This post is super late, as I had my one-month in mark on Accutane last month. I actually kind of forgot I had this post sitting in my drafts and only just came around to posting this.

It’s now been a month since I am on Accutane, and it seemed fitting to write a post about my experience this first month in. I know the side effects are always different for everyone with whatever kind of medicine they use. I have to say that this first month of my Accutane cure has not been too bad. I have not had too many side effects, except from extremely dry lips, scalp and nose. On the first couple of days I started using Accutane I actually had a little headache, but it was not something a tablet couldn’t cure. I had read somewhere online that if you suffer from headaches while on Accutane, you could take Vitamin D supplements to prevent any further headaches. I have taken Vitamin D since I read that online and basically have not had headaches related to the Accutane ever since. Besides the Vitamin D I take every single, I also take fish oil and probiotics every single day. Not only is fish oil supposed to be good for your heart and vessels, it also is supposed to be really good for your skin. I take the probiotics to make sure I have my gut under control.

My skin was pretty bad when I started my Accutane medication back in January. The dermatologist recommended I take 30 mg of Accutane and I would have to see him again after one month to see how I was getting on. While starting my Accutane journey on 20 January I had a big breakout that been there since the beginning of December, if not longer. On top of that all I also felt super stressed, anxious and horrible in general because we had my mum’s health scare back in January. This all definitely played part in the breakout I had beforehand that was already quite bad. While on Accutane, it usually gets worst at first before it gets better. After about two days of taking my first two tablets of Accutane I noticed I started getting even more spots, both whiteheads as well as cystic acne. At first I thought it was from all the stress I had experiences the week before, but I soon realised it was the Accutane that was already doing its work. This breakout lasted for about fourteen days. At first I felt quite bad and insecure about my face while I had that breakout. My breakout looked super read and my skin was bumpy too. If I weren’t in such a ‘I don’t care what I look like at the moment I have to go visit my mum in the hospital’ state of mind I think it could have really bothered me to be going out like that. I think it would have been especially hard on me if I also would have had a fulltime job at an office as I also couldn’t put on makeup as my face was so extremely dry since first trying it. So in that way I think I have been quite lucky to be able to sit at home to do work instead of having to go and see lots of people in the office or on public transport.
The breakout slowly got better after about two weeks. I saw major improvement after two weeks and only remember waking up seeing only one actual bump on my head beside my hyperpigmentation. I felt delighted and it felt like I had not seen this sort of improvement on my skin since forever. So while the acne slowly started to disappear I did start to notice other side effects. The first thing I noticed was how dry and itchy my scalp had become. It got to the point where I kept scratching my head every five seconds, so I bought a calming, itch relieving shampoo from La Roche Posay and have used it successfully ever since. If I don’t use that shampoo now, my head will become itchy after about a day of not washing my hair. Another thing I noticed was that I have gotten a stye on my eye twice. It’s surely annoying, but I have found that they also went away pretty fast, after about 3 days so I didn’t feel too insecure about that.

In the month that I have been on Accutane I have also gotten back into going to the gym and I have noticed that my muscles ache longer after I have gone to the gym. It’s something I also already read about online. Instead of having sore muscles for a day, it now lasts two sometimes three days. The thing I found that helped with that is to not lift as heavy anymore as well as do fewer circuits of the exercises I am doing.
One time after going to the gym I felt absolutely parched and that feeling kind of has not gone away ever since. I drank an entire bottle of water within seconds and this made me really aware of the importance of hydration while on Accutane. I have learnt my lesson the hard way and now still wake up with a super dry throat every morning, so I really try to make sure to get at least two litres of water in every single day.
As you can see my results on Accutane have been pretty positive so far. In these photos I am not wearing any makeup besides a tiny amount of tinted moisturiser. At this moment I don't have any raised bumps from my acne. The only thing I struggle with at the moment is hyper pigmentation from after I have had bumps and a tiny bit of redness. It's no big deal really. Other than that I have not felt sad, anxious or depressed while I am on this journey of taking Accutane. It’s only been a month, so obviously I can’t really say too much about it. Both my dermatologist and I were quite happy with the progress my skin is making so far, so I am happy about that. All my blood tests came out OK and we continued my Accutane prescription for another three months. It has actually been a big relief to me personally that the worst things I had to deal with this past month are a that breakout that lasted two weeks, a couple of styes, dry scalp, dry lips and a headache. So far I am still feeling positive about my progress, my skin and everything around it.