Accutane And Infertility (Page 6) (Top voted first)

I took accutane almost 14 years ago as a teenager. I am now a 32 year old woman who has just been diagnosed with infertility that they believe is linked to autoimmune issues. I truly believe that accutane is the cause of this; from the research that I have done it seems that accutane has been linked to other thyroid-related diseases, but that they have not yet been able to prove a link between accutane and infertility. There are, however, actually more people like me out there than I originally thought. Being diagnosed with ovarian dysfunction has been a horrific, horrific blow. And while there was plenty of information about accutane and birth defects, no one ever mentioned a possibility of future infertility. I was a teenager! This is a tragedy and I believe something should be done about it. If you too have been affected diagnosed with infertility and have taken accutane, please email me. There are plenty of suits against accutance. If there are enough of us, we can come together to do the medical research and get the help we now need.

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i think the case (as for a lot of us) is you had pcos (which causes fertility problems) and it was this pcos that caused the acne that required you to take accutane. the pcos was already there but the first symptom to manifest itself was the acne

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I took roaccutaine for about 4 years for severe acne. Married ant 25 and wanted a family. 7 years of trying and was told to give up. Only after reading online have I begun to suspect roaccutane. I now have 2 sons after an experimental treatment called lipiodal flushing where the uterus is moisturized with a natural oil. Was pregnant within 6 weeks of the treatment. I wonder if there is a link between the drying affect of roacutane and the moisturising of the lipiodal. Dr Neil Johnson in New Zealand pioneered the research to this treatment with 37% success rate.

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I understand that this a support forum and I am a huge fan of support forums.

However, have you researched the incidence of infertility in women with severe acne who have NOT taken Accutane? Is it any different than 50 years ago before Accutane was even discovered.

Another issue that you might want to consider or research is whether there is a common link between severe acne and infertility such as inflammation?

The same severe inflammation in the skin that arises at puberty may also arise in the ovaries and lead to premature ovarian failure or scars in the ovaries just as in the skin.

This seems to be the case with inflammatory bowel disease. It's not caused by Accutane, it's caused by the same inflammatory process that takes place in the skin.

The same thing happens with psoriasis, not only are the skin and joints inflamed, but blood vessels in the heart and brain, leading to a greatly increased rate of premature death in psoriasis from cardiovascular events. Treating the psoriasis with the new biologic medicine not only clears your skin and saves your joints but also your life.

I expect everyone treated with Accutane was first treated with a tetracycline class drug (also includes doxycycline and minocycline) These drugs have profound effects. Perhaps it is the longer treatment with the tetracyclines in people with severe acne that causes the infertility.

How many of the people in this forum were treated with tetracyclines?

The rise in infertility may be linked to the earlier onset of menarche. In 1850 when all they had were whale oil and wax candles menarche was at 16-18 years old. Now it is down to 9 years old. Maybe the extra 100+ menstrual cycles from 9 to 16 cause the premature ovarian failure. Maybe ovaries are good for 300 cycles or 25 years, so if you start at age 18 your ovaries are good until age 43 and if you start at age 9, they last to age 34. Maybe the effect of ovulation on immature ovaries is 2 or 3 times as bad. Then there are all the hormones and estrogen like chemicals in our food. Even the groundwater is contaminated with hormones from birth control pills flushed down the toilets.

This forum will never reach the people who have the exact same problems but never took Accutane.

If the only purpose of this forum is to vent, then my posts are useless. If you truly want to find out what is happening with your infertility, consider the possibilities that I have mentioned, these barely scratch the surface.

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The internet didn't even exist when I was prescribed this medicine. I'm in my 40's now and I can assure you that the few side affects I was told about were: dry skin / lips, easy to sunburn, possible nose bleeds and "don't get pregnant" while on the medication. I had monthly blood tests to test for something else - was it liver or kidney function or something? Also, they told me not to take vitamin A. I was on this drug, and a high dose too, for many years (4).

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What kind of person are you? If you have any sense of decency, you will leave us be. My heart just aches for a child and I know I am not the only one. This forum title may have brought us here but this has been a good place for those of us suffering from infertility to share our experiences. Only time will tell whether or not there will be any findings to verify our concerns about Accutane and infertility.

Your posts are insulting and unless you are suffering from infertility as well, you have NO business being here.

