Menopause Matters Forum
Menopause Discussion => All things menopause => Topic started by: freya on May 24, 2016, 11:41:46 AM
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Hello everyone
I'm suffering from rosacea (a reaction to briefly using bio-identical hormones, which I've now stopped). My GP firstly prescribed Metrogel. I used it on my face for 3 weeks, but it didn't do anything. I was then referred to a dermatologist. The dermatologist prescribed a month-long course of antibiotics - Lymecycline capsules (408mg) once every morning. I have ME & Fibromyalgia, which makes me very sensitive to medication, but I took them in the hope that they would help. About 3 weeks into taking them I spoke to my GP and said they didn't seem to be helping. I also noticed I was getting very weepy indeed, and finding things harder to cope with. She said I should take them for 6 weeks and if nothing happened then, it wasn't going to. I've stuck with them for a month but am reluctant to carry on because of how they make me feel. I'm not really sure if they help, but having finished the course my skin does now seem worse. Has anyone else had any experiences with antibiotics for rosacea? And has anyone else found any alternative that has helped?
I'd really appreciate your thoughts, many thanks,
Freya
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Hi Freya
I feel for you, Rosacea is a real pain. I'm super fair so very prone to the 'Celtic condition' as the Americans call it. I have to stay out of the sun or wear very high sun screens.
When mine flares up my GP immediately prescribes Oxytetracycline, of the same family as your meds, and I usually take these for six weeks. They very often don't start working until wk 4/5 or 6. The difficulty with the meds is you have to avoid taking them with any food, particularly milk products, and anti-acids, as it simply stops them from working. So 2 hours before food and 2 hours after. (This is a brilliant way to stop you snacking!)
I haven't found I experience any side effects with the meds aside from a slightly upset tummy which is lucky as I'm usually very reactive. My daughter had to take tetracyclines for years to manage her teenage acne and found that some worked and others didn't. if you have no success with the Lymecycline could you ask to try the Oxyetracycline?
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Sorry, should also have said, I haven't found anything else that works for me. I use hypoallergenic skin care products as my skin is very sensitive and will react very quickly but lots of different potions were tried to treat the Rosacea and none worked. Incidentally, I remember one flare up, following a 'hot' holiday, resulted in the GP having to extend the Oxys for an extra 4 wks. Thank goodness they worked in the end though. I too saw a consultant dermatologist who got the ball rolling for me.
I wish you well and hope you get some respite soon. x
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Sorry you're having such a bad time with this. I have had mild rosacea which I control by keeping out of the sun, trying to avoid too much stress, avoiding alcohol and refined sugar.
I hope someone can help you on here but there are also rosacea forums which have a wealth of information.
I wonder if you have always had rosacea and the hormones triggered a flare up or is the rosacea something new ?
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Struggled with mine for years, found Metrogel very irritating.
Three years ago I took antibiotics for 10 weeks and my skin really cleared up, but within two weeks of stopping it was back as bad as ever!
Recently saw doctor as I had read about Ivermectin cream for Roscea. But he refused to prescribe it, saying it was not licensed, not true according to NHS website. Again he suggested antibiotics but I refused them, no point as it comes back and I always get constant thrush and dodgy stomach with them.
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I have had rosacea since my mid-thirties. The thing that keeps it now under control is Synchroline fast acting rosacure cream. i also wash with Synchroline rosacure gell. It took a good six months or so to see real improvement though!
Milamam
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Mine didn't start until I came off HRT. My doc originally prescribed metronidazole cream but I'm allergic to this antibiotic and she's still trying to figure out what to give me next! I've found it very painful - some of the bumps are really sore and look so unsightly. I have never suffered from skin problems before, not even in my teens, so it's all come as a bit of a shock. I hate looking in the mirror!
Taz x
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I'm not sure if it was actually rosacea, but during the worst of my hormonal upheaval a few months ago my skin was very bad. Melasma on my outer cheeks and redness and raised coarse skin inward toward my nose. I started using an alcohol-free witchhazel with rosewater and I do believe it helped. Ir certainly felt nice and didn't make it worse. The problem is completely gone now but I believe that is due to my hormones coming back into blanace.
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This thread alone just shows how very different we all are and how we all react in different ways to things. Pretty amazing reading really!
I don't think there is a cure yet for rosacea so it's a case of trial and error. My skin is very reactive and has been since mid-teens. I've never suffered with spots or acne but have a hell of a battle finding skin preps that don't make me react. My rosacea first appeared when I was in my early 40s when I started peri, manifesting itself in a small prickly rash to the right of my lips. Interestingly when it breaks out now it always starts in the same place, so I know to act fast before it spreads. Unfortunately, I also later started suffering from ocular rosacea which is a real pain to deal with. I find I can wear very few eye creams and makeup ranges now.
