Crazy chest acne

**rainmaker** · 10-31-2004, 12:29 AM

during a cycle of test/deca i broke out crazy all over my body and went to the doc who prescirbed 40 mg accutane for 4 months i'm currently on my 2.5 month and all other parts next to my chest are recouvering nicely howeverm my chest looks disgusting everday a couple of new zits pop up, the ones with the boils, is this normal when i'm on accutane? and should i pop em? since they look extremely disgusting? thnxs a lot for the responses

**mitch428cj** · 10-31-2004, 12:32 AM

accutane should clear it up

**Dimes** · 10-31-2004, 02:04 AM

Remember to be extremely clean , shower 2-3 times a day and right after work out, etc, and the accutane should clear it up, good luck.

**KGBnine** · 10-31-2004, 02:27 AM

you could add some pantothenic acid @ 10 grams per day which will help a lot.

**Slamtime** · 10-31-2004, 08:05 AM

Originally Posted by rainmaker

during a cycle of test/deca i broke out crazy all over my body and went to the doc who prescirbed 40 mg accutane for 4 months i'm currently on my 2.5 month and all other parts next to my chest are recouvering nicely howeverm my chest looks disgusting everday a couple of new zits pop up, the ones with the boils, is this normal when i'm on accutane? and should i pop em? since they look extremely disgusting? thnxs a lot for the responses

Just out of curiosity, how much do you weigh? 40mg per day(if I'm understanding you correctly) is a bit low. I'm at 80mg pd and weigh approx. 185 lbs, which is borderline weight for increasing the dose to 120mg pd. My dermatologist mainly determines dosages by 1mg per kg of bodyweight, but this could be adjusted(.5mg-2mg per kg) as necessary when throwing in other factors(severity of the acne, % of skin area affected, effectiveness of dosage as treatment progresses, etc.). The acne gets worse before it gets better for the first 1-2 months, but your face should be one of the first areas that clear up, followed by arms & shoulders.
It usually takes at least 3-4 months of treatment for the chest & back to start clearing up.

If you're still running test in your cycle, the most that the Accutane will accomplish is keeping the cystic acne under control. It will NOT completely clear it up or prevent new zits from appearing, unless of course you choose to be wreckless & take higher doses, which will naturally have negative(if not, very dangerous) repercussions.

While Accutane(synthetic Vit. A retinoid) causes the sebaceous glands in the skin to shrink, androgenic gear causes them to enlarge due to this being one of the ways the body is expelling the excess exogenic androgens. So remember that while Accutane will eventually clear your skin up, it will not prevent future outbreaks from occurring that are caused by androgenic gear. You may be one of those people that has a larger number of sebaceous glands per hair folicle, so it doesn't take much androgenic gear to trigger acne.
Imo, you're better off avoiding the more androgenic steroids , because an extra couple pounds of muscle isn't worth getting a bunch of permanent scars. I'm not a big fan of taking mega-doses of B-5 for the simple reason that it doesn't tackle the root of the problem and I question the long-term effects of taking such large amounts. heh, too much of "anything"(with the exception of water) just isn't good.

**rainmaker** · 10-31-2004, 10:15 AM

thanks a lot for the responses guys i currently, weight around 74 kg, so i believe that 40 is a little low since i still break out even after the cycle..i have been off the cycle for 2.5 months and started accutane right afterwards, the back is clearing up nicely but the chest is stll the problem. How many months are u to be on accutane Slamtime and has it been clearing up for u now? i'm really scared of the scaring that is to form anything i can do to prevent it? how do i know if i will have scarring or not?

**rainmaker** · 10-31-2004, 10:18 AM

could also ask what would not be considered lesser adrogenic steroids in case i decide i go back to gear in the near future to avoid this acne problem again?

**akiraproject24** · 10-31-2004, 04:29 PM

I had the same problem. My doc actually upped the dose to 120 mg a day and also had me switch from generic (amnesteem) to the actual brand (accutane). This worked real well, cleared up the chest and all. However you will need some good insurance since a 30 day supply of the accutane at 120 mg/day cost my insurance company $1,499. Luckily my copay is only $6.00. Im on my 4th month and the acne is practically all gone!

**clockworks** · 10-31-2004, 06:01 PM

I'm on day 4-5 of 40mg generic Accutane. My acne seems to be worse (as compared to a week ago), but nothing like the hellish nightmare of my first cycle last year...=)

**mr_man** · 10-31-2004, 10:15 PM

Originally Posted by mitch428cj

accutane should clear it up

can you still get accutane?

**rainmaker** · 11-01-2004, 05:17 AM

hey clockworks can you please describe your hellish nightmare of your first cycle? just interested in hearing what you went through? so i can be prepared psychologically.

**Slamtime** · 11-01-2004, 08:13 AM

Originally Posted by rainmaker

thanks a lot for the responses guys i currently, weight around 74 kg, so i believe that 40 is a little low since i still break out even after the cycle..i have been off the cycle for 2.5 months and started accutane right afterwards, the back is clearing up nicely but the chest is stll the problem. How many months are u to be on accutane Slamtime and has it been clearing up for u now? i'm really scared of the scaring that is to form anything i can do to prevent it? how do i know if i will have scarring or not?

