Tips on managing (hormonal) Acne outbreak - Part II

Okay, after an intensive round of research on the net and speaking to different doctors, dermatologist and beauticians, (god, I sound like the research analyst from my company already) I have concluded on a few of things:

• Doctors and Dermatologists are as clueless as you and I on the topics. Either that or they have no solutions after all. Well, correction, they do. Do you want to get pregnant? No? Here is your accutane. Yes? May god help you and pray for the best. Okay, they didn’t say that. But they would ignore your questions, stare intensively at your records and announce solemnly that you need to be long courses of antibiotics. MONTHS of antibiotics.

• My beauticians from Leonard drake are even more helpless. They rotated long stares between my impossible number of whiteheads and my wedding date on the calendar and then proclaimed my condition to be hormonal. *Surprise surprise* And that I should really see a doctor. *what am I doing here with you then??* But they did keep me from having a disastrous acne riddled wedding. For that I shall give them wee bit of credit.

• As I went along the terrible month, stories of hormonal acne sufferers streamed in. First it was Yong’s uncle’s sister’s …… (I never figured who exactly) ….’s sister in law who had hormonal acne outbreak BEFORE the wedding.And after tearful rounds of talks with Doris (owner of the hydratherapy spa), I learned she went through the same thing but in worse way since she was also the principal of a beauty school. Flowerpod is filled with stories in the line of “I always had clear skin then all hell broke loose”. My boss struggled with this after her pregnancy. Etc etc etc.. It felt good knowing that I was not alone. As Joy (my curent beautician from Franz de Paris) aptly summarized it – every ten years, our body changes. You may develop an allergy you never had. Pregnancy may change your body forever. An extra stressful or emotionally charged period may trigger (often negative) responses and changes to the body. I know how futile this sound if you are in a middle of a outbreak but the truth is, it is a phase. Something that will come and GO away. Once the changes settle, your body will find its way back to equilibrium. Yes, it will. Once we stop panicking and stop focusing on the problem. Will talk about this in a while.

• Nonetheless, it was hard to maintain a happy composure with a swollen face, bouts of throbbing pain and pus/blood oozing out every time I wash my face (gross I know but I am not exaggerating!). I seriously needed help to get out of the depressing rut. But…

• Antibiotics did not helped. Antibiotics in simple terms prevents inflammation and infection of wounds. It helped at first when it was just whiteheads. But did not do any bit to retain the spread of the acne. And it seriously screwed up my digestive system.

• Facial at Leonard Drake did not helped. LD beautician was not skilled enough to clear the headless whiteheads. After much futile (and extremely painful) facials, they declare me a “must see doctor” customer.

• TCM probably would help. But I did not give it time to realize the benefits. I was popping too many antibiotics to maintain the 2 hours gap between TCM and western medicine rule. And I went with antibiotics. Nevertheless, TCM works because for the two weeks I took TCM solely, my digestive system never felt better and my insomnia improved tremendously. Sleepless nights were reduced from every other night to only once a week. And I am sure I would be completely cured of insomnia if I carried on.

• Hydrotherapy helped but not fast and significant enough. It did contained and flattened some of the acne after a week of intensive spa (once to twice a day). But liked TCM, it is meant for overall health and wellness. Oh I have to mention how it completely cured my insomnia. After switching over to antibiotics, I still had trouble sleeping at least once a week. But after a few session of hydrotherapy, I felt calmer and more relaxed. And since then *touch wood* I have been sleeping like a baby every night.

As mentioned earlier the real improvement came when Joy came to my rescue. She swiftly and meticulously purged every single nasty pus filled acne and as she often says, it is necessary to plug out the “root” of the acne. If not, you will end up with the acne appearing over and over again at the same spot. Unfortunately, if the squeezing of the acne is done inappropriately, it will definitely spread to the neighboring pores and goes on the speedy voyage of conquering your face.


The rapid clearing of the ugly bumps on my face improved my mood EXPONENTIALLY. And this in turn had a positive effect on my mental and emotional well-being. I stopped looking woefully at the mirror every ten minutes, enjoyed baking instead of just doing it as a distraction, took interests in events around me, noticed that the colors of trees, plants and flowers are actually not in monochrome.. .. .. you get the idea.


So if you ask me what is the solution to my hormonal acne. It is a combination of:

1. An experienced beautician  
2. Hydrotherapy or TCM or any kind of holistic treatment to bring your body back to balance and most importantly
3. RELAX and Distract

There are a whole range of hormonal medications out there e.g. birth control pills, which aim to introduce artificial hormones into your body since it is not capable of producing sufficiently. But we all know about the side effects of that. Especially post medication. Therefore I am an advocate for a more natural remedy. But pair it with a good beautician to keep your sanity.

I am currently on TCM, back on running every week and started taking daily multi vits. And in God’s mysterious way of doing things, my weekends had been packed to the brim with baby showers, family and friends visits, plays (vlee conference was fantastic!), bday celebrations and hardly any time to muse over my acne any more.


I am going on to scar and mark treatment soon with Joy. Prob concurrently with Leonard Drake. While I have lost faith in them for healing acne, I will probably go back for scar treatment. After all, they did take care of my skin well for the last 3 years. And, well, I do have quite a number of LD facials left unused!

In time to come, I will probably do another post on my progress. Stay tuned.