Do you have acne (with dutasteride)?

[Jacky81]

Hello users of dutasterdide,

if you have currently acne while using dutatsteride, please write how old you are, how long you are already taking dutasteride and if you have had acne before using it.
Did you have acne before dutatsteride?
Did you use finasteride and had acne meanwhile?
Did the acne get better or worse with dutasteride, indenpendently you took finasteride or not.

I am 25 and using dutatsteride since 9 month. I did take finasteride for 4 years before. I had a worse acne with finasteride. In the first weeks using dutasteride the acne disappeared almost completely but now there are big pimples around the chin. Sometimes one between the eyebrows.
All in all the acne is a bit better with dutasteride in comparison to finasteride. But i want a acne-free face.

Is my acne "by design" or is it the reason of those drugs? What can i take orally against acne?

 

[HARM1]

Hello users of dutasterdide,

if you have currently acne while using dutatsteride, please write how old you are, how long you are already taking dutasteride and if you have had acne before using it.
Did you have acne before dutatsteride?
Did you use finasteride and had acne meanwhile?
Did the acne get better or worse with dutasteride, indenpendently you took finasteride or not.

I am 25 and using dutatsteride since 9 month. I did take finasteride for 4 years before. I had a worse acne with finasteride. In the first weeks using dutasteride the acne disappeared almost completely but now there are big pimples around the chin. Sometimes one between the eyebrows.
All in all the acne is a bit better with dutasteride in comparison to finasteride. But i want a acne-free face.

Is my acne "by design" or is it the reason of those drugs? What can i take orally against acne?

There is a drug that will shrin your sebum glands thus kiiling your acne. ACCUTANE

 

[docj077]

Hello users of dutasterdide,

if you have currently acne while using dutatsteride, please write how old you are, how long you are already taking dutasteride and if you have had acne before using it.
Did you have acne before dutatsteride?
Did you use finasteride and had acne meanwhile?
Did the acne get better or worse with dutasteride, indenpendently you took finasteride or not.

I am 25 and using dutatsteride since 9 month. I did take finasteride for 4 years before. I had a worse acne with finasteride. In the first weeks using dutasteride the acne disappeared almost completely but now there are big pimples around the chin. Sometimes one between the eyebrows.
All in all the acne is a bit better with dutasteride in comparison to finasteride. But i want a acne-free face.

Is my acne "by design" or is it the reason of those drugs? What can i take orally against acne?

There is a drug that will shrin your sebum glands thus kiiling your acne. ACCUTANE

It'll also make your hair thin and cease to grow.

 

[Felk]

Why is that? It's oral retin-a, no?

Retin-a is good for hairloss, so i don't understand it.

 

[Aplunk1]

Hello users of dutasterdide,

if you have currently acne while using dutatsteride, please write how old you are, how long you are already taking dutasteride and if you have had acne before using it.
Did you have acne before dutatsteride?
Did you use finasteride and had acne meanwhile?
Did the acne get better or worse with dutasteride, indenpendently you took finasteride or not.

I am 25 and using dutatsteride since 9 month. I did take finasteride for 4 years before. I had a worse acne with finasteride. In the first weeks using dutasteride the acne disappeared almost completely but now there are big pimples around the chin. Sometimes one between the eyebrows.
All in all the acne is a bit better with dutasteride in comparison to finasteride. But i want a acne-free face.

Is my acne "by design" or is it the reason of those drugs? What can i take orally against acne?

Jacky,

1) I've had bad acne across my shoulders and some on the back (disgusting, I know), and I've tried numerous antibiotics, topicals, etc.
2) When using finasteride (Propecia), it seemed as though the acne increased.
3) I still used finasteride, even though the acne increased. Yes.
4) I can honestly say dutasteride has in some way contributed to less acne all over my body. The complexion of my face, indeed, is astonishingly clear, too. Dutasteride, it seems, is beneficial for my skin, and I really like it.


Just use a mild soap, and wash your face 2+ times a day. Take your vitamins, and drink lots of water. Your acne should disappear with time.

 

[Guest]

Just use a mild soap, and wash your face 2+ times a day. Take your vitamins, and drink lots of water. Your acne should disappear with time.