My Accutane treatment is for 5 months and right now I'm in the middle of my second month. I still have a few spots on my back, chest, and a couple here & there on my shoulders. I'm still using Andro on my training days, so its probably why I still have a couple spots that appear occasionally. If your chest doesn't start to show some signs of clearing up by the end of the 3rd month, you should ask the Dermatologist to bump your dose up to 80mg per day(provided that your bloodwork shows everything is ok on your present dosage). The only thing that I could think of to reduce scarring is the possible use of topical creams/ointments that have a corticosteroid to keep the inflammation down. However, I don't think the doctor would recommend using them while on Accutane treatment, plus long term use of corticosteroids(topical, injectible, or oral) pose problems of their own.

A way to increase Accutane's effectiveness is to take a teaspoon of cold-pressed Flax Seed Oil or Udo's Choice Oil Blend with the meal that you'll be taking the Accutane right afterwards. Accutane is afterall a form of Vitamin A, which is fat soluble. The Omega Fatty Acids will improve the body's absorption of the Accutane, thereby making it more effective. I believe this helps because after the first week, my lips were dry & cracked, the skin on my nose, cheeks, and chin was dry & flaking off, and my hair wasn't oily like it use to be.

I don't know them all off the top of my head, but for example, the more androgenic gear would be all of your Testosterones(Enanth, Cyp, Sust, etc.), Dianabol , Anadrol , etc. The lesser androgenic gear would be Anavar , Deca Durabolin , and I believe Winstrol as well. Some people don't like to use Deca though unless they're running it with Test because Deca shuts down your sex drive hard.

Originally Posted by akiraproject24

I had the same problem. My doc actually upped the dose to 120 mg a day and also had me switch from generic (amnesteem) to the actual brand (accutane). This worked real well, cleared up the chest and all. However you will need some good insurance since a 30 day supply of the accutane at 120 mg/day cost my insurance company $1,499. Luckily my copay is only $6.00. Im on my 4th month and the acne is practically all gone!

heheh, that's why I don't get my Accutane prescription filled here in the US. I order my stuff(yes, brand name) from Canada. A 30-day supply of 80mg pd with shipping included only costs me about $275. If I had prescription coverage, I would get it here in the US, provided that I would pay less than that with the coverage. Even with prescription coverage, sometimes you would still end up paying more buying it here in the US, but I guess it depends on what type of coverage you have.
The only trouble with ording it from Canada is you have to order it at least 2 weeks in advance to make sure you get it on time. So if you do this, you'll have to talk to your Dermatologist & ask them if they can give you the bloodwork & prescription 2 weeks earlier for the first time you do this. It would also be wise to fax the necessary paperwork to the Canadian pharmacy so you don't have to mess about with an additional 2-3 day delay of mailing it.

Drug companies here in the US are a$$holes when it comes to drug prices. They try to get as much money as possible from the insurance companies while in the end, they screwing over the other people that don't have coverage.

**BigGenes** · 11-01-2004, 09:35 AM

I had the same problem before. With my back and chest. I tan now, bath twice a day(once in the morning and once before bed) and that seemed to help a ton. I still get a few, but its nothing noticable.

**clockworks** · 11-01-2004, 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by rainmaker

hey clockworks can you please describe your hellish nightmare of your first cycle? just interested in hearing what you went through? so i can be prepared psychologically.

Yeah, I got *real* acne, not that BS kind that everyone here tells you to tan or use some body scrub to get rid of. The only way I can really describe it is that it wasn't what I call "surface acne". It was very deep cystic acne deep below my skin. It felt like I had small marbles lodged underneath my skin.

Once they started to come to a head, I could stick a needle in them (or sometimes I didn't even have to) and bust them. The amount of puss that came out was sickening. My gf dry heaved one time when I busted one all over the mirror. I'm talking like .3 cc of puss.

The really bad part about them is the scarring and the number of them. The scars were very deep and very purple (i.e. very easy to see with my shirt off). In some places on my chest, it looks like someone carved out skin with a knife or I got blasted by a shotgun with rock salt or something. My shoulders are very bad also. If I get sunburnt now, the scars on my shoulders swell up and it looks like I have hives because there are so many of them.

I might be overreacting a little bit because I used to have perfectly clear skin (on my chest anyways). Its just such a dramatic difference from clear skin to this.

It took a year to kind of fade away. Ironically the Accutane I'm taking now seemed to make it flare up again.

I guess in the end I'm not too pissed or concerned with it. I'm on Accutane now and hopefully that will prevent something like this from happening again. Also, my dermatologist said there are things we can do about the scars (that made me feel a lot better).

**Whoisdaman** · 11-01-2004, 12:06 PM

I was in your same situation clockworks. Cystic acne that was deep, and was all on my chest and even my neck (looked like hickeys). Once you first start the accutane, everything will flare up and you will look worse. I am about a month into treatment and I am just now starting to see the flare up going away... hopefully it all decreases from here. Started at 40mg ed at first, next checkup is this week to hopefully jump to 80mg ed.