Do I need to come off the pill before I can do something about my acne?
I can’t tell you how many times I get asked this before people book in to work with me.
The answer is...
*drum roll*
Nope.
The length of the road to healing hormonal acne depends on where you’re starting from.
This is something so many women don’t know.
There are a lot of aspects that affect your hormone balance, your liver function, your gut capacity, your microbiome...
And, honestly, if you don’t have
a great diet
good stress management techniques
optimal personalised skincare routines
...then coming off the pill just means that you’ve got to get all these foundations set within the 3 months that we have before post-pill acne usually sets in!
A good diet is absolutely essential for so many things - and your skin health is one of them.
Without good intake of essential fatty acids, you can’t create good sebum (aka skin oil).
Without good digestion, you can’t break down and metabolise the essential fatty acids properly, which once again means you can’t create good sebum.
If you’re stripping your skin of good oils each day by washing your face with harsh chemicals and products...
If you’ve got gut issues like bloating and nausea...
If you’ve got high stress levels and you’re not sleeping properly and feeling exhausted...
If you’re not pooping superbly and have constipation or diarrhoea...
Then NO you don’t have to come off the pill right now to fix your acne.
You can give yourself some time to build these foundations to prepare yourself for the inevitable breakouts that are to come once you come off the pill.
Healing is like building a house!
It’s recognising (unfortunately usually through pain or problems) where there’s been a lack of care and attention in our home.
And it’s taking the time to look closely at what’s causing the problems, and putting effort and energy into fixing them ❤️
If you’ve got a house that has a huge hole in the roof and a termite infestation, the last thing you worry about doing is putting in new carpet... right?
Your diet, your stress management, your skincare routine, your gut function... these are the foundations of the home that is within you.
Sometimes coming off the pill before you’ve got these foundations sorted is like ripping the roof off and then realising it takes months to rebuild it.
Meanwhile, the foundations of your home aren’t there, and everything starts to feel very apocalyptic 😧
The easiest people to work with to get great results are those that have already built their foundations.
Sure, they might need a little fine-tuning... but the foundations are there.
We don’t have to start with nutrition education and the importance of exercise, because it’s already being done.
If you have your foundations sorted, then putting that roof back on is much quicker.
If you have your foundations sorted, then coming off the pill is your next step.
But coming off the pill is not necessarily the first step in fixing hormonal acne.
👉🏼Having the right foundations is step one.
👉🏼Understanding the unique factors causing your acne is step two.
👉🏼Having a thorough plan to change it is step three.
So, if you’re still on the pill and you know you want to come off it, but you know you’re going to deal with hormonal acne...
Let me ask...
Where are your foundations at?
That’s the most important place to start!
If you need help building them, get in touch, and we can work together to create a plan for you that’s going to work!
