatments done by dermatologists and chances are I have gone through them. I know about all the Acne Products that were available during that time.  Let’s see, they used topical antibiotics like Erythromycin, oral antibiotics like Tetracycline, Minocycline or Doxycycline, topical treatments Azelaic Acid cream (which was SO itchy!), Tretinoin (which causes pimples to worsen at first), Benzoyl Peroxide in both cream, ointment, facial wash and Acne Body Wash forms.

None of those worked for me.  I didn’t go to the extent of having oral Retinoic acid since an OBGYN later raised the possibility of me having acne because of hormonal imbalance.  It made sense because my periods were also becoming irregular at that time.  I was given Diane 35 (Ethinyl estradiol) and after 3 months of that, my pimples were history.  Unfortunately, my scars were not, although time has made them less obvious than they were at first.

Now that I’ve passed the age of acne, and almost (gasp) entering middle age, fine crow’s feet are starting to appear around my eyes.  I guess it won’t be long till I look up Resurgence treatments.  I wonder if it would also improve the scars left by acne.  Ah, the never ending quest for youthful beauty continues…even for one as minimally vain as me.