I was on Accutane (generic name Sotret) for several months this year. I timed it so that I would be finished with the course a little over a month before my wedding (the amount of time needed to clear the drug from your system). I was also adament about not using birth control. I actually didn’t have as difficult a time convincing the doctor to prescribe it without me being on b.c. as I had anticipated. I told her my fiance and I were Catholic and that we were waiting for to have sex until we were married and that birth control was out of the question. She believed me.
To get a prescription, though, you do have to jump through a bunch of hoops. Women need a blood test every month to test for pregnancy and liver damage. They make you sign up for a program called ipledge through which both the patient and her doctor answer questions about her chosen method of birth control every month. The doctor’s answers have to match the patient’s answers in order for the prescription to get filled. That is, if the patient says he or she is going to be abstinent, the doctor has to put that too. Then the patient has to answer questions about abstinence (or condoms or the pill…)
Abstinence is an option through ipledge. It is the only option in ipledge that doesn’t require a “back-up” method, despite what some nurses at your dermatologist’s office may claim. Though doctors may discourage it as your daughter’s “primary method,” erroneously assuming that she’s lying about not having sex, they are allowed to legally prescribe it if a woman plans to be abstinent.
That said, accutane wreaks havoc on your skin while you’re on it. Your skin can break out worse that it has in the past. It will get very dry and flaky. Your lips get chapped and sometimes bleed. People have reported nose bleeds, eye trouble, joint aches and pains. It can have other more serious side effects as well.
I would do it again in a heartbeat.