Oxytetracycline was prescribed after a long list of other meds had failed or I had reacted to them. I too reacted badly to Metrogel and azelaic cream. Synchroline worked for a while then stopped. Stellajanes's Johnson & Johnson Clean and Clear Dual Action Moisturiser left mine and my daughter's faces burning and raw with red pimples everywhere after just one use. It's such a bore! I have friends who can use anything on their skin without any sort of reaction.
I now use Vichy toner and cleanser for dry sensitive skins, Clinique's DDM lotion and Eau Thermal Avene soothing eye contour cream (which is my brilliant new go to eye cream after I started to react to my long term favourite Dr Hauschka). These are all mild and calming (hah, for me anyway!) but every second woman might possibly disagree! I have very pale skin and could never go into the sun without sun preps. My foundation has a high spf which I wear all year round. I have been known to burn in the garden in December!
My daughter suffered terribly from acne and found NeoStrata absolutely brilliant. We'd visited a Harley Street clinic in the hope of finding her a miracle cure and their advice for the first port of call, (before they tried laser and all sorts of other nasties) was the NeoStrata Foaming Glycolic Wash. Incidentally, theirs was double the price we could find it later on the internet! However, it worked for her, alongside her meds, and didn't overwork her skin like so many other products had.
Trial and error is the way forwards so all suggestions are very welcome. Who knows we may discover a product that suits us all and actually works - well here's hoping!
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Hello everyone,
Thank you so much for all your responses, I really appreciate them! I'm sorry I can't reply individually but my energy levels aren't great. But yes, Elizabethrose, it's amazing how everyone reacts differently. I had rosacea about 25 years ago, after a difficult time, and I took tetracycline for some weeks, which cleared it up. But it also caused me really bad stomach problems. I bore with it at the time because I didn't have the other health problems I have now. I haven't had rosacea again until now, Meeka, and funnily enough it only came up after I'd stopped using the bio-identical hormone creams (like you, Taz2 coming off HRT). I was advised to start off really slowly with a small amount of Biest (oestrogen), building it up over a few weeks, and then adding in progesterone. I only used the progesterone cream for a few days in the fourth week before stopping the creams as my hair loss was getting worse.
I also reacted to the Metrogel, Tinkerbell, so not only did it do nothing to help, it made things worse (which I suppose meant it did do something, if you see what I mean). I'll look into all the products you suggest, thanks. In terms of antibiotics, I think I'm going to have to leave them as they did make me feel so bad, and hope that, as you say, Lisab, it's because of hormonal upheaval, although the doctor I saw at the clinic didn't mention that they might cause skin problems. I really hope there is something that will help us all, in the end, but until then I'll look around, too, and if I find something that helps I'll let you all know, too.
Thanks again,
Freya x
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Good luck to you Freya, I really hope you feel better soon x
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bump for new member
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Hello everyone
I'm suffering from rosacea (a reaction to briefly using bio-identical hormones, which I've now stopped). My GP firstly prescribed Metrogel. I used it on my face for 3 weeks, but it didn't do anything. I was then referred to a dermatologist. The dermatologist prescribed a month-long course of antibiotics - Lymecycline capsules (408mg) once every morning. I have ME & Fibromyalgia, which makes me very sensitive to medication, but I took them in the hope that they would help. About 3 weeks into taking them I spoke to my GP and said they didn't seem to be helping. I also noticed I was getting very weepy indeed, and finding things harder to cope with. She said I should take them for 6 weeks and if nothing happened then, it wasn't going to. I've stuck with them for a month but am reluctant to carry on because of how they make me feel. I'm not really sure if they help, but having finished the course my skin does now seem worse. Has anyone else had any experiences with antibiotics for rosacea? And has anyone else found any alternative that has helped?
I'd really appreciate your thoughts, many thanks,
Freya
Hi Freya,
I developed bad Type 2 Rosacea last year and I was given Soolantra cream, you have to use it for the full 16 weeks to know if it will help.
It cleared my skin around 10-12 weeks with no adverse effects and I have sensitive skin.
I’ve not had to use it again.
Hope you get something to help.
E x
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tnx Evie - now I need to find the member who began a new thread ::)
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Evie606,
I use Soolantra too. My dermatologist told me that after the flare up has cleared you can use it once a week to prevent further flares. So far this has worked for me, except for once when I'd had the tube open for more than 6 months. (You are meant to discard it 6 months after opening and I had forgotten this.) She said there is nothing published about the weekly prophylactic use, but they find it usually works. 😊
JP x