How To Deal With Acne During Pregnancy

“Whether your pregnancy was meticulously planned, medically coaxed, or happened by surprise, one thing is certain – your life will never be the same.”

– Catherine Jones.

I read this quote a few days back and I couldn’t agree more. While I do feel proud of the fact that we women have this wonderful power of creating life/giving birth, but this whole 9 months+ journey can be really challenging to sail through. Pregnancy brings along a whole lot of changes in a woman’s body and most of them I would say are dreadful and depressing, starting from weight gain, mood swings, hormonal imbalances leading to hair fall or skin problems like pigmentation, acne, stretch marks, etc. The amount and severity of such problems also differs from body to body, I have seen a lot of women enjoying their pregnancies without any issue.

Acne pregnancy

I had a terrible bout of acne during the first 3months of my pregnancy which reduced later on with proper care and medication (and also due to the fact that your body adapts to all the elevated hormonal levels with time).
Ok, so I do not intend to make this whole pregnancy chapter too gloomy for all the moms to-be reading this article, but what I would like to share in my today’s post is how I dealt with acne during pregnancy, what are the right medicines/OTC ointments which are safe and what ingredients you MUST avoid.

Dealing with pregnancy acne can be tricky, majorly for two reasons, a- taking in medicines can harm the growing foetus/baby and b-many prescription and OTC acne treatments come with a high risk of birth defects.

Acne pregnancy

So, I consulted a dermatologist for my acne treatment during pregnancy and all the information I am sharing today is what I was advised to do. You can also go ahead and consult a dermatologist before following whatever I suggest in the post today.
I will start with the OTC ointments I was advised to reduce /treat acne with:

1. Clindamycin – Faceclin Gel or Foracne gel. Clindamycin is an antibiotic used for fighting bacterial infections and a very popular, common topical treatment for acne. I remember started with Clindamycin only, when I had acne for the first time.

You can check Faceclin gel’s full review here.

Acne pregnancy

2. Nadifloxacin- Nadoxin Gel and Cream.

Nadifloxacin is a topical fluoroquinolone antibiotic used for the treatment of acne vulgaris. It is also used to treat bacterial skin infections. My skin is combination to oily, so I prefer the gel form, but if you have dry skin, you can try Nadoxin cream. I switched between Nadoxin and Faceclin gel every month, as I feel my skin gets prone to one ointment and stops working/showing results.

Acne pregnancy

You can check Nadoxin Gel’s full review here.

For cleansing, it was suggested that I should any mild cleanser like Cetaphil/Cleansin Lotion or any other cleanser which does not contain salicylic acid or benzoyl peroxide. So, I started using the following cleansers alternatively:

1. Cetaphil cleansing lotion.

2. Forest Essentials Delicate Facial cleanser Kashmiri Saffron and Neem.

3. Vichy normaderm Purifying Gel Cleanser.

Mostly, I avoided moisturising my face, but when I felt my skin was a little dry, I would use Cetaphil moisturising Lotion or Forest Essentials Panchpushp Replenishing Facial Gel.

Now, coming to the second part, i.e., the Ingredients You MUST avoid in skin care products during pregnancy as such medications would pose an increased risk of birth defects since these are easily absorbed by the body and pass through the mother’s blood stream and could potentially harm the baby:

1. Salicylic Acid.
2. Retinol in the form of retinoids like Adapalene, Tretinoin, Differin
3. Benzoyl peroxide (My Derma insisted I should avoid this even though there are references available stating it safe)

Apart from these, a pregnant woman MUST avoid the following prescription acne treatments that can cause birth defects
1. Accutane
2. Tetracyclne,doxycycline and minocycline
3. Isotretinoin
4. Hormone therapy which includes the “female” hormone estrogen and the anti-androgens flutamide and spironolactone.

Lastly, I would suggest that one should always consult your doctor/health care provider before taking ANY medications during pregnancy, whether prescription or over-the-counter.

Also, the pointers mentioned above are very much applicable when you are in lactation or when you breast feed the baby.
When it comes to skin problems, I prefer treating it with chemicals/ointments initially and later opt for natural treatments/ home remedies when the problem has subsided a little. If you prefer the all au naturel way to treat acne, you can go through the following articles available on IMBB.

Hope my post is of some help to all the would-be-mothers who wish to treat their pregnancy acne. I would be more than happy to know about any other treatment options available, so please do mention them in the comments below.

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24 thoughts on “How To Deal With Acne During Pregnancy

  1. Nuruuriii, BIG HUG!!! This is a brilliant article and an amazing tips that would help not only moms-to-be but also women in general. :)) *puchhi* *puchhi*

    1. Goooodmorninggg Ratiii *happy dance* Biggghugggsssss teiko b *puchhi*
      N thankuuuu 😀
      I remember discussing abt this topic once wid u n u said I shud definitely write about it *haan ji*

  2. omg!! nupur.. just what i needed.. thank u soo soooo much *puchhi* *puchhi* *puchhi* *puchhi* going thru a terrible terrible bout of acne.. in my 17th week now.. *ghost* *ghost*

      1. Dats great pia, many congratulations 🙂 take gud care 🙂
        Don’t worry abt it, pregnancy acne is just temporary *haan ji*
        M sure u must b getting loads f advices frm almost every female u know , but I just want to suggest that be Happpyyy *happy dance* n eat healthy 🙂

  3. Hi Nupur!! Welcome back… I always saw ur hand in gravatar picture and now seeing you is such a delight.. You are so cute!!!
    I am also going with acne treatment n I have been advised to use following items:
    aclind gel
    epiduo
    kojic skin lightening cream, few multivitamins,
    sebamed n cetaphil cleansers
    sebamed gel and peels and rollin and all this has drastically redused my acne. Now I hardly get acnes

    1. Hi Neha 🙂 thanku so much 🙂
      I never took my gravatar too seriously, but when u mentioned about it som days back , I thought of changing it 😛 😛

      1. Seamed n cetaphil r really good , have tried them too *haan ji* haven’t heard abt aclind n epiduo tho, let me gooooglesss *duh*
        Kojic cream is fr getting rid f scars naa, I used it around 3-4 yrs back, now m planning to go fr glycolic peels. *haan ji*

          1. Yeah I mentioned on instagram.
            yeah all these r good items but not sure about using then during pregenancy..
            I am taking peels n they r actually effective 🙂 but I dont know why they charge so much for just a thin layer of gel. I had 4 sessions, nothing to worry n I got 1pimple after four weeeks of completion of sittings. So this is not a permenant ilaaz 🙁

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