I recommend washing your face with Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser twice a day. Wal-Mart makes a generic of it for like $4 for a huge bottle that will last a couple of months at least.

If you do this then your acne should clear up if it is mild.

 

[Mer]

I switched to dutasteride about 2 months ago.

I've gotten acne on my scalp and a little on my face since that.

No acne to speak of while on finasteride.

 

[HughJass]

Did you have acne before dutatsteride??

yes, i took roaccutane when i was about 16 and it cleared most of it, i still get pimples though, mainly around my chin

Did you use finasteride and had acne meanwhile?

i used finasteride for about a year, the worst of my acne had been treated by then

Did the acne get better or worse with dutasteride, indenpendently you took finasteride or not.

when i first took avodart in 03 it TOTALLY cleared up my skin and stopped my hairloss (after less than 2 weeks), after 2 and a bit years of generic dutas my skin and hair werent looking like they did when i was on avodart so ive switched back to genuine avodart(8 weeks ago). So far none of the magical properties that avodart gave me in 03 (clear skin, good hair) have returned :cry:

I am 25 and using dutatsteride since 9 month. I did take finasteride for 4 years before. I had a worse acne with finasteride. In the first weeks using dutasteride the acne disappeared almost completely but now there are big pimples around the chin. Sometimes one between the eyebrows.
All in all the acne is a bit better with dutasteride in comparison to finasteride. But i want a acne-free face.

Is my acne "by design" or is it the reason of those drugs? What can i take orally against acne?

you could take roactunane, but its a pretty serious drug. Its usually only used for severe acne. They are saying it could cause depression and anxiety (i have depression & anxiety) and liver damage amoung other things. Maybe there are some better things out there now though im not sure. Oh i think there is a milder drug called minomicin actually.

Take care mate

 

[Aplunk1]

I agree. Dutasteride had obliterated my acne.

It's 99% gone, with only the occasional pimples.

For this reason, and for the sake of my hair maintenance, I'll continue Avodart indefinitely.


The ONLY... I mean, ONLY problem I've had with dutasteride is a minor increase in chest and belly fat. It's kind of annoying, but I guess I just need to work out harder.

 

[blaze]

jacky,

you could try a low dose of spironolactone, which has helped some peoples acne.

Or you could try a low dose of Roaccutane. Around 2.5mg - 5mg per day.
And at low doses Roaccutane doesnt cause hairloss. I take around 2.5mg per day and have so for a year, and my hair is fine.

here is a study on Low dose roaccutane -

Low Dose, High Rates of Success


Ultra-low dose isotretinoin is all many acne patients need
Jul 1, 2003
By: Alison Palkhivala
Dermatology Times




Dr. Plewig
San Francisco - Low and ultra-low doses of isotretinoin are an effective therapy for many acne patients. This safer and cheaper solution can even be used continuously.

Gerd Plewig, M.D., believes that the doses of isotretinoin typically used in the United States and Europe are far too high. For many patients, as little as 2.5 mg twice a week, which he describes as "a drop of rain on a dusty road" is adequate.

Dermatologists all over the world already are treating some patients continuously with low doses of isotretinoin, according to Dr. Plewig, director, dermatology and allergy clinic, Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich.

"When you talk to doctors in this country and other countries of the world, they use 10 mg twice a week or three times a week, which is a low or ultra-low dose. But nobody ever bothered to show and demonstrate that it works," he said. Thus, he and his team performed two clinical trials to assess its efficacy.

Study Spotlights Low Dosing In the first trial, 28 patients with acne conglobata and inflammatory acne took a low dose of isotretinoin: 20 mg/kg, 10 mg/kg, or 0.5 mg/kg body weight daily for six months. In the second study, 11 acne patients took an ultra low dose of isotretinoin: 2.5 mg to 5 mg daily or 2.5 mg twice a week for six months. Both trials involved multiple endpoints, including clinical grading, lesion counts, counts of follicular filaments (believed to be precursors to lesions), bacterial colonization, patients' opinion of seborrhea levels, two objective measurements of sebum levels (Sebutape and Bentonite clay), qualitative assessment of sebum using high power, thin layer chromatography, and biopsies to assess size and configuration of sebaceous glands.

