As you may have guessed, I am suffering from an acute case of acne-itis. Which reminds me of my days as a young teenage "boy."

Now I may be over-thinking this, but for about a month straight my breast tissue was sore. I advanced another half a cup size to ALMOST fill an A cup, but then all growth has stopped and I feel no pain there anymore. "Well Audrey, that just means that growth spurt is over." BUT WAIT THERE IS MORE.

I haven't changed my diet. I haven't changed my exercise habits. I haven't had my dosages changed since month 2 (And trust me, they are fine, putting my last hormone test levels at around 111 E and 34 T, which I believe is normal...) and I'm on month 9... The only thing that has changed was my sleep pattern because of school.

So why am I breaking out so much?

The simple truth is that my skin seems WAY more oily than it was last week. I do wear makeup, but it has never done this. I wash my face regularily, but I also took up a supposedly more effective means of skin care. Might that be driving my sebateous glands, or could it be that my dosages are no longer effective??

*Gasp*

holdmeimscared

Over cleaning your face can actually backfire on you. Your body makes up for the lost oil  on your skin if you dry it out too much or too often.

Well that's annoying... Have you found a good, effective way of not turning your cheeks into a desert?

Plain soap and water, twice a day. Pat dry.

It seems like soap and water dries it out more for me. Any other options?

Ponds cold cream instead of soap works well for dry skin.

Is it possible you have stress-related breakouts? I noticed you said you started school. Some people just break out when they're stressed.

You may just be unintentionally too rough with your skin though. Plain soap isn't good for your facial skin. It can dry it out which causes it to overcompensate with oilyness and break out. Face wash followed by a facial mosturizer is much better. Also, maybe look into using makeup remover before washing your face, and possibly using less makeup if you wear a lot? A friend of mine's skin started geting really bad due to overwashing her face and wearing too much makeup over it. After wearing less and being more gentle on her skin (she was washing her face several times in a row just to remove all her makeup, but lowered it to once in the morning and once to remove her makeup) her skin started clearing up.

My roommate also told me drinking the reccommended 8 cups of water helped her out.

In addition to the other suggestions, has going back to school made you change your diet somehow? Are you consuming more wheat or more dairy, for example?

If you're not lactose intolerant this may work for you, (it did for me anyway).
As a teenager I would drink a lot of milk, (as in it would be cheaper for my parents to buy a cow) and water (no soft drink). Yes I did get the occasional blackheads, but nothing an off the shelf cleanser once a day didn't clear up in a day or so.

My point was actually that consuming more wheat and dairy could be one cause of the acne, sorry for being unclear! So my suggestion would be to try cutting down on either or both.