Yeah i was afraid of that about Alesse. Its weird that it says right on the package "treatment of mild/moderate acne". I'm thinking i may react to this one differently because Diane didn't help me at all. My doctor prescribed it and said that I should try it, and if I dont like it, he can switch me back to Diane. I'm very scared, but i also am willing to try it, in case it does work out!

I would like to hear from some other people that it has worked for.

And to Willowb - i didn't really have any side effects at all, no weight gain, no increase/decrease in acne, no stomach aches (i did ahve that on ortho), overall its been ok, i think there has been a slight reduction in oil though.

I started out on Alesse, and it wasn't a nightmare experience like it was for others, but it didn't really help either. I had problems with breakthrough bleeding on it though, so I switched to Ortho Tri-cyclen, which I swear made things worse. Now I've been on Desogen (or Apri, the generic) for over a year and it's been great. My skin hasn't been this clear in a long time. Just my 2 cents - good luck finding something that works :)

Ugh, well i'm not looking forward to starting Alesse on Sunday then. However, Diane has done nothing for me, so I'm just going to try if this works, then if not, switch to a different brand i suppose.

I was hoping that there might be a slight chance that Alesse will work for me, seeing as how Diane didn't. We'll see I suppose.

I have found for myself, I did not do well on any Tri-phasal BC (Ortho Tri-Cyclen) and always continued to break out. Once I switched to a monophasal BC, my face cleared up much much better. I have tried so many, too many to list and Alesse was one that made me break out the most. I did my research from that web sit and others reviews by consumers and looked at all my problems, (acne, breast tenderness, headaches, and etc) and then asked doctor for that pill. It worked and now that I have found the right one, I am feeling a lot better with those problems, especially my acne. My sister-in-law uses a gylcolic acid cleanser in the AM and BP cleanser at PM and 2%SA pads at PM, and her face is looking beautiful. I am actually getting jealous over her results. She swears that's all she has changed. I couldn't tolerate her 12% Glycolic, so I think I might look around for a lower % to try every few days too. Good luck.

I just wanted to update that I have taken my 8th pill of Alesse and I haven't had any huge breakout at all. In fact, my face seems a lot clearer, and my chest has cleared up a lot. Plus I use Capsiderm on my chest, which had helped tremendously. I just hope this is a good sign and it will continue to progress through the month!! :)