PCOS and jaw/chin acne
 

Hey all!
I've been diagnosed with PCOS for about a year now and I've had it for maybe 2-3. Recently ( in the past 4 months) I've noticed that I've been breaking out terribly along my jawline, chin, upper lip and upper neck. It's especially bad along the jawline. I was just curious as to if others have noticed a similar break out pattern, and if you have, what have you done about it? Common acne treatments and birth control don't seem enough for me. The jawline seems immune to my prescription acne meds, ugh. Please help :) Thanks!

I read about that once only I can't remember where. But it is very common for PCOS folks to have it along the jaw line. I do/did.

Getting the hormone imbalance sorted out is the key. Anything else is just dealing with the symptoms.

(I've improved on BCP so it isn't as bad any more. )

For the pimples... You can try crushed aspirin/water solution if the over the counter stuff for acne isn't working. Apply right on the problem area. You can google for tips on that too. Like "aspirin mask" or similar.

HTH!

A.

My acne is worse around the jawline - right around the areas where I have extra hair growing! Very frustrating. But if I keep the hair plucked, and use a scrub to help with ingrown hairs, it seems to keep it at bay most of the time

I have this problem too. I noticed the correlation between the acne and the excess hair, but still haven't found a way to successfully deal with either. I'd appreciate some insight on this too.

I just went to a dermatologist because I was breaking how along my jaw, and around the mouth area. The lady said it was hormonal acne, men grow beards and women apparently break out in that area. I have been on a treatment of antibiotics and other meds for the past 2 weeks and it's really starting to clear up.

Hi I would like to give you some food for thought. Do you drink a lot of dairy, eat a lot of cheese? because I discovered that i would break out in the same exact areas a few days after eating dairy items. When I removed dairy, the breakouts reduced and my skin was able to clear up.

There is a lot of info on the web about the use of hormones in cows to stay pregnant and contstantly produce milk. when we drink the milk we injest the hormones and there is a chance that affects our own hormonal balance....it's something to consider.

I used to break out around my jawline and chin too because that is where most of my facial hair grew, and tweezing them caused me to breakout. Once I got the hair lasered, I stopped breaking out there.

Nina,

I've never thought about having the hair lasered, but that might be a good thing to consider. Was it expensive? Do you have to go multiple times?

It was cheap for me because because I had just a small area, about 1.5 inches on each side of my jawline. It was about $100 per session. You need to go for 3-4 sessions first, and then you go about once a year for touchups. The results vary from person to person, for me teh hair started growing back finer but I completely stopped breaking out. On the other hand, my sister had tons of facial hair along her sideburns which used to break out pretty bad. She responded extremely well to the treatments and her skin is extremely smooth with no breakouts and not a single hair.

Also, I went to a hospital instead of a medspa. IMO, hospitals cost more or less the same as medspas but I just felt safer having a nurse or a doctor operate the laser equipment rather than a beautician.

Hmm, I've never put breaking out along my jaw line and pcos together, but I do break out there often. Interesting.

I'm with chou on the hormone load thing. Dairy foods, any animal foods. If you are going to have them, have less, try to buy them hormone free/organic/non GMO whatever approach you can best afford to do.

A.

For the FIRST TIME EVER, I have a pimple in my jaw line. Grrrrrrrrrrrr............