I have bad rosacea redness and burning. Please help!

[4Tornot4T]

Hello, I've developed persistent burning from rosacea. My GP prescribed Soolantra a year ago and it helped with the first flare up but hasn't done much since. I'm now bright red and with really painful cheeks. I used to have very clear and very fair skin and the rosacea came suddenly out of the blue. I'm 58 and had the menopause eight years ago (not sure if that's relevant). I've also started getting hot flushes at night. Can anyone help. I'm.desperate. TIA

Are you on HRT?

Hi, Thanks for replying. Yes, I've been on oestrogen and progesterone since May this year for my bones. It doesn't seem to have helped though.

If you’ve started getting hot flushes while on the HRT you might need to tweak the dose.
For the other, see the GP again, you might need a referral

Thanks. I'll make an appointment with my GP. Weirdly the hot flushes have only started recently - I never had them when I went through the menopause.

I had very similar and I was under a dermatologist.
She tried a few different things and the one that worked was Elidel cream. It cleared my skin within a fortnight and it hasn't come back.

That's amazing. Thank you. I'll look into seeing a dermatologist. Do you mind if I ask who you saw? I'm in London but can travel a reasonable distance. I'm happy to go privately (assuming it isn't tooooo expensive) as the waiting list will be forever for something non urgent.

My dermatologist was on the NHS. I had an urgent referral because my skin was so bad.
She did actually try about 3 creams and isotretinoin first all of which improved my face but never totally cleared it.
Then one appointment was in the middle of a really angry flare up and she prescribed Elidel.
I had another appointment a month later and even she was totally amazed at how well it had cleared.

Thank you for letting me know. Elidel sounds amazing - you must have been so relieved when it worked and its definitely given me some hope. So many people found soolantra was the answer I was feeling very depressed that it didn't work for me. I've got a phone consultation with my GP later this week and I'm going to ask for a referral to a dermatologist.