Trials Yield Significant Improvement Results of the first trial in which low doses of isotretinoin were used revealed significant improvements in all parameters tested. Numbers of follicular filaments, and lesions dropped, as did levels of bacteria and sebum. Sebaceous glands shrank, as well.

At the end of the second study, which investigated ultra-low doses of isotretinoin, efficacy was maintained on many of the parameters. There were significant reductions in numbers of active lesions and follicular filaments as well as objective measures of sebum levels. Patients' ratings of seborrhea improved, and levels of P. acnes on the skin diminished.

"The endpoint or the lowest point of a retinoid being effective for the treatment of seborrhea, persistent low grade acne, or maintenance therapy for patients with bad acne probably is around 2.5 mg or 2 mg, or maybe even 1.5 mg," Dr. Plewig said.

The best candidates for low and ultra-low doses isotretinoin therapy, Dr. Plewig said, include patients with severe acne who were controlled with higher doses and require a lower-dose maintenance therapy, individuals whose facial acne has persisted from adolescence into adulthood, and people with sebaceous gland hyperplasia. "Some patients come only because of their oiliness. ... For these patients, I think the low or ultra-low dose is very good, and it's cheap, too," he said.

Severe Patients Still Receive Low Doses Dr. Plewig keeps doses of isotretinoin relatively low in patients with severe acne. "I pretreat patients with severe inflammatory acne with systemic corticosteroids to begin with...about 1 mg/kg body weight for about seven to 14 days, taper it off, and then give an antibiotic, usually an erythromycin, a macrolide," he said. "And then I start with the isotretinoin [0.2 mg/kg to 0.4 mg/kg body weight]. It is so much better. We used to start immediately with isotretinoin or tried antibiotics, but often it takes too long, the patients are miserable, and it is so much better for them because you can have a faster final result, a better final result with cooling down the skin first, then adding your active treatment."

Continuous Use Offers Versatility A great benefit of using lower doses of isotretinoin is that it can be used continuously. There are other important advantages, as well. "In terms of pharmacoeconomics, it is cheaper to use lower doses, it is better tolerated by patients, has fewer side effects, fewer laboratory abnormalities, and of course the patients like it when they have continuous elegant treatment," Dr. Plewig said.

Despite the safer side-effect profile with low-dose isotretinoin, Dr. Plewig emphasized that, at any dose, the drug should still be considered teratogenic and be used with great caution in women of childbearing age.

 

[docj077]

Why is that? It's oral retin-a, no?

Retin-a is good for hairloss, so i don't understand it.

Huge doses of Vitamin A make will cause you to loose your hair unless you're vitamin A deficient in which case you've probably already experienced hair loss and these drugs will actually help you. One of the side effects of accutane is hair loss and it's the same side effect experienced with all retinoids. This study is in vitro, but you get the point.

J Invest Dermatol. 2005 Jun;124(6):1119-26. Links
Towards dissecting the pathogenesis of retinoid-induced hair loss: all-trans retinoic acid induces premature hair follicle regression (catagen) by upregulation of transforming growth factor-beta2 in the dermal papilla.Foitzik K, Spexard T, Nakamura M, Halsner U, Paus R.
Department of Dermatology, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany.

Diffuse hair loss ranks among the most frequent and psychologically most distressing adverse effects of systemic therapy with retinoids, which severely limits their therapeutic use even where clinically desired. Since the underlying mechanisms of retinoid-induced effluvium are as yet unknown, we have investigated the influence of the prototypic retinoid all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA, tretinoin) on the growth of human scalp hair follicles (HF) in culture. HF in the anagen VI stage of the hair cycle were cultured in the presence of 10(-8) or 10(-10) M ATRA. Compared with controls, hair shaft elongation declined significantly already after 2 d in the ATRA-treated group, and approximately 80% of the ATRA-treated HF had prematurely entered catagen-like stage at day 6, compared with 30% in the control group. This corresponded to an upregulation of apoptotic and a downregulation of Ki67-positive cells in ATRA-treated HF. Since transforming growth factor (TGF)-beta has been implicated as a key inducer of catagen, we next studied whether ATRA treatment had any effect on follicular expression. TGF-beta2 immunoreactivity was detected in the outer root sheath of anagen VI scalp HF. In catagen follicles, TGF-beta2 was also expressed in the regressing epithelial strand. After 4 d of ATRA treatment, TGF-beta2 was significantly upregulated in anagen HF in the dermal papilla (DP) and the dermal sheath, 7, and TGF-beta neutralizing antibody partially abrogated at RA induced hair growth inhibition. Real-time PCR confirmed a significant upregulation of TGF-beta2 transcripts in ATRA-treated hair bulbs. This study is the first to provide direct evidence that ATRA can indeed induce a catagen-like stage in human HF and suggests that this occurs, at least in part, via upregulation of TGF-beta2 in the DP. Therefore, topical TGF-beta2/TGF-beta receptor II antagonists deserve to be explored for the prevention and management of retinoid-induced hair loss.

