My acne journey... I still have it at 38

I HAD hoped that I might some day write about my skincare journey when said journey was finished, but I am 38 now and it is still ongoing.

I, like many many others, first got spots when I was a teenager. Since then I genuinely don’t really remember a time where I haven’t been dealing with spots. If you have ever had to deal with an ongoing acne problem, you will understand how frustrating and upsetting it can be. Words here wouldn’t do justice to the sense of despondency I often have when I look in the mirror.

As a teenager and in my early twenties, I dealt with the problem by using a form of the contraceptive pill that was designed to tackle spots simultaneously. It worked well, keeping them largely at bay, but the medical advice at the time was not to stay on that particular pill for an extended period of time.

Some time in my early twenties, I found myself at a dermatologist in a clinic, who prescribed me another medication and a topical cream to tackle the issue.

The thing I have come to realise over the years, though, is that most treatments given for acne or spots are generally short-lived. They work while you are on them, targeting the hormones that cause acne or by targeting the skin topically, but once you finish the course of treatment, the problem rears its ugly head again and you are back to square one.

Even if you were to stay on the same treatment plan, they don’t work forever either.

As women, we all know how our hormones are subject to change over the years, so what worked one year might not work the year after.

I became pregnant with my first daughter when I was 27 so from there on in until I was 33 I avoided any form of treatment for my skin, both oral and medical treatments, and, incredibly, during that period my skin wasn’t so bad. It is almost hard to believe, when hormones were coursing through my veins, and sleep, water and general wellbeing weren’t top of my list of priorities either.

I had tubal ligation after my fourth baby and whether it was that or the fact I had gone through four pregnancies and two miscarriages in the previous six years, my hormones settled into some sort of crazy pattern. I could almost pinpoint the moment I was in my cycle based on my erratic mood and of course the tell-tale eruptions on my face.

Those early years with children are such a blur, I simply couldn’t find the time to pull myself from the intensity of their routines and needs to put myself first for something I probably felt was vanity.

However, once the fog of those early years lifted I began to get extremely frustrated and upset by the state of my skin. At this point I was nearing my late thirties and it just felt preposterous to have to still be locked in such a battle with my skin, so I decided to take action.

Coincidentally, it coincided with Covid setting in, so when consultations online became the norm it actually suited me much better.

Step in the wonderful Dr Laura Lenihen, a Galway-based GP who specialises in skincare both online and in her clinics in Galway and occasionally in Dublin.

When I went to Dr Laura first, I was throwing anything and everything at my skin in an attempt to find perfection. Under her guidance we went back to the very basics with my skincare routine and introduced some prescription medication and topical creams to help tackle the problem from the inside and the outside.

I got my skin completely under control for many months and then something changed, which we both assumed was my hormones as I was getting older. My skin started disimproving and I was getting really sore, deep, painful spots that were causing a lot of damage to my skin and taking months to heal.

Upon a more detailed analysis of my skincare routine, it turns out it was my moisturisers that were causing the problem. I had introduced them myself and hadn’t run it past Dr Laura before doing so, in my ignorance assuming that something as innocuous as a moisturiser couldn’t cause that much damage.

However, they were oil-based, therefore creating a layer on my skin that was clogging pores and causing a build-up of bacteria under the skin. I introduced lighter moisturisers and the difference was immediate.

I go for regular microneedling treatments to a friend in the village, Treatments by Bernie, and I find microneedling key to getting rid of the red marks and scars left after spots.

If you are battling with bad skin, I feel your pain, it has taken me over 20 years to start to find what is hopefully a long-term solution, who knows... but I remain ever hopeful!