Itching

[FableLies]

I'm 47. Have a few peri symptoms such as aches, tiredness and a temper, but over the last few days, the itching has been awful. All over my body, including my scalp and forehead. Everywhere. Google says liver failure, blood cancer or the perimenopause. Has anyone else experienced this? Will it go away? Last time I had my iron tested, it was 11-whatever the units are. I sporadically take iron supplements because they make me feel sick. GP didn't care. B12 etc all fine. I already take magnesium. What can I do?

I am considering HRT - but my grandmother had oestrogen-related cancer, so I need to read up about it.

Yes! I have been putting up with this now since Easter. My periods stopped (I think) late last year. I am 54.

I was diagnosed with chronic eczema in childhood but have not experienced such intense itching since then and over every part of my body except my hands and face (weirdly, these are the areas that are usually prone to the odd flare up over my lifetime).

I had been buying mild steroid cream online but it got so bad a few weeks ago that I saw my GP. I ended up seeing them again a few weeks later because it had got worse; I could not be out of bed it was so, so awful. That GP wanted me to go into hospital but I managed to convince them that I could go home as someone was there to keep an eye on me. I was given Prednisolone and antibiotics (Doxy); cleared it completely - Heaven! I also had lymph nodes up, one painful under my arm that went down with the antibiotics.

It then started to creep back so I had a GP phone appointment last week (I was terrified of it getting so severe again). The GP dismissed anything menopause related after asking me a series of questions, his theory is 'idiopathic urticaria' which he thinks could be a food allergy. He gave me a mega dose of Fexofenadine for 2 months and Protopic. The antihistamines are definitely helping; the Protopic was not great (burned and made me itch but this is a normal side effect. I am just keeping this cream in reserve and sticking with my Eumovate for now).

I don't think that I do have a food allergy; I think it may be hormone related (I also take Levothyroxine every day, diagnosed in my early 20's).

I now experience the itching only in bed at night and am aware of this so try very hard not to itch.

One other thing that has helped massively - have your nails gel manicured. This really helps with not tearing the skin. I am going to keep my nails gelled from now on.

Could be the progesterone you're missing more than the oestrogen.

Itching is a classic sign of peri menopause.

What kind of cancer did your grandmother have? Do you know?
Breast, ovarian, womb?
It may have no connection to you using HRT.

Womb cancer. I don't know anything about what it means for HRT, if anything, yet.

It won't be that relevant. It was 2 generations back.
HRT doesn't cause womb cancer if it's used correctly and some types actually reduce the risk. If you google it you will find that.

If women take estrogen only for many years it can eventually cause uterine cancer but you won't take only estrogen if you have a womb.

I'll set some time aside for reading over the Christmas break.

I have started taking biotin for thinning hair - 3 weeks in. And for the first time in years, my face feels a little burnt, and I am getting acne. Now I wonder whether the itching is also related to that.

Try reducing dairy - menopause can trigger allergies etc- it helped me to cut down diet by 70%
smol washing powder was also a god send

have some cream next to the bed to rub not itch and if you find youself hurting yourself when you scratch get biab nails as they aren’t sharp - these have really helped me

There have been cases of biotin causing yeast infections - it happened to me, and when I looked it up, apparently it's a known side effect.