 

[HughJass]

so its accutane (Isotretinoin) that causes hairloss not retin-a (Tretinoin)



why is that?




and is the hairloss from accutane permanant?

 

[Jacky81]

@blaze: does roaccutane cause depressions or such things?

 

[blaze]

@blaze: does roaccutane cause depressions or such things?

No, Jacky. There have been some reports of it though. But I dont really believe them. I just think acne makes people depressed.

 

[jasonbudd1984]

I had bad acne in my teens and eventually ended up taking (ro)accutane. It worked. However it takes an immense toll on the body. I still felt the effects a year after. Its not something to take lightly, you need constant blood tests on the course. I have read with interest the low dosage regimes, I think they would be better than going the whole hog, however still the long term toxcity.

It may just be a unhappy coincidence, but my hairloss did start in earnest at least at the same time. There is a study suggesting that accutane may work by interupting the bodies synthasis of biotin, and this would have a knock on effect on the hair.

Retin-a is a topical, it is not systematic like accutane. It does however rough up your skin.

http://www.acne.org/messageboard has loads of info and options.

Interesting to know that dutasteride has helped people, I think finasteride may be causing a bit more acne for me.

 

[Felk]

Retin-a is a topical, it is not systematic like accutane. It does however rough up your skin.

http://www.acne.org/messageboard has loads of info and options.

...what makes you think retin-a "roughs up" your skin? Are you referring to the initial acclimation period when the patient's skin adapts to using the retinoid?

 

[Strat54]

jasonbudd1984 wrote:

Retin-a is a topical, it is not systematic like accutane. It does however rough up your skin.

Tretinoin irritates the skin and causes the cells of the skin to grow (divide) and die more rapidly, that is, it increases the turnover of cells. The number of layers of cells in the skin actually is reduced. In patients with acne, new cells replace the cells of existing pimples, and the rapid turnover of cells prevents new pimples from forming. By a similar mechanism, Tretinoin can reduce some wrinkles, areas of darkened skin, and rough areas of skin, all of which occur in sun-damaged skin. In patients with sun-damaged skin, improvements in the skin usually are seen within the first 3 to 4 weeks of treatment. Brown spots begin to fade after six to eight weeks. Wrinkles decrease or disappear after three to six months.

 

[Guest]

My acne has cleared up while on finasteride and then dutasteride. I initially thought that this was because of the drugs but maybe I was just maturing out of the adolescent acne phase.

 

[jasonbudd1984]

Personal experince is what makes me think that retin a does irritate the skin. You will get an inital breakout from it, and then intermitant patchs of dry flakey skin. The beneficial effects of the topical come from it speeding up the exfoliation of the skins upper layers. Some people have good results, others its more trouble than its worth. There are lots of ways of tackling acne, and this is just one of them which I didnt have a good personal experince of. You would need to be using the cream for 12months to have a noticible effect on skin aging. A series of glycolic chemical peels, which are are not really expensive if you do them yourself would probably be just as good. There are also TCA peels, which is a more intense.

 

[powersam]

of course you experienced irritation with retin-a, that is to be expected and well documented. one is meant to slowly phase it in, use it maybe once a week for a bit then twice a week, letting your skin get used to it. i think its effectivess is due to far more than it making your skin peel also.


as to the original question, absolutely no acne on dutasteride.