Acne caused by birth control (I’m new to this)

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For some back story, I’ve had huge issues with forehead cystic and inflamed acne as a teenager due to diet and stress hormones, ever since then I’ve been on doxycycline, tretinoin and winlevi which completely got rid of my acne.

After starting the birth control pill (for pms and mood swings) almost three months ago I’ve developed the same nasty cystic acne except all over my chin and mouth area. It is so painful and has completely ruined all of my skin progress. I’ve visited my dermatologist and got prescribed spironolactone. It’s helped but very minimally, my acne is extremely out of my control almost nothing is helping. And I’m super scared because I have an out of country trip around spring break and I’m extremely nervous that my acne wouldn’t go away till then.

Should I stop using birth control? If I do will the acne go away? Ive heard some horror stories where people have stopped using birth control and had super bad reactions. I talked to my doctor (the one who prescribed me the pill) and they told me to wait a few more months and that it usually goes away after 3 months of being on birth control, but I’m so exhausted from this acne that I completely don’t want to trust the process.

Posted Feb 25, 2026, 5:45 AM UTC

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