Question Dear Dr. Fisher,
You have a lot of expertise-- I wish I had a more exciting
question for you!
I am a 41 year old female who has recently (past 4 months) been
experiencing ssome pustular rosacea in my mouth-lip folds.
Kind of a red moustache effect. My doctor's NP prescribed
metrogel, which did not work. Now I am taking doxycycline 2x
per day for 7 days, then 1x per day after that. In just two days I
have seen an improvement.
Q#1: Should I continue to use the metrogel (1%) in conjunction
with the doxycycline?
Q#2: The NP gave me an RX for 90 pills with two refills (!) That
seems like a lot of days-- do I need to take the doxycycline until
the RX and the refills are gone or just for a few weeks? So far
I've had no adverse effects from the pills.
Thank you for your time-- I appreciate it.
-Pam
Answer You need to continue both medications, the metrogel 1% and the Doxycycline. Rosacea can be controlled but not cured. Therefore you will need to be on the antibiotics for a number of months. Short cources of antibiotics just cause a flare when the medication has stopped. Remember the doxycycline can cause increase in sunsensitivity, so make sure you put on the sun screen. Go to the web site
www.rosacea.org and look up the tripwires which are agents that make the rosacea worse and avoid the ones that make your rosacea worse.
