Retin-A Micro? Is it safe for me?

Question

So I am 18 and have little to someitmes none acne anymore. I know how to deal with my skin and what my daily skin care regimin is, but 1-2 weeks before "that time of month" i get large, red, hard pimple with no head usually on my forehead or nose.

My dermatologist prescribed Retin-A Micro but said it may only make matters worse and that I should only use it on those big pimples. Today (it's night where I am) i just applied a small amount to the pimple on my nose and I'm incredibly terrified about what could happen.

HELP!? Anyone use it?! Experiences?

It's treotin .1%

Answer 1

My doctor gave me a prescription for the same, and told me to only use a pea-sized amount, and that's for my whole face (from the sound of it, my acne is worse than yours). The worst thing about Retin-A is that, for the first week or two, it BURNS, even just that pea-sized amount. It gets better tho. I was told that it would make my acne redder and more prominent for the first 4-6 weeks, and then it would start to make it better. So far that has been true. For the first month I used the Retin-A, my acne grew slightly worse than it had been, and the stuff only just started to help about two or three weeks ago.

However, I use the Retin-A in conjunction with Benzaclin, which may make my input irrelevant. For the record, my acne still sucks, just not as much as before. The two acne creams are helping, but haven't cleared it up by any means. This isn't entirely surprising though. Nothing works for me.