Help me diagnose my weird itching...

In My Humble Opinion
1

No insurance, not lifethreatening, chronic (of the intermittent type), so I’m not going to a doctor. I realize any advice I get here is worth exactly what I pay for it, but I’m just curious if anyone has had anything similar. Or has any treatment suggestions I haven’t thought of (that don’t require a prescription.)

Seems to happen every couple of months, unrelated to weather, activity, type of clothing. Happens with expensive detergent, cheap detergent, “free” detergents, no detergents. No other health conditions, no medications.

Mostly happens on my breasts, not the underboob or cleavage, but the round part of the breast. Not where skin meets skin, in other words. Sometimes it happens on my abdomen, and one horrible time it was on both legs.

It starts with annoying itching when I take my bra off at night. No hives, no rashes, macules, papules, or any sort of markings on the skin. No dry skin. Nothing at all remarkable about the appearance of the skin.

After a couple of days of this, it starts to itch all the friggin’ time. Really persistent, annoying itching that’s only exacerbated if I scratch it. And, this is the weird part - at this stage, any scratching makes hickies appear. Ghastly looking wheals, reddish purple and blood in pores. If I scratch in my sleep, I wake up to dotted pinpoint scabs. Not widespread scabs or patches like eczema, but little scabby dots in the pores of the skin, it looks like.

A few days later, scratching or no scratching, my stretch marks look inflamed and red. Then the top layer of skin gets paper thin and visible like a thin layer of dried glue or eggwhite. Doesn’t flake or peel. Still itches like a motherfuck.

About two weeks and the skin goes back to normal and the itching stops. The parchment like skin doesn’t flake or peel, it just goes back to looking like normal skin.

Hydrocortisone cream and antihistamine cream works for about 15 minutes. Oral antihistamines help a tiny bit, but not as long as the dosing schedule would suggest, and doesn’t get rid of the itching entirely - maybe about 25%. Antifungal cream doesn’t help. Antiyeast cream doesn’t help. My miracle herbal salve that treats any skin thing under the sun doesn’t help. Colloidal sulfur based shampoo seems to, maybe, speed the process up a bit, but it still goes through the whole cycle.

It seems to come in waves, where I go through this cycle, sometimes in the same spot, sometimes moving around, for a couple of months, and then nothing for a few months. It’s been going on for…oh, four years or so.

I can’t find anything in my dermatology text that fits this description. Which makes a somatoform disorder pretty dang likely, but I’m hoping it’s something else, 'cause somatoforms suck to treat…

2

Sounds similar but more severe than the seasonal itching I get in the winter time. My skin gets dry and itchy in general, but my legs get that kind of irritation you describe. Scratching is the only way to provide temporary relief sometimes, and eventually my skin gets abraded and those little pinpoint scabs. I think my skin is somewhat pressure sensitive in general, and the worst places will be along the seams in my pants, or at the top of my socks. Best of luck to you, my only solution is hoping for an early spring.

3

I have no idea, but I have a spot on my left palm heel that has itched off and on for years, without getting any better or any worse (edited: and without regard to season).

I actually have dishydrotic eczema, but to the befuddlement of my doctors it does not itch. And this mystery spot never forms vesicles nor does it get flaked or irritated. It just… itches. Sometimes.

4

Have you tried to correlate anything you have eaten when this flares up? No patterns?

5

Good thought, but no. I eat a pretty wide and varied diet, but it’s consistently wide and varied. I haven’t tried anything new in weeks.

Wah. My boob itches and it’s making me whiney.

6

It wouldn’t be something new (as this is a steadily recurring condition), just something that is not in your daily rotation, like a seasoning packet for a dinner that you only make every couple of months, a variety of tea that you only drink once in awhile, etc. I know someone who had a skin reaction to a macha tea blend ingredient in a variety pack, which he only drank once in awhile.

I’d be looking at getting some prednisone at the beginning of the flare-up, esp since you may never be able to uncover the trigger.

7

Bleh. Yeah…you just identified why I don’t want to go to a dermatologist, even if I could afford one. I already fight weight gain, and I’m not willing to play with immune suppressing drugs for anything this minor. I’m the sole breadwinner and I work as a nurse; I get sick with so much as a sniffle and I can’t go to work and expose my patients. I don’t work, we don’t have any income.

8

108 with two errors, for an adjusted speed of 106wpm.
But I have a brace on my arm, and am on my sofa. At work with a proper ergonomic setup, I’d probably do better.

9

LOL. I think I spotted a third error!

10

My guess, wrong thread.

11

It’s in code.

12

Could it be something you are exposed to in the course of attending your patients? Is there someone or someplace you only go to once every few months?

13

I actually had a weird itch coming on and off for the longest time. Never figured it out, until I tried to eat wheatbix for breakfast on a consistent basis. Whooo boy.
Turns out, I’m probably minorly allergic to wheat.

14

Hrrmmm… Gluten?

Does your boob rash affect your typing skillz?

15

My typing skillz appear unaffected, as I don’t generally type with my boobz. Only on special occasions.

Hmm…my daughter is gluten intolerant, and there does appear to be some genetic component. It’s a little weird to have as an isolated symptom of gluten intolerance, but I’ll ponder on that…

16

Do you have any known auto-immune issues? Or a family history of them? That’s the first thing your symptoms made me think of.

17

I forgot to mention before that little things like a different kind of laundry detergent or fabric softener makes this flare up sometimes.

18

A skin allergy to anti-perspirants, maybe?

I get it in the winter, the solution is to moisturize constantly (with something you aren’t allergic to). Try hypoallergenic or scent-free stink-blockers.

If you can’t find a moisturizer that doesn’t make it worse, use a vegetable oil or vaseline; and baking soda for your pits.

19

Any correlation to “that time of the month”? I’m beyond that phase of my life but I can recall that especially in the winter, my boob skin would get agonizingly itchy in the week or so before Aunt Flo’s arrival. To the point where I’d leave claw marks sometimes (yeah, OUCH). Something about the combination of dry skin, and general hormonal wonkiness.

I wonder if applying cold to the area might be soothing. Yeah, it’s counterintuitive if cold weather is a factor, but it might relieve any inflammatory thing that’s going on. When I had cholestasis (I assume that was what was going on - it was related to a gallbladder flareup), my hands and feet ITCHED OMG KILL ME NOW THEY ITCHED. For a bug bite or other “regular” itch, hot water is soothing. but that made it worse. Cold (as in, ice directly on the skin, and yes I was very careful) was the only thing that gave me a few seconds of relief.

20

Nope, except the aforementioned daughter with gluten intolerance.

I stopped using detergent and fabric softener entirely for a while, out of hope this was it. No change, even after several washes to remove all residue.

If it was anywhere near the pits, maybe. But this is on the “globe” nearest to, but not in, the cleavage. This time. Sometimes it’s other places. Never been in or near the pits, though.

Hmmm…now that’s a thought. I have no idea. I shall begin keeping track. It’s certainly not a 1:1 correlation, as there are months it doesn’t happen at all, but I’ll have to see if when it does, it’s during the same phase.

Yes, briefly. I had a happy happy moment yesterday when some white vinegar took the itch away immediately! For, clocked, 95 seconds. sigh. It was the cold, not the vinegar.

Oddly, holding by hand over it helps, too. Not scratching or even rubbing, but just holding the spot will relive the itching. But only until I take my hand away. And I can’t really go around holding my boob all day! :smiley: