Acne Scars during transition

[Trini]

Heyo, so this question came up as I was checking myself out in the mirror.
I'm slowly seeing more and more of myself everyday but then my mind immediately turned to one part of my face that got me thinking.

Back then I had horrible severe acne. Like it was so horrible, I kid you not.
High school was a nightmare because they were there on my face and I got extremely self conscious about it and was not a happy time for me.
Out of frustration, I would always pick at them and pop them because I hated them so much.

Just one more thing about Testosterone that I REALLY REALLY hate! F**K you T!


Anyway, I'd like to ask that for those who are deep into their transition, have you had good luck of E clearing up acne scars you had?
Did it smooth out your skin?

My forehead and cheeks look silky smooth but when I go down to the lower areas under my nose and mouth, it's ugly like the moon. :\

I'm just afraid these scars are going to be with me forever. :\

[AndreaLinda]

I also would like to know!

[ImagineKate]

I don't think it will however I've been using prescription stuff (hydroquinone) as well as moisturizer and exfoliation and I've been having good results. I have a few small barely noticeable scars from acne and they are fading away. Talk to your dermatologist and see what they recommend. Mine is pretty good, she even let me try vaniqa but I stopped it since I started doing laser...

[SueMuksen]

Bah, they dont!

Just exfoliate your skin 3 times a week, use nice cosmetics, always use a sun blocker... and voila!

[Christine Eryn]

I used to have real bad acne from 18 to about 27 years old. Then it tapered off but I still had the occasional red spots. When I started HRT that all changed. It was like the muddy, polluted rivers gave way to clear, flowing streams. I now have people compliment me on my complexion without wearing any makeup. I do still have a scar or 2 from bad acne that I can't really do anything about but I'm ok with that.

[Wild Flower]

Retin A should help. It prevents wrinkles as well.

Im a lifer on this miracle in a tube.

[Robyn37]

I had really bad acne in high school as well. Now I have really thick, dark, course facial hair that grows in every direction and I have had major problems with ingrown hairs for a long time. Since starting electrolysis I love the feeling of every single hair being removed (kind of a massochist lol) and I love the smooth areas that get cleared up. Since I started using a really good exfoliant and face brush, I have noticed my skin getting better for sure. At least the areas with no facial hair lol.

I have heard there is some kind of laser therapy that gets rid of some scarring, don't know much about it. Maybe something to look in to?

[Leila]

I have been using generic tretinoin cream (aka Retin-A) at night and a moisturising SPF 50 sunscreen during the day since about September last year. The results against wrinkles, age spots and old scars has been remarkable for such a simple and in-expensive medication. Forget all the OTC hyped up overpriced anti-aging cosmetics sold to the uniformed. This stuff actually works. My first tube lasted about four months.

Fine wrinkles such as those around the corners of my eyes and mouth are practically gone and were the first to disappear. Deeper lined wrinkles on my forehead are drastically reduced. Overall my skin is smoother, softer and less prone to wrinkling now.

Age spots and blemishes are reduced, but to be honest I had better fade results from using hydroquinone cream in just two weeks application in combination with the tretinoin cream.

I had really bad acne on my cheeks during my teens, in particular my left cheek, and most of the lighter pitting is hardly noticeable now. Tretinoin cream does work, but at the rate the skin is healing and blending out the pits you do need to be very patient to see the results.

The tretinoin cream causes skin to regenerate a lot faster. Gentle exfoliating is encouraged to slough off the dead skin. I simply rub my damp face with my fingertips after washing with face cleanser to get the dead skin off, but gentle buff pads can be used as an alternative. I prefer using my fingertips as I can feel where the dead skin is starting to come away.

[Sabrina]

I've never really had a problem with acne except during puberty growing up. Now I worry about razor bumps from shaving. I use an Ecco Bella Cover Up stick from Amazon to hide my razor bumps.

[awilliams1701]

I had those kinds of issues when I was in highschool. I still get the odd pimple here and there, but I used to have like 4-5 per square inch. Twords the end of high school they started to clear up on their own and so did the scars.

Heyo, so this question came up as I was checking myself out in the mirror.
I'm slowly seeing more and more of myself everyday but then my mind immediately turned to one part of my face that got me thinking.

Back then I had horrible severe acne. Like it was so horrible, I kid you not.
High school was a nightmare because they were there on my face and I got extremely self conscious about it and was not a happy time for me.
Out of frustration, I would always pick at them and pop them because I hated them so much.

Just one more thing about Testosterone that I REALLY REALLY hate! F**K you T!


Anyway, I'd like to ask that for those who are deep into their transition, have you had good luck of E clearing up acne scars you had?
Did it smooth out your skin?

My forehead and cheeks look silky smooth but when I go down to the lower areas under my nose and mouth, it's ugly like the moon. :\

I'm just afraid these scars are going to be with me forever. :\

[TDawesome]

I also have acne scars on my face  🙁 the sunk in ones that makes it look like craters on the moons surface.

Before going to a dermatologist, I had a lot of those scars and they are pretty large and noticeable especially for someone with large pores like me. I also washed my face with the numerous acne cleansing wash without seeing results.

My dermatologists wrote prescriptions for Clindamycin (RX only) and Finacea (RX only) to be applied twice a day. She also recommended Panoxyl's Acne wash that contains Benzoyl Peroxide twice a week along with a moisturizing exfoliating face wash (I use Neutrogena's Ultra Gentle Hydrating Cleanser with the creamy formula) twice a day since my skin is very dry.

My acne decreased dramatically, pores appear smaller and the acne scars smoothed out just a bit (it's barely noticeable, but it's also more likely just due to the smoother skin).

She then recommended me to go for a microdermabrasion combined with a light chemical peel after the microdermabrasion session to help get rid of those sunk in acne scars. She described that the microdermabrasion not only helps get rid of the top layer of dead skin cells to for a fresher looking top layer, but it also pulls the tissue underneath the skin up and tears them a bit so the tissue rebuilds itself stronger (kind of like exercising to tear the muscles up to rebuild stronger muscles). She stated that I should see results within 3 to 4 sessions.

I finished session two a month ago and will go for my third session tomorrow. I can tell you that the sunk in acne scars on my face is significantly smaller/less sunk in. I had smaller sunk in acne scars throughout my face and most of those smaller ones are now gone. The larger ones are still there, but smaller.

Results might vary for different people but this is the regiment that my dermatologist recommended me and it has worked wonderfully for me so far. So what I recommend is for you to start seeing a dermatologist and they can really help you out since they are there seeing your skin in person not in photos and they are experts in this field.

Btw, I do the microdermabrasion and light chemical peel sessions in between laser treatments since this allows the skin to heal in between each of those treatments.

Hope this helps!

[ana1111]

I had bad cystic acne too and still have bad acne scars even after four procedures to try to get rid of them...have they reduced and gotten better from the procedures? Yes! is my skin more smoother and nicer overall from hrt? yes! is it anywhere near perfect or a place where im satisfied with it? No! im getting a fith procedure in a week for them so ya wish me luck...if I were you I would start getting treatments as soon as you can..microneedling has been the cheapest and most effective with the least downtime for me so that's what I recommend...

[AndreaLinda]

I had this ENORMOUS scar in my forehead that made me look pretty bad(not related to acne). but ITS GONE!.

Estrogen is a miracle LOL

[TDawesome]

I had this ENORMOUS scar in my forehead that made me look pretty bad(not related to acne). but ITS GONE!.

Estrogen is a miracle LOL

That'd be a badass scar!

[HexenPixi]

Gah, acne scars!! That's the one thing that is a nuisance as far as trying to look the way I want. I had bad acne too when I was a teenager; now that, that is gone, my face has been left a dystopian nightmare. I've been following this fellow on YT:
🔗

He's documented his journey with laser resurfacing, and I have to say, the results look amazing, so that's my next thing to do as far as "transition." Other than that, the only at-home treatment I know if is dermarolling, but that looks really scary, I wouldn't recommend it. Maybe when I start, I'll post the before and after on here for anyone else to see. There's rarely any acne-scar-removal resources for trans* women, and I'm surprised as smooth skin is a huge part a femininity, in my opinion.

Though scars and flaws are also beautiful ^_^

[iKate]

I have some damage, it may be from acne but a little from electrolysis (it's unavoidable). I may look to get lasered after all is said and done.

[Lady Smith]

I had an absolutely awful giant boil like thing come up on my face when I was in High School and after it was drained it left a nasty pit like scar.  Being on E has helped, but I also use vitamin E oil on my face and it has done a lot to diminish the scaring