"Horrible" Accutane Problems

Las Vegas, NVJulie M. took Accutane in the mid-1990s and was later diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. Julie believes she suffers from Accutane side effects, although she did not make the connection until May 2010. Since that time, she has looked into her records to find proof she was on Accutane medication.


"I started taking Accutane around 1995," Julie says. "From what I recall, I took it for about 18 months. It was after I got off of it that I started having problems. Somewhere before 1999 I started having all kinds of stomach problems. I lost weight and I couldn't keep anything in. I ended up having a colonoscopy and I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis and irritable bowel syndrome.

"I just got really sick for a while. I remember blow-drying my hair and I would have to take a break because I was so weak. Then, in 2005, I woke up in the night with horrible stomach pains. I started throwing up. I thought it was my appendix, so I woke up my husband, who called an ambulance. I couldn't even walk. I spent six days in the hospital and had another colonoscopy. I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease.

"I've talked to lawyers about this. I come from a big family—I have four siblings—and no one else in my family has any of these problems, including my parents.

"The thing is, I don't think I should have been on Accutane. I didn't have acne. I had cysts and occasionally would get a cyst on my face. But the cysts would be deep and far underneath my skin. The Accutane didn't work for that. I was on it for 18 months and at one point, the doctor had to cut my face to get at three cysts that had abscessed and grown together. I still have the scar from that.

"I don't have pain [from the ulcerative colitis or the Crohn's disease] every day. I compare it to herpes: You can be infected and have flare-ups every 10 years or every few months. Everybody's different. It's always with you, but it doesn't mean you'll always be sick. I'm lucky because I haven't been sick badly enough for surgery of any kind.

"I was on steroids for a while at first, but the doctor weaned me off them. I've had two colonoscopies. They're horrible. People shouldn't have them until they're 50 unless there's a serious problem, and I had two by the time I was 40-ish.

"I was really sick before I was first diagnosed. The only good thing was I lost weight in a short time. But it's horrible running to the bathroom all the time. When I was diagnosed I had pus coming out of me and I was collecting my own stool samples. It was awful."