For those of you who want to keep up the discussion, please don't let this so called, "Dermatology Doc" ruin things for everyone. Let's just ignore these comments and focus on coming together. It really helps to know there are others out there who are suffering from the same disease as myself. I do not know anyone personally and it has been so difficult to cope with. Talking with others has been really helpful for me and I know it will help others as well.

To Dermatology Doc, I know you will respond to this because of your know it all nature. I am done wasting my time with the likes of you.

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Accurate, germane, concise, helpful, but unwanted by some.

Sorry to burst your pity bubble with actual facts.

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Just an FYI. There have been two studies that link accutane and infertility. It's on pubweb.gov. Here is the link
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
Type "accutane and infertility" it will bring up the two studies

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Okay, it is awful to be dealing with infertility. That said, I wish people would stop trying to blame accutane for everything that ever ails them once they've taken it. There is no credible evidence that accutane causes infertility. (I myself took it at age 18 and again at 24 and I have five children, the last one born when I was 40!) I feel terrible for anyone traveling the lonely and frustrating road of infertility, but we all need to remember, correlation is not causation.

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Well written! I too had similar diagnosis - poor egg quality, early onset menopause etc. Fortunately there is an experimental doctor here in New Zealand who made a world first discovery. His treatment is called Lipiodal flushing and it's simple and it works with a higher % rate than IVF for certain infertility types esp. endometriosis but also with unexplained infert. You may wish to consider it. It's relatively cheap and fairly non invasive (particularly so compared to IVF etc). Just google it. My doc's name is Dr Neil Johnson to add to a google search.

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Lauren, I just wanted to say we have similar stats. 26, recently married, was just offered generic Accutane and will want to start a family in the next couple years. This drug is no joke, there are so many side effects both short and long term and I do not think I will be taking it. I wanted to thank you for all your posts.

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Millions of people suffer from infertility who have never been within 100 feet of Accutane. While Accutane is a harsh drug infertility is not a listed side effect. Maybe you are just infertile? It happens to people every day.

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I am 27 years old. I took accutane when I was 17. My wife and I have had trouble getting pregnant. We found out that I have 0% motility in my sperm. I have not taken any drugs that are out of the ordinary in my life except for accutane. My family on both sides have absolutely no issues with infertility. I am the first. I'm also the first to take accutane. I'm very concerned that accutane is the issue here. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like a lot of serious studies on this... yet!

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I took Accutane as a teenager for a few months for Acne, I stopped taking it as I watched a tv programme describing the effects it had on people. I was not feeling good at the time. Since then I have dry lips all the time.
I am now 32 and had unexplainable infertility problems . I have had all the tests . I have been having unprotected sex with my partner for 3 years. I just heard about infertility as a side effect.

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I have had two round sof accutane and have been infertile for 5 years. Unexplained infertility is what they told me. I have always had a sneaking suspiscion that Accutane had to be involved somehow. I would be very interested in persuiing this.

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I am 42 and have been trying to conceive for 12 years. I am classified as unexplained. I took accutane at age 14 and I believe this is the cause for my infertility. It is extremely heartbreaking, I am in Canada, but would be interested in knowing more about this!!

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I took roaccutane in my early 20's and am unable to conceive, now in my early 40's, was made aware of birth defects but none to do with conceiving

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I took Accutane at 18 for severe cystic acne that wouldn't respond to anything else. After struggling with infertility for a year I was recently diagnosed with POF at age 30 - high FSH, few eggs, very poor egg quality. I had normal periods before Accutane, went on birth control pills for 11 years, and now that I'm off the pill, have super-light periods that barely last a day. I'm not sure if Accutane caused my reproductive problems, or if I've always had an underlying condition that affects hormones (and causes acne) and has over time ruined my ovaries. All I know is that I was warned about Accutane causing serious birth defects, but was told nothing about the possibility of infertility.

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I am 25 year old male and was on accutane for 3 months for mild but persistent acne last year. I did read up on the risks beforehand but my dermatologist assured me it was safe even after voicing my concerns. I have not had any side effects since stopping the medication. However i do not remember hearing about possible sterility and after reading all of these comments i got a bit nervous so i would like to know if anyone has any more information on the topic or a link to information.

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Accutane's effect on ovaries, infertility is comming to light: informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/09513590.2013.860118

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I don't understand the results of the study based on accutane's affect on AMH. It lowers AMH. Isn't a high level of AMH a sign of low ovarian reserves and possible infertility?

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