Purpura ?

[Joanna71]

Have started getting red/purple spots on my forearms. Does anyone get this ? I only take inhaled steroids.

[Abc64]

Go to see go, who will probably do blood tests. You can get this foe a number of different reasons.

[beech]

I get them, but usually from banging or scraping my arms, or if my dogs scratch them!

I understand it comes from steroid use, although I don’t use much (just my daily inhaler use) I seem to be susceptible.

Apparently forearms are more affected due to skin weakness from sun damage.

As said, perhaps see your GP who can check it out.

[cherokee6399]

Yes. I have been wondering about that. I never had them before.

[Marie-Ang]

Yes I get them too. I was told by the asthma nurse it was because I had been on inhaled steroids for years.

[Joanna71]

Thanks everyone for your replies that what I thought it was.

[Noodlers]

I've had this for the last 4 or 5 years. I had a raft of blood tests, nothing showed up. I asked the gp if it was to do with my skin thinning ( it's like tissue paper) because of my inhaler. She said no, as there's not enough steroid in it. She put it down to the menopause, but I'm not convinced.

I'm on the highest dose of Seretide, but since my GP visit I've had two doses of oral pred and my skins even worse now.

[HungryHufflepuff in reply to Noodlers]

I'm not at all convinced by doctors when they say there's not enough steroids in inhalers to cause these side effects. I had all kinds of terrible side effects from Fostair and now to a much lesser extent from seretide. There's a high enough steroid content to have a physical effect on the lung condition therefore you'd think equally it's high enough to cause side effects.

[Wheezycat]

Me, too, and I assume from steroids. I will raise it in my annual review, if I remember.

[BarrieB]

Yes. Me too. I had been on Seretide for many years until last year when suddenly it had gone out of fashion (too expensive I think but that might just be my suspicious mind). However since moving to Clenil Modulite things have improved. I still get the purple patches but only when I give (mostly my arms) a good belt. Before that all I had to do was brush against something. I did read somewhere that it was thinning of the skin as well as the bruising and there had been a study to prove it. Don't believe them when they say the steroid is too low to cause these side-effects.