Why are my eyelids yellow?

[Alto]

The upper part of my eyelids have a pale yellow tint, kind of like the last stage of a bruise, only more towards the canary end of yellow. They’ve been this way as long as I can remember, so it doesn’t signal the onset of some disease or change of diet. It doesn’t seem like something you’d ask your doctor about, but I’ve always been curious.

Anybody know?

[Alto]

Oh, I suppose I should have said–I’m white.

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

But…you said you were yellow?!

I think you stumped the panel, Alto.

[KneadToKnow]

Jaundice causes yellowish skin. This sounds like something I wouldn’t dawdle about taking to a doctor.

[Una_Persson]

Having just seen someone who had that as a symptom of jaundice, I would say see a doctor. Soon.

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

Yeah, but he says it’s been this way “as long as he can remember”.

You could have chronic idiopathic jaundice, which is a low-level jaundice caused by a couple of rare syndromes. If it really is something you’ve been living with all your life, and you’ve never noticed any other symptoms other than slightly yellow eyelids, it’s apparently not life-threatening. Next time you’re at the doctor, ask him.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003243.htm

A yellow discoloring of the skin, mucous membranes, and eyes, caused by too much bilirubin in the blood.

Jaundice is a condition produced when excess amounts of bilirubin circulating in the blood stream dissolve in the subcutaneous fat (the layer of fat just beneath the skin), causing a yellowish appearance of the skin and the whites of the eyes. With the exception of physiologic jaundice in the newborn (normal newborn jaundice in the first week of life), all other jaundice indicates overload or damage to the liver, or inability to move bilirubin from the liver through the biliary tract to the gut.

http://www.hon.ch/cgi-bin/HONselect?browse+C16.614.555.250

Jaundice, Chronic Idiopathic

MeSH definition: A benign, autosomally recessive inherited hyperbilirubinemia characterized by the presence of a dark pigment in the centrilobular region of the liver cells. There is a functional defect in biliary excretion of bilirubin, cholephilic dyes, and porphyrins. Affected persons may be asymptomatic or have vague constitutional or gastrointestional symptoms. The liver may be slightly enlarged, and oral and intravenous cholangiography fails to visualize the biliary tract.

The syndromes are:

Dubin Johnson.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000242.htm]

An inherited disorder characterized by mild jaundice throughout life.

Dubin-Johnson syndrome is inherited as an autosomal recessive disorder. The transport of bilirubin from the liver into the biliary system is abnormal and the bilirubin accumulates in the liver.

Affected people have life-long low-grade jaundice which may be aggravated by alcohol, pregnancy, infection, and other environmental factors.

Rotor’s Syndrome.
http://www.whonamedit.com/synd.cfm/2296.html

A rare idiopathic form of hyperbilirubinaemia affecting both sexes, with onset shortly after birth or in childhood. It is characterised by nonhaemolytic jaundice, attacks of intermittent epigastric discomfort and occasionally abdominal pain, and fever. Pathological findings include low-grade pigment deposition, dissociation of liver cells, occasional necrotic foci, and fibrin precipitation. Aetiology unknown. Possibly, autosomal recessive inheritance. It is due to a defect in the excretion of unconjugated bilirubin into the biliary craniculi with the bilirubin being absorbed into the blood and excreted in the urine. Primarily reported in patients from the Philippines.

Rotor’s syndrome is similar to the Dubin-Johnson syndrome, except that the gall bladder is usually visualised on an oral cholecystogram and there is no secondary appearance of the dye during the performance of bromsulphaphtalien. May be the same condition as hepatic storage disease reported in Japan and France.

So, there ya go.

[Alto]

Thank you. I was sure someone here would know. Chronic idiopathic jaundice sounds plausible. I guess I will just casually mention it to my doctor and find out.

(By the way, I’m a she.)

[sonicsink]

Just wondering, are you a man or a woman?
In 10th grade our biology teacher told us something like this: women usually have a naturaly darker tinge to their eyelids,lips and cheeks. Apparently it was supposed to attract men and make-up came about by artificially enhancing these to make them stand out more. I dont know ifs true or not, but Im a female and my eyelids(from lashes to eyebrow) have a yellowy-brown-red tinge…its very slight,noticable if your looking for it but not noticable if you arent.

[karenferguson1]

Jaundice causes eye balls and skin to turn dark yellow, not like the yellowish old bruise type of thing this original message is about- I also have them, not sure what has caused it. If you have seen someone who is jaundiced you would know it. I took a medical office course in college and we studied every body system. This is not typically what jaundice looks like, rather i think for me personally its from lack of sleep and stress. Anyone else have a more definitive answer?