33 year old, How to make years of acne suffering invisible. Micronneedling, green peel, Fraxel - Zurich, Switzerland

Acne has been part of my life since I was 14. I figured out later that its because of PCO.
I never took accutane or the pill because of all the creepy side effects.

My PCO is under control thanks to different nutrition & acupuncture. My skin is almost clear, only once in a while some cysts, but they move quickly.

However my face still tells the story of years of acne suffering... scars on the cheeks, uneven complexion, large pores... Whatever make-up I try it looks cakey after some hours and makes it even worse. The older I get the more visible the signs are.
Yes, it also affects my self consciousness. I am always checking the mirror, I have the feeling people watch my face or cannot look at me for longer, I am still single etc...

So I decided its time - I will try what it is out there to finally get my dream skin! And stop this suffering.

What I have done in the past:
- fractional laser in 2010; just one treatment,
After reading a lot of comments here, I think the laser enlarged my pores. No big improvement.

- RF fractional ematrix 12/2014
Be careful!! This treatment was sold to me as the new big thing, no side effects. And I experienced facial fat loss almost immediately. This made the scars even more invisible... I was so unhappy I even got some fillers. I am not sure how common this side effect is... For me it was really noticeable.

I changed doctors again, this time the doctor recommended a combined treatment:
2x fraxel 1540 Palomar and 2x medical needling (Dermapen) - phased 3-4 weeks apart. I am past 2 treatments (1 fraxel, 1 microneedling)

To make a long story short:
I am not happy with lasers in general, I simply dont believe in them after seeing all the negative reviews & my own experience.
After 1 fraxel, my skin looked worse (dull, more uneven) also Make up looked even worse (yes, thats possible;)
I dont trust my doctor at the moment so I searched in the web and found a med beauty spa. Even on the telephone the person could tell more insights than a lot of doctors I have visited on my journey (who wanted to sell their laser treatments...)

I had one more microneedling with my old doctor done last Friday. Skin is recovering well.

I plan to visit the med spa in 3 weeks to discuss other treatments (no more laser for me ;) i guess the key is to combine different things like peel and microneedling together.

Furthermore, what helped me incredible in the past was Retinol a cream together with AHA (fruit acid). I will start this regime again after my skin is healed. I just use it in the evenings and wait 30 min after applying the AHA before I use the Retinol cream.

Will keep you updated on my journey :)
I am from Europe so it does not help to rate my doctors.
Will upload photos later.

My skin healed very well.
No redness anymore. Cannot see big improvements by now, but its too early to tell.

I will restart my skincare regime tomorrow - every night first AHA 15%, then after approx 30min Retinol 1% cream.

Aditionally I have found great stories about turmeric masks. http://www.acne.org/turmeric-reviews-1198/
I love this natural healing stuff, so I am already lying on my couch with such a mask on my face :)

Appointment at medspa next week to discuss other treatment options (no more lasers! :)

Will keep you updated - cheers from
zurich

Too early to jugde the outcome.