Accutane

After being on **** antibiotics from 6th grade, we finally decided to put our son on Accutane during his junior year. The side effects are harsh - extremely dry lips, eyes and mouth, very sore joints, sun sensitivity - but the results were all we hoped for. He took the medication for the seven month course and as soon as he was done the side effects went away and he was left with beautiful, clear skin. My only regret is that we waited so long. The thing that pushed us over the top was when he started developing deep, cyst type acne that we knew would leave permanent scarring.

It's a tough decision, I know, and everyone has to do what's best for their situation. We felt we had tried everything else. Good luck -

That's funny... the censored word, in case you're wondering, refers to medication taken by mouth!

Have they tried the antibiotics on your son yet? I do someone whose son was on accutane and it really hurt his sport. I guess the sore joints as mythreesons pointed out. I wouldn't start him on it during his baseball season for sure. Our sons have just started antibiotics with some success. It does not get rid of all of them yet but is much improved. Plus the have a prescribed cleanser that they are using also. Good luck in what you decide.

Hate to invade you ladies site but I just wanted to throw out there...My son had a bad case of acne for a couple off years and the wife ordered proactive solution, It comes in a kit with several different Items to cleans and medicate..It has done wonders, It is not cheap but I know it works because if he runs out it flairs up again....Its good stuff and maybe worth a try......I will politely leave before I get slapped outtta here....later

Like the Rambler, I apologize for invading the site. But the word "Accutane" caught my attention.

My daughter had acne that developed in her teens and kept progressing. She is now 23. We tried everything we could think of... proactive solution, anitbiotics, homeopathic remedies, etc etc. Nothing was effective.

As her self esteem continued to tank we reluctantly went to Accutane as a last resort. It took some time (several months before anything noticable), but the results are amazing. Her skin has completely cleared up.

We did not see any of the infamous psycho/emotional side effcts you hear about (depression, self destructive behavior, etc), but we kept a very close eye on things, especially since there is depression in the family.

Bottom line: it seems like a miracle drug for us, but it was definitely a last-resort solution. Obviously, your experience may be different. If you try it, be careful, and keep a close watch on things. Good luck!

My son took accutane in season and had the dryness and sun sensitivity, but did not have the joint soreness. He stayed really hydrated which may be the reason. He kept a tube of chapstick/neutrogena lip balm in his pocket at all times and his fingers got cracked from dryness (which as a pitcher wasn't pretty). He was in 8th/9th grade then and was never an everygame player so the side effects were not too hard on him as far as baseball was concerned. He had to do a second round as a sophmore for a couple of months too. He's a senior now and has great skin, with an occasional small zit, but accutane was a self esteem savior for him. He took the generic form of it and it was covered by insurance and worked just as well as the very expensive name brand. Good luck, I know its scary. The biggest hassle is going for monthly blood tests as they check for side effects. I have a younger son who is an 8th grader who we just took to the dermatologist - he's not bad enough for accutane, but if he does get bad enough I won't hesitate to put him on it.

Thanks to everyone,

Y'all are so helpful. I really wanted to put this on the main site, but was afraid some of the more macho men would give me a hard time.

We have tried antibiotics for 3 months and I have spent a fortune on ProActiv. Now we are at the scarring stage and I too am sorry I waited so long. It is very scary, but I feel so sorry for my son, I feel like we have to try it, with super close monitoring.

Any more stories, I would be interested in hearing.

This is such a good group on this site. Thanks.

All I can relate is my son's experience. We went thru all the antibiotics and topicals. Tried the ProActiv. The ONLY thing that worked was Accutane. Experienced NONE of the emotional/depression side-effects. HOWEVER....he DID experience the joint soreness and it was in his arm. Went to doctors, did tests....NOTHING. On one visit to the dermatologist I mentioned this nagging joint soreness to her and the fact that he was a catcher. Well lo and behold we find out that Accutane is known to have a side effect of joint soreness. She said she hadn't experienced it in baseball players, but she did have some patients who were basketball players and their knees gave them trouble while on Accutane. Son decided he would rather deal with the acne than jeopardize his baseball...so he went off of it (back to the antibiotics and ProActiv) and the soreness in his arm soon went away. I should add, it wasn't an easy decision as he (like many of your sons) had the deep cystic/scarring type acne. Joint tenderness doesn't happen to everyone on Accutane...but it is a side effect to be aware of if you are an athlete.

My son is 16 -- started Accutane in the fall for moderate but persistent acne. Experienced soome back soreness the first month. Went to pill every other day and it went away. second month went back to regular dose with no problem. Just really dry lips. Needs to drink lots of water. He is so happy to have clear skin. Older son also took accutane with minimal problmes. Good news is the acne doesn't come back.



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my son went on accutane but was warned (it is in writing comes with medicine) about playing sports when taking it. He was on a low dose for a short time. He took himself off.
Many of the hitters taking it had peeling on their plams and had to stop. My sons best friend took a series of extremly high doses and broke his wrist which did not heal properly so it had to be pinned. His mom (a nurse) says she was sorry she put him on accutane.
It does work, but not the greatest cure with all of the side affects.
My daughter was also on it and she discoverd that Aquaphor helped the dry nose and chapped lips. The mandatory pregnancy tests were a pain adn she did have muscle soreness.

We went to a dermatologist to try to put son on Acutane. The Dr.'s daughter is a college softball player. As soon as he heard that son was a HS Jr. Pitcher, he said that there was o way that he would pescribe it. Said that it would take 5% of his velocity! Put him on heavy duty anti-biotics which helped. We found that Proactiv bleached his clothes. It was really bad during basketball season.The sweating would soak his clothes with peroxide!
He started using it just at night and then would shower in the morning to get it off. It worked OK.

I used Accutane during my senior year of HS for about 6 months if I remember correctly.

In my situation it was a complete MIRACLE!

Sue my skin was dry, my lips cracked if I didn't put chapstick on them, my contacts would get dry from time to time and my joints were a little more sore than normal. But these were all temporary and stopped a few weeks after I ceased treatment.

Prior to Accutane, I tried everything under the sun. It was a final effort if you will. Paid off big time. Completely cleared up my skin. It got worse for about a month before it got better, but when it started to work it seemed as though it kicked in overnight.

I still managed to get scholarship offers and my numbers did not suffer (actualy my power numbers tripled that year)so I don't think it hurt my athleticism.

What it did do is increase my confidence dramatically.

Ten years later I get the occassional breakout, but all in all it has been a miracle, as I stated above.

I did get the proper blood work and took necessary precautions before, during and after treatment.

Please let me know if you need more details.

My son was put on Accutane last July and within a week began experiencing excruciating back pain. He kept blaming his bed, but I finally put 2 and 2 together and realized it was probably the medicine. I made him quit as he was headed toward world series competition in early August. 5 days after he quit taking it his back pain went away. It's difficult to figure out when to start taking it, because for our son baseball season is almost 12 months a year. We decided to just tough it out without any meds and 9 months later his skin is starting to clear up on its own.