Has anyone had pulse light laser therapy done for any reason? I'm thinking about getting rid of some age spots and some tiny little blood vessels that are starting to appear on my face. from what i've read about it, it sounds simple enough, but i don't know anyone personally who has had it done. and i never see anyone else running around with age spots anymore, so is this something everyone else is doing and I'm just the last to get in on it? anyway, has anyone out there had any experience with it? was it very painful? were you satisfied with the results? did you have to have it redone?

gini

I have had three IPL treatments this year. I have rosacea and it has been really flared up in recent months due to all these hot flashes. It did get rid of most of the blood vessels, but I still have some around my nose. I think these are harder to treat. I may have those redone later. Also got rid of some freckles I had that were due to sun damage. I had three treatments. It is a little painful, feels like a small rubber band snapping on your face, but really not intolerable. My skin felt very smooth afterward and all in all I have to say I was pleased with the results. Unfortunately, my rosacea is still giving me trouble, but until I can get these hot flashes under control I'm not sure what my dermatologist can do for me about that.

Cheryl

Yes, info please!

I also have rosacea and would like to know more about IPL. If Dearest could help us with a poll from our fellow members, that would be nice.

Tia

Well, it did do a good job of getting rid of the small red veins which are caused, I believe, from the flushing with the rosacea over time. Like I said, I think the ones around the nose are the most difficult to treat. I had mine zapped with a laser a couple of years ago, plus the IPL treatments this year and I still have them. But they are much lighter. I had some pretty bad ones on my cheeks and thankfully those are gone now. I also had a red spot on my forehead, can't remember what the doctor said it was, but it is gone now. The first two I only had some mild swelling afterward and I had a flushed face for about a day and that was it. The last one she used a stronger setting on the machine and I did have some pretty good swelling for a couple of days. But, my skin did feel much smoother.

I have had rosacea for a few years, but it has really gotten bad lately. I feel like my face is stinging about half the time and I can't use much on it. I've used metrogel and it seemed to work for a while, but then it just seemed to make matters worse so I stopped with that. I am currently using finacea and I think it may be doing some good, but haven't been on it long enough to tell yet. What's making me so bad, I think, are these darn night sweats. I wake up hot with a stinging red face and flush for the next several hours after that.

Would love to talk with some other women with this problem and see if anyone is doing anything that might be of help to anyone else.

Cheryl

Thank you Cheryl,

I am experimenting with all possible solutions to the rosacea problem. My most effective is chilled Evian water (the spray can) which I use on my face after flushing from either a hot flash or exercise! I still want to check into the IPL treatments for the redness though. Anyone else have results to share?

Tia

Cheryl,
How is the Finacea working for you? I also have trouble tolerating the metrogel.

I've also started to show the effects of rosacea, which I find odd because I thought it mainly happened around the onset of menopause and I am pretty much in the post-period. But I guess there's always different cases, right? So my doctor has started me on some antibiotics, we'll see how that goes. She also mentioned the possibility of IPL and thermage but I'm not very familiar with these things. Has anyone here had them? Are they effective in covering up the redness and visible veins around my eyes?

Hello,

Well, the rosacea has been terrible this past year. I've tried it all and my dermatologist finally said that she thought it was my hormones and she doesn't know what else to do. First of all the IPL treaments do a good job of getting rid of those tiny red veins and smoothing your complexion out a bit. It also got rid of some sun damage that I had for years. I had a treatment every month for three months. So, I am glad I did that. The finacea worked well for a while and then just started irritating my skin. That's the way it has been with everything I use. It works great then after a month or two it get worse.

My problem is the hot flashes trigger the flushing. I have tried several different kinds of HRT and the last thing I was on was the vivelle patch and prometrium. I was on this for three weeks and my skin looked great, but I was having bad side affects with it. So, I'm not on anything right now, other than some vitamin supplements.

I wash my face with a soap made with olive oil, and coconut oil and pat it dry then apply extra virgin olive oil all over my face. It doesn't sting or burn and feels soothing. My dermatologist doesn't approve of this, but it works for me. I have been doing this for 2 months and my face looks much better. I am also taking cod liver oil daily and have added extra virgin coconut oil to my diet. I don't know if this will continue to help or not, but so far so good.

I'm having hot flashes pretty bad right now though and if I can't them under control I may have another flare up.

Cheryl