I've thought long and hard about whether to write this review for the past 3.5 years, and after all these years of self-gaslighting I realized that I needed to share my story. This is something that I actually think about each and every single day--no exaggeration--and I am truly full of regret.
I was considering Accutane because I get painful cystic acne pretty much anywhere on my body, and I was tired of having to blot/wipe my extremely oily T-zone every hour. When I asked Dr. Krishnan whether any of her past Accutane patients had any complaints at all,
*** she flat out said NOPE, none at all ***
At the time, I figured wow this is great, she's probably seen hundreds of patients through Accutane, this is good validation.
Everything was pretty smooth and our monthly checkins were a breeze. However, for my last 2 months, Dr. Krishnan decided to bump my dosage to 80 mg/day, saying it would prevent recurrence. I put my trust in her again, but shortly after I finished was the beginning of the hell that I've only now begun to accept. And wasn't until much later that I realized that she OVERDOSED ME, that the medical literature clearly recommends against going past the cumulative dose threshold. Shocked that she doesn't know this.
My beautiful, super thick (admittedly very oily), wavy, healthy hair began falling out in clumps. Prior to this I would always complain about how thick and unmanageable my hair was, and I'd get it thinned out every time I went for a haircut. Barbers would ask me what hair product I use but I honestly didn't use or need hair product because my hair naturally behaved as if it always had hair product in it! But now, my hair would not stop falling out, and the individual strands themselves became super thin, dry, and weak. After a year of this daily trauma, my hair loss seemed to slow to normal shedding, but the damage had already been done and by then I had lost about HALF of my hair density. There was nothing genetic or natural about this. This happened to the hair *everywhere*, including armpit, pubic, legs, etc.--everywhere. That doesn't just naturally happen so suddenly in the span of a year.
When I asked Dr. Krishnan what to do, she recommended Rogaine. No empathy whatsoever for the trauma I was experiencing, and the unspoken expectation was that woops something went wrong well I guess you can take this new drug now, twice daily for the rest of your life, not to mention that it's known for an intense initial shedding period, which ofc she didn't mention.
As if that wasn't traumatizing enough, my skin everywhere (and lips) became SUPER dry and I started getting eczema and chapped lips when I literally never had them before. I also didn't know how blessed I was to have never needed chapstick. It honestly felt like my skin had aged 10 years, just like that. I've spent years finding the right skin & hair products and regimens that work best for me and the damage has been so traumatic that I'm finding myself starting that journey all over again. I need completely different products now that my skin and hair have been permanently damaged and changed.
Also, my vision is notably worse, my night vision is terrible now, my eyes are considerably drier and itchier, and I see halos around every light source. These are not uncommon side effects but it's yet another thing she failed to mention.
Finally, the last reason I went on Accutane was for my steatocystomas--think many cysts popping up everywhere under the skin and staying permanently. They were benign and never hurt, so it was purely an aesthetic issue for me. Now, they're much, much worse. Every time a new one comes up, instead of staying small and under the skin, it would ERUPT through the skin. It's very painful and takes forever to heal. Not only that, it never heals completely, instead leaving dark scars and indentations.
Trying to be proactive about the indentations, the next time one erupted through my skin, I consulted Dr. Krishnan and she advised steroid injections, which we did, even though they were a little expensive. At first I was pleasantly surprised since it significantly reduced the span of the most painful part, but then I ended up with an indentation in my chest where she did the injection (see pic) which is still there to this day. Again, like clockwork, she recommended yet another treatment, this time with very strong tri-chloroacetic acid (TCA). At this point I figured, if every procedure I've done here has ended disastrously, why keep making things worse? And it was only after I asked some detailed questions about the procedure that she agreed that it might make it worse.
To her credit, unlike with the steroid injections, she offered the acid treatment free of charge, but I decided not to keep making things worse and give my body a break.
Honestly Dr. Krishnan will probably deliver great results for you for something basic, but don't go here for Accutane, any kinds of cysts, or specialized/advanced care. read more