Help for Indian or other skin types with pigment (melasma) due to oral contraceptives!
Okay, so there is a short term and a long term problem here. For the short term, as soon as possible, please get a hydroquinone 4% cream, a tinted, high zinc sunscreen (like the Dermaquest tinted), and a hat with a brim. If you start all three of these right away, it will help. I apologize because we don’t ship internationally yet and I’m hoping maybe you can get that DermaQuest sunscreen from another site. The basic idea is that you want a zinc containing sunscreen that has 10-20% zinc but doesn’t make you look chalky.
Long term, you clearly need a contraceptive plan, so don’t stop your contraceptives until you go back to your doctor and get a different method. I don’t know if the Merena IUDs are available in India but they’ve been very helpful for women with melasma here since they don’t cause or aggravate melasma. Melasma is the hormones plus sunlight related pigment often due to pregnancy or oral contraceptives.
Hope this helps, Dr. I
Read about Melasma in Depth.
See Dr. Irwin’s recommendations on organic skin care.