allergy or something else?

[Bythesea99]

Hi

After 3 years of back and forth with my GP and various others and getting nowhere I am starting to experiment with my diet and I think I may have a nightshade allergy. There seems to be little available online. If you wouldn't mind sharing 'your story' that would be great so I can see if anything chimes with me.

Basically, I have a few symptoms and a few Drs have thrown around 'autoimmune disease' without ever really getting to the bottom of it. I feel like they are all at a loss with how to move forward so I just get passed around.

Symptoms include:
Irregular periods (used to be like clockwork) and much heavier
Rash on hands (comes back in the same places, worse in winter)
Low WBC
Possibly inability to absorb calcium (have had various bloodtests which show calcium to be low even though diet is fine by all accounts)
Sometimes blood tests show low testosterone (despite me having PCOS)
Mouth ulcers

Possibly tiredness (hard to tell with young children)
Possibly feel a bit depressed (again, hard to tell with young children!)
Possibly elevated heart rate - find it hard to tell if that is just me feeling anxious
Hair loss (but this has improved since taking ferrous sulphate)

I am 35. I should add that I don't feel awful/at death's door or anything like that. But if I can feel a bit better I would like to and the NHS doesn't seem to be able to help unless I make it my fulltime job to chase and nag which I don't have time for.

(not the fault of the NHS, lack of funding means there are more serious cases to be dealt with. When I had a cancer scare - hence so many blood test results - they were great)

Sounds more like iron deficiency to me. Majority of your symptoms are covered by it.

https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions/nutritional/iron-deficiency-anaemia/

Thanks @Pixiedust1234 but my iron levels have been fine for the last 2 years (only because I take supplements)

I have hypothyroidism, gluten intolerance (idk if it's celiac as I stopped eating it before I could be tested) and low iron (specifically ferritin, my haemoglobin is fine). Some of your symptoms ring true for those conditions including the tiredness and hand rash.

Have you had any blood tests @Bythesea99 ? I wonder if a test for coeliac disease might be an idea, as some of the symptoms match and not everyone has gastrointestinal problems with it. An itchy rash on the elbows is one, I'm no expert but maybe hands/elbows close enough? And iron deficiency anaemia is common, as mentioned by @Pixiedust1234 . Fatigue and mouth ulcers also listed as coeliac symptoms.

I had similar problems for many years. Treated for underactive thyroid, so hair stopped falling out, but otherwise no improvement. Finally got to see a rheumatologist. Was eventually diagnosed with sjogrens, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
Good luck!