Re: Warning! Diane 35 (Dianette) and Saw Palmetto

>Warning!
>I was previously using Saw Palmetto but I didn't notice any improvement
> in regards to less facial hair. However I did notice that the Acne on
> my face cleared up beautifully while I was using it. So about 6 months
> ago I got the courage up to see my doctor and he put me on Diane 35
>(Dianette). It has drastically improved my facial hair problem, I went
> from plucking twice daily to now plucking maybe once a week and the hair
> is so fine I'm not even sure I need to do that, and I am hoping I will
> have even more improvements as I have read that it can take up to 18
> months to work. I had no horrible side affects while I've been on Diane
> 35 like some people seem to experience EXCEPT I started getting lots of
> horrible Acne all over my face. 6 months later it still hadn't cleared
> so I decided to start using Saw Palmetto again. I stupidly didn't check
> with my doctor (because I didn't want to pay $60 just to ask him a question)
> but I thought it would be okay because they are both supposed to stop
> facial hair growth. ITS NOT. I am warning everyone here DO NOT TAKE SAW
> PALMETTO WHEN YOU ARE ON DIANE 35. Within a week my facial hair was back
> with a vengance, as bad as it ever was. Horrified I stopped taking Saw
> Palmetto and did some research on the net. It turns out that Saw Palmetto
> works by blocking testosterone receptors AND eostrogen receptors (or
> something like that) so it was effectively cancelling any affect Diane
> 35 had. Thankfully it didn't have any lasting problems and after stopping
> Saw Palmetto my facial hair growth slowed down and about a week later it
> was back to where it was before I went back on Saw Palmetto. I guess I
> will just have to be patient and wait for the Diane 35 to clear up my
> Acne (it is supposed to do this as well).

Sorry you've had a rather nasty experience.
What you've told us just illustrates that there's no such thing as a free lunch.
Female facial hair is caused by some combination of hormonal conditions, current and/or historical, which causes our bodies to respond in the same sort of way as a male's body does and produce male-type facial hair.
Yes, of course it's possible to play around with our hormones to bring them more into line with the normal female pattern, but there are invariably other effects, some of which may not become apparent till years afterwards. And some of them may be quite surprising.
One of my sisters has, like me, facial hair growth. Unlike me, since the time she left university she's simply let it grow, which has meant that almost all her adult life she has had a moustache of almost-male proportions. She's also been quite masculine in most ways, except for the fact that she has (unlike me :-( ) a good figure. She's gone on to hrt and her moustache is fast disappearing. But her personality has completely changed -- from being pretty masculine in character, she's gone all girly and none of us know what to make of her. I think we'd all have preferred it if she'd stayed the way she was.
I've no desire at all for that sort of change in personality and I'd rather leave my hormonal balance the way it works out naturally. To me, shaving's no trouble, the fact that I shave just like he does doesn't bother my husband or for that matter my kids -- it's just part of life. And most of the wider community doesn't know anyway.