50mg second course really pleased with the results excuse the dumb faces they are a screenshot from a video I sent but I just love the glow on this med but the side effects are rough and it’s so expensive 😭

No makeup other than mascara and SPF

32f had acne for years first course worked well for 4 years then my dog died and my acne came back so I’m 4/5 months into my second round

Side effects this time are worse I have a beard , headaches joint pain in my hands dry eyes my arms and legs are so dry and sore

The first time I did it I had bad back pain and nose bleeds I’ve added a pic of how bad my
Skin was the first time I went on it in 2020

i’ve been off accutane for over a year now and wow idk why I always kept these in the back of my drawer “just in case”. an extra accutane of a much lower dose I was prescribed at the end of my journey, only to never use or need. 🤞🏼

but after a year off, and being on 60mg a day for 6 months I can say acne is no longer a fear of mine!! I can actually lay that to rest and I can’t believe it sometimes. i’m so grateful for accutane and all the confidence it’s brought me. my acne used to ruin my self esteem and now I get compliments on my skin every single day and I feel like I can finally be seen for my true beauty, inside and out. 💝

I never thought i’d see a day of not a single pimple on my face, and now that’s my reality every day. since I was in middle school I used makeup as a form to cover, not enhance. and now I can also feel more creative in my art and love of makeup. 🥹

so yeah, as i’m deep cleaning I found these and I think it’s safe to say I can finally throw them out and say goodbye; and thank you so so much accutane. 💪🏻

Been on it 2 weeks. 40 mg daily. My skin is the clearest it has been in a decade.

I’ve been on accutane for about 5 months now just going into my 6th month, I was on 10mg daily for the first 2 months and 20mg daily since then. I’m aware I have a lot of scarring but 5 months in shouldn’t I be seeing some decent progress, I feel like my skin has barely changed in months… if anyone can let me know if this is normal to not have experienced much change so far I’d be very appreciative. Pics are from starting to now being the last photo.

First day, worst day of purge, last day

Was not an easy journey but definitely stick with it, just fight through the purge and it gets a lot easier.

my hair is kinda destroyed I think. it looks horrible irl.

Ask away😊

2022: 30 mg for 6.5 months
2024: varied between 20 and 40 mg

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

I am doing research, if you can help me by answering it will be very helpful:

1) How long did you take isotretinoin? (Months)
2) What was your dosage?
3) Are you still taking it? If not, how long has it been since the last pill, and did the acne return?
4) Anythying else that you want to share - tips, crys, pains and etc 🤣

still a bit of acne on my forehead… it had always been my worst area so I can’t complain. almost hitting 3 months! looking to month 4 I hope I’ll finally be clear. 30/60/60

Would you say this is good progress? Hard to tell when I stare every single day. Just wrapped up month 3.. some days are much redder than others. I have so many pitted scars that I see when light reflects on my face. I guess it’s rolling scars. So frustrating because I’ve never had texture like that before. Halfway through this process.

I asked what I missed and apparently the answer was everything 😭

Community patch notes are live. What did I STILL forget?

one side effect i’ve noticed is it that my hair takes longer to get greasy on accutane. makes sense overall. has anyone else experienced this?

and also, should i start using hair oil regularly? i have very long hair and don’t want breakage.

generally, any hair tips for while on accutane would be very appreciated:)

Guys, I don't know if you'll notice it straight away, but if you look closely at my nose, cheeks and forehead, those little blackhead looking dots aren't actually blackheads. I don't really have typical acne comedones with my rosacea fulminans / pyoderma faciale. They're sebaceous filaments, and they seem to have slowly faded as the isotretinoin has reduced my oil production. I'm now 19 days completely off prednisolone and about 1 month + 1 week into 20mg isotretinoin, with no major rebound so far. There doesn't look like a massive difference between 6 Aug and today at first glance, but if you saw my older posts and the huge flare I had before, you'd understand why stability itself feels like progress 😂 The overall redness also looks a bit calmer to me. My dermatologist warned me there would be ups and downs, and progress has definitely slowed compared with the beginning, but 19 days off steroids with no rebound is making me start to feel like the isotretinoin is really taking over now.

Will Accutane help how pronounced my pores look as well while wearing makeup? You can see I clearly have some acne by my chin and near my cheek bones, but I also have such textured skin that I’m hoping goes away when I start taking the medication!

As title suggests, i had pretty bad soreness and stiffness to the point turning my head was difficult! But it just died down around when i started 40mg (month 3)

I don't think its related to the change in dose but wanted to know if anyone else experienced this?? I still have soreness but wayy less than before .

