Tips to Choose Oral Contraceptives for Acne

Tips on choosing the right oral contraceptive to treat acne:

Many women in their adolescence, pre-menstrual periods, pregnancy, menopause and post-menopause periods tend to suffer from bouts of acne. Though there are many over the counter medications and topical applications that can be used to treat this acne, it has also been proven that oral contraceptives are effective in treating acne.

Lots of research and studies were conducted to find out the effects of oral contraceptives on acne. And in most cases, it was found that oral contraceptives were effective in treating acne vulgaris. In fact, oral contraceptives tend to show a beneficial effect on the severity of acne in a woman.

On making comparisons, it was found that ethinylestradiol/drospirenone was just as effective as ethinylestradiol/cyproterone and better than ethinylestradiol/desogestrel and ethinylestradiol/gestodene. In addition to this, it was found that ethinylestradiol/chlormadinone is more effective than ethinylestradiol/levonorgestrel and just as effective as ethinylestradiol/norethindrone.

The reason contraceptives are effective in controlling and reducing acne is that all contraceptives contain estrogen and progestin, and thereby prevent the ovarian production of androgens by suppressing ovulation. With this, the serum androgen levels are lowered, and this in turn leads to a reduction in the secretion of sebum, and thus treats acne.

Oral contraceptives are usually resorted to only when there is no response to other standard acne treatments, when the woman suffers from severe sebum secretion and acne starts in adulthood, only to worsen before menstruation.

However this does not mean that any woman can start taking oral contraceptives to treat acne. It is depending on the estrogen progestin balance that the efficiency of an oral contraceptive is decided upon. It is the progestins that bring about alterations in lipid profiles, and increases serum glucose while interfering on the beneficial effects of estrogen. It is when the estrogen levels are higher than progestin levels that there is a reduction in acne. However with the opposite, acne tends to worsen and may flare up in some women too.

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