My Battle with Hormonal Cystic Acne In Pregnancy

One of the things I had most looked forward to when becoming pregnant was the ‘glowing skin’ I was told that pregnant women get.

During the time I came off my pill, I suffered terribly with hormonal cystic acne and needed to go onto antibiotics, which I came off when I found out I was pregnant, but by which time my skin had vastly improved.

I got my first real bout of bad, hormonal cystic acne again at around 12 weeks, and it lasted for about 3 weeks.

Luckily I was at home, sick as a dog with my morning sickness, so having to go out and face the world wasn't an issue, and I just hid away and tried to not aggravate my skin as much as possible.

By the time I got to 18 weeks it had come back with a vengeance. I’m talking, 7-8 large, sore, extremely painful under the skin cystic lumps and bumps, all over my chin. But only on my chin.

I tried, everything!

This was me on a relatively good day by the way...

 I looked at my diet and upped my fruit intake and spent weeks blending spinach, avocado and fruits into smoothies to help and feed and repair my skin.

   I tried eating a more alkaline diet as heard that may help.

   I tried bathing my skin in Pink Himalayan rock salt diluted in warm water

 I slapped on savlon, In the hope that its healing properties would clear my skin up.

Nothing worked and eventually I begged my doctor, through streams of tears to prescribe me something, anything that could help!

I had to go to work, but couldn’t bear to look at myself in the mirror, but was checking my face 100 times a day to see if any new ones had surfaced, I was completely and utterly miserable.

He prescribed me Zineryt, a topical Zinc and Erythromycin lotion that you apply directly onto the area twice a day and is considered safe in pregnancy.

It does say it isn’t a quick fix and can take up to 5 weeks to start working, but I was so happy to just be given something, It didn’t matter.

I used it as stated, twice a day and after about 3 weeks, my skin was so  much better. Yes, for all I know it could have been because whatever hormones were causing the acne had changed, so it went away by itself, or it could have been because of the lotion. I’ll never know.

If you are suffering with terrible acne during your pregnancy, I wholly recommend you speak to your GP, I wish I had sooner, then the weeks I spent it tears feeling like a monster could have been avoided.

I realise that not everyone feels happy about using various forms of medication in pregnancy and its a very personal choice, but for me, the emotional stress of coping with my skin was causing me so much stress and upset, it was a no brainer.