The Road to Clear Skin
- Sierra Gillespie
- Aug 20, 2015
- 2 min read
As a female, the process to receive Accutane is quite lengthy and thorough. Besides the fact that dermatologist offices are usually booked up months in advance, one cannot receive a prescription for Accutane upon your first visit. It’s one of the most severe prescriptions I’ve ever even heard of—so does the benefit outweigh the cost? (Answer to come in five to six months.)
Step One Make your dermatologist appointment
This is an initial consultation, where your dermatologist approves you for Accutane, has you sign away your soul in blood for the iPledge program, and informs you of the side effects of the drug.
Step Two Take your first pregnancy test and blood test
In order to be approved to start Accutane, woman are required to complete two negative pregnancy tests (at least 30 days apart). In addition, the first appointment includes a blood test, checking to make sure you’re at a healthy level to start the treatment. Throughout the course of treatment, each monthly appointment includes a blood test to makes sure the drug isn’t affecting the patient too harshly. Accutane puts intense pressure on the liver, so it’s incredibly important that dermatologist monitor your blood levels before writing out a prescription.
Step Three Sign up for iPledge online and pass your first quiz
Without iPledge, there is no Accutane. Each patient must first complete her pregnancy and blood tests, a doctor’s consultation and the iPledge quiz each month before the pharmacy is even allowed to begin compiling the prescription. My first dermatologist told me that iPledge was founded to stop women from getting pregnant while on Accutane. Each quiz asks questions regarding safe sex, further emphasizing the effects of pregnancy while on Accutane.
Step Four Pick up your prescription and start the madness
Essentially self-explanatory. Make sure to take the drug on a full stomach, and drink 8 glasses of water per day. In a conversation with my friend Chase, who completed two courses of Accutane, I texted him “my lips are killing me today! Like chunks of them are just peeling off and it’s kinda disgusting…” Chase, ever so coolly replied, “Ah yes, shout out to how your lips will be for the next five months. Let me know when they start bleeding.”
Step Five
Lather, rinse, repeat
This process will be one you must complete for the next four to five months, plus an additional visit 30 days after the completion of the drug for one final pregnancy and blood test. All these hoops to jump through for an acne medicine—the side effects must be pretty intense, right?
Left: Sierra Gillespie holds her first monthly prescription of Accutane on August 11, 2015, after jumping through months of hoops to receive it.
Photo by Tom Tschillard
Comments