DD has painful hands and is itching

[hellsbells99]

DD is 16. The last few weeks she has had painful hands. Not all the time, just on and off. She says it feels 'pressured' and they go red. Her fingers hurt too. Tried to get a docs appt yesterday but nothing available so will try again tomorrow. She is a musician and has been practising more than usual - exam coming up, and also had stacks of art incl 10 hour exam last week so I did think this was linked. But now she keeps complaining of itching. Just been and woke me up wanting a piriton tablet. She has also lost a bit of weight lately which I had thought was down to her being extra busy - she wolves her tea down etc. she is under the care if a gynae as periods very infrequent and ultrasound revealed signs of pcos but we were told this was often the case in teens as they have lots of eggs. We are due back next week as they said if it had not sorted itself by 16 they would put her on the pill.
Are all these symptoms just little bits and pieces or could there be any link? Any help/advice gratefully received. As I said she is very busy at the moment and is coming to the end of a full-on Gcse year so I don't want anything adding to the pressure. Generally she is a very happy and bouncy and very clumsy young lady!

I have no idea what's wrong with your dd, sorry, but she should definitely see a Dr. Perhaps use a moisturising cream, until she gets an appt.

I know she's young but is it worth asking the GP about thyroid tests for her?

Thanks for feedback. Went on the GPs online system at 8am as they released the appointments and have managed to get her one for this evening. My worry is the gynae won't do anything next week if she has other symptoms. When we were there 3 months ago I mentioned she had headaches when asked and I was told she had to be checked by GP before going back next week. We went to GP after that appt and he said yes she has headaches and no they are not migraines ...and that was it - he said gynae just had to tick boxes that she didn't have migraines (bit of a waste of everyone's time). As I said, in herself, she is not ill - happy and bouncy.

Her painful hands and associated itching may well be down to the extra music practise and artwork she has been doing.

She may well have PCOS if her ovaries are covered in cystic follicles, infact her irregularilty of periods also points to that too.

Has any bloodwork been done to date. She should have blood tests done in any event.

Many women with PCOS have an imbalance of LH to FSH; the two hormones that kickstart the whole ovulation process. Putting her on the pill is something that is often done (that's probably why they were asking about migraines) but if this is PCOS it will only serve to mask the symptoms; it will not get rid of the underlying problem.

I wish you both well this evening.

Attila. Thanks for your response. She did have full bloods done last year which were ok. The initial ultrasound was done as she was having pains in her lower abdominal area and they were looking for excess scar tissue from appendix op - as it happens they then found the excessive cystic follicles, hence the bloods and referral to gynae. If she has got pcos then won't regulating her periods with the pill / hormone tablets help? What else can they do? Thanks.

Are her periods very painful?.

Any abdominal surgery runs the risks of adhesions forming afterwards. These are sticky strands that tether organs together and can cause pain. From what you write they did not find any adhesions.

I ask whether her periods are painful because very painful periods can be linked to endometriosis. That is not picked up on any blood test or ultrasound scan.

The pill will mask symptoms of the PCOS but that won't get rid of the PCOS itself.

Keeping a daily symptom diary can also give the gynae clues as to what is going on here.