Nipple/aerola eczema/bleeding/crusting in pregnancy...anyone else?!

[Flora1985]

Hi all, apologies for the gross title!

I'm kind of at my wits' end with this though and desperate to know if anyone else has ever had a similar experience. I'm nearly 20 weeks pregnant now, but this started at 5/6 weeks. For context, I'd just stopped breastfeeding my toddler, then this started.

This is a gross, sore, issue with my aerolas and nipples. It started with crusting - my nipples would stick to my bra so I'd have to peel them off when I took my bra off - and has progressed to bleeding, burning pain, a sandpapery texture, crusty/flaky and red. It looks a lot like eczema and that's what my GP now thinks is the problem (though she started off presribing my antibiotics thinking it was an infection, so this saga has been going on for a while). The steroid cream the GP prescribed me for eczema is doing nothing, and the emollients (Oliatum, etc) seem to making it worse rather than better.

My midwife thinks this may be eczema induced by breastmilk irritation e.g. tiny amounts of breast milk are leaking out - possibly due to the fact I stopped breastfeeding in early pregnancy = a hormonal overload - and irritating the skin of the aerola to the point I'm getting eczema. But I don't know...this sounds a bit far-fetched as in I've not really heard of this before and nobody has ever mentioned this as a 'thing'.

Has anyone else out there experienced anything like this?! It's so sore, so crusty and still bleeding so I'm desperate for answers!

Thanks in advance if anyone has any experiences to share...

Anyone? Hopeful bump

Can you get a dermatology referral? I do t live in the UK but this is something I’d be going private for.

Hello, please ask for a referral to breast clinic. This is the absolute bread and butter type stuff they see everyday and they will hopefully be able to help and set your mind at rest.

Thanks everyone. I've already been to the breast clinic and they said they thought it was eczema, but no real explanation as to why/how my hormones are causing this (I've never had eczema before).

I guess I was hoping to hear if anyone else had ever had a similar experience during pregnancy?

I had something like this happen to me about 15 years ago. I wasn't pregnant at the time though. I ended up putting tissues in my bra so that they wouldn't stick to it and then avoided peeling them off if possible so that the partly healed scab didn't get yanked off.

I remember having super fine papery layers of skin on one side in particular that would just flake off and then leave sores that weeped.

In the end it was time and being as gentle with them as I could that ended up healing them.

I don't think it helped having quite large and pointy nips being pressed up and squashed on the inside of the bra.

Incidentally I suffer with eczema but I'm not sure I actually used a steroid cream on them. I might have been more inclined to go with Vaseline or something like that to prevent chafing.

How long ago did you go to the breast clinic? Please keep an eye on it. I had similar symptoms and I was fobbed off for four years being told it was eczema but it was actually Paget's disease. I don't want to scare you but keep going back to the doctor for help if the creams are doing nothing.

I had this in my last early pregnancy. I hadnt breastfed though but I was leaking milk from about 4 months pregnant for some reason and only from one side.

GP had no idea what it was. I tried many steroid creams, antibiotics creams and even a cocktail of both at one point. I had thrush treatment both orally and as a cream.

Went on for months. I found, treatment wise, a heavy layer of vaseline applied each morning (which was then protected by a nipple pad) and a good clean with salt water morning and night helped the most.

BUT my game changer was getting my bra size re checked. I had changed two cup sizes and a band width. I bought new bras and sound found my nipple issue resolved.

In all honesty I think my nipple issue was originally from the leaky boob milk (which itself was probably not helped by being squished all day, milked by my bra! Ha!) but was 100% made worse by overuse of steroid creams (which thin your skin eventually) and the too tight bra.