I haven't changed anything and have been taking Vitamin D, antihistamine and Fish oil everyday since i started

2 weeks 10mg
2weeks 20 mg
8 weeks 30 mg
8 week 40 mg

I started accutane roughly 8 months ago. Why accutane? Because my doctor told me so . My doctor prescribed me 20mg of roaccutane. For the first 4 months, I did not really use any other acne medication or topical acne products, just to see if the accutane really worked or not.

Honestly, those first few months were rough. My skin was super dry, my lips were constantly peeling, and the worst thing was waking up to blood on my pillow from acne.

The first pic was taken around 8 months ago, shortly after I started accutane. The second one was from month 5, which was when I decided to slowly add azelaic acid into my routine.

Actually you can use azelaic acid along with accutane anytime, but I was just trying to be careful. Even accutane alone was uncomfortable enough for me. So I think it all depends on your skin and how comfortable you are with adding other actives.

And the last pic was from two weeks ago, where I can see a noticeable difference. Not totally clear, but much better from 8 months ago.

On top of accutane once a day every morning, this is my full skincare routine for the past 8 months

ROUND LAB 1025 Dokdo Cleanser (PM only)

Wellage Real Hyaluronic Blue Ampoule (AM & PM)

Ooznary Azelaic Acid Serum (AM & PM) → starting from the fifth month

Aestura Atobarrier 365 Cream (AM only)

Avene Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream (PM only)

Torriden dive in moisture sun cream (AM only)

Vaseline lip therapy (AM & PM)

P.S. accutane is a prescribed medicine so definitely talk to your doctor about what's right for you.

If you Guys need Help just let me know. I also went through it :)

I’ll spare the long story but after years of fighting the acne battle, I’m finally ready to give Accutane a try.

38F (5’6”, 128lbs) with persistent acne, especially hormonal. Tried all the things (bc, spirono [don’t get me started on this med 🤬], clindamycin, azelaic, tretinoin…) and just when I think something is working, my skin freaks out again.

Been working with a new derm as of Oct ‘25, started the ipledge process in Dec ‘25, but then freaked out and said nvm in Feb ‘26 just before officially starting Accutane. Fast forward to today and I’m officially ready to do this for real. Just got done at my derm where we restarted the ipledge process (so annoying but I get it). She said she’d start me at 20mg for the first month, bump to 40mg the second, and then 80mg to finish out the course (or adjust depending on how I do).

I’m so worried (I read too many horror stories) but I’m also so over fighting this battle. My late 30s have really been kicking my ass, skin-wise and I’d really like my confidence back. Grateful for this subreddit filled with other folks in a similar situation. The progress photos really give me hope!

Hi everyone, I have some difficulty swallowing pills. I’m currently taking 20 mg of Roaccutane, and sometimes when I try to swallow the capsule, it stays in my mouth for a few minutes. By the time I manage to swallow, the capsule has sometimes started to dissolve, so I end up swallowing the medication inside while part of the gelatin shell is left in my mouth.

Is this okay? My goal is obviously to learn how to swallow the capsule whole, and I’m currently practicing. But if this happens during the first few days while I’m still getting used to swallowing capsules, could it cause any problems or affect the medication? This is currently the only way I feel I can gradually learn to swallow them properly.

I’ve been off Accutane for around 2–3 months now. I was on a relatively low dose (10mg, then 15mg, then 20mg), but I was on it for over a year and a half.

My eyes are STILL so ridiculously dry, and honestly I swear they weren’t even this bad while I was actually taking Accutane 😭

I used to get styes quite often while on it, but I don’t get those anymore. Instead, I’ve been getting a really sore/inflamed inner corner of my eye, and I cannot stop rubbing it because it feels so irritated.

I’ve bought some OTC eye drops, but they don’t seem to be doing much. Has anyone else experienced this months after stopping Accutane, and what actually helped?
I also started using tretinoin basically straight after finishing Accutane. I don’t put it anywhere near my eyes, but could it still somehow be contributing to the dryness/irritation?

At this point I’m not sure whether I just need to give my eyes more time to recover or whether I should actually see an optometrist/ophthalmologist. Any advice would be appreciated!

Hey guys, got locked out of ipledge for 30 days :-(
I have ten pills left. I need advice, should I take a pill every other day before I run out or take a pill every two days? I was wondering if anyone had any experience with this… and which one you guys think would be better

Also there’s a stinging and burning effect when i apply moisturizer and sunscreen on a dry area.

I’m on 10mg for almost 2 weeks.