Does acne medication isotretinoin stunt growth? According to Danish epidemiologists, oral acne medications based on isotretinoin – formerly marketed as Accutane, do not stop kids from growing tall. Over the years some medical experts have raised concerns that isotretinoin, the active ingredient in acne drugs like Clarus, Roaccutane and Absorica, might prematurely halt bone growth in teens. Now, researchers located at Aarhus University, Denmark and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, say that there is no evidence that youngsters who use isotretinoin are any less tall as adults, than their peers.
In an article published in May 2026, in JAMA Dermatology, researchers report the findings of a nationwide cross-sectional study. The team used conscription records and the Danish national health registry to check over 440,000 teens’ growth spurts. They discovered that there was no evidence that isotretinoin prescribed for three months or more before the age of 15 resulted in any difference in height. In fact, men who used isotretinoin were, on average, taller than men who didn’t have acne. The number of women who displayed stunted growth was too low for detailed analysis.
Why Would Isotretinoin Stunt Your Growth?
Isotretinoin is a form of vitamin A (AKA retinoic acid). If you look at the packaging for oral isotretinoin, there are very clear warnings that you must not become pregnant while using it. This is because vitamin A is a very important molecule during embryonic development. It directs the formation of our body axis and is involved in the formation of all kinds of organs, including neurons, our hearts and, especially importantly, our bones.
The concentration necessary to help speed up your skin renewal if you take it in oral form is strong enough to interfere with embryonic development. Males are more likely than females to use oral isotretinoin because they have no risk of pregnancy.
Because retinoic acid shapes bone formation, some scientists have speculated that it might affect bone lengthening too. If retinoic acid is involved in embryonic development, the rationale goes, perhaps it will also mess with the bone-making cells in our growth plates during puberty, leading to stunted growth.
Conscription and Prescriptions
It is difficult to do epidemiological studies on growth targeting niche drugs, because they rely on consistent standards of measuring heights, enough participants to allow for statistical analysis, the ability to remove confounding factors and access to medical records.
In this huge nationwide cohort study, epidemiologists and dermatologists at Aarhus University avoided these pitfalls. They used conscription records to determine the height of every participant. The data were gathered in a uniform way and consistently recorded at age 19. As this is a national program, the researchers were able to collect height measurements for a representative sample of Danes from all back grounds and social classes going back many years. Military conscription is mandatory for all physically fit men over 18. Women can volunteer for conscription.
Denmark has a relatively homogenous community with less socioeconomic inequality than countries like the United Kingdom and the USA. This quality lends itself well to population-level studies, as there are fewer variations between people to account for. Like many countries with a government run health system they are able to keep detailed health records for everybody who uses medical services through national databases.
Isotretinoin Did Not Make Men Shorter
The team collected medical records from the Danish National Prescription Registry and discovered which people sought treatment for acne prior to conscription, and what drugs they were prescribed.
Between January 2001 and December 2015, the researchers found that 444,271 men and 13,134 women had conscription health checks. Of those, they excluded people with extreme outlier heights, or no recorded height, leaving 368,228 men and 10,858 women. The team cross-checked medical records determined that 4.5% of men and 2.6% of women had been prescribed isotretinoin in the years prior to their national service.
The average male height at age 19 was reportedly 180.4 cm or approximately 5′ 11″ versus the average female height of 168 cm or around 5′ 6″. The researchers checked to see how far from the average height people who used isotretinoin were. If they were more than 6 cm shorter than the average, they would be classed as having stunted growth. They chose this number because it was a standard deviation away from the mean.
Men who used isotretinoin for at least three months were no more likely than any other men to be 6 cm shorter than the average. In fact, men who used isotretinoin were, on average, a few millimetres taller than the average at 180.6 cm. The distribution of their heights was similar to men who did not report having acne, or who used topical medicines or antibiotics instead of isotretinoin. Women who used isotretinoin before conscription also showed no difference to their peers.
No Evidence Isotretinoin Stunts Growth
This study lines up with other cohort studies, confirming that isotretinoin does not affect adult height in any measurable way. The advantages brought by the huge number of participants in the study are helpful. It’s important to remember, however, that this is a sample of healthy people and the prescription records might not line up with how well the kids adhered to their regime.
If you have been hesitant to take your prescription to the pharmacy, perhaps this study will give some level of reassurance – especially if you are of Danish adjacent heritage.
Schmidt SAJ, Grønborg TK, Gribsholt SB, Langan SM, Sørensen HT, Barbieri JS. Isotretinoin Treatment in Adolescence and Adult Height. JAMA Dermatol. Published online May 20, 2026. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2026.1197
