Unexplained itching

[Gillymar]

I recently have noticed an unexplained itching round my midriff. I apply cream for brief relief but wonder if it is caused by one of my medications. Advice welcome.

[Celtic PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Have you started any new medications recently, Gillymar? Best to get it checked out with a GP if only to rule out shingles which can have itching as a symptom, and the waist can be quite a common area for it to attack. I do hope it isn't but, if it is, the sooner you get in with the anti-viral medication the better.

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I developed itching around my middle in the early days of PMR - and it turned out to be an allergy to something in wheat! Not gluten, that is fine in other grains, but something in the structure of the wheat starch. No wheat, no itch! Loratidine helps if I have eaten a small amount of wheat.

Do any of your medications list itching as a possible side effect? It can happen with pred - but pred is also used for allergies and itches!

[mega]

Hello Gillymar, I think you should pester your GP as much as you can! It may just be that your waistband has become too tight if you are on steroids. I was backwards and forwards with my GP, with 'more important' issues and the itching which affected the whole of my trunk, and thighs was sidelined until I realised I had 'put up with it' for a year. My underwear, nightwear and bedding were constantly blood-stained from my scratching. I also live in a cloud of ever-shedding dry skin.

There is, very unusually, another GCA sufferer in our small block of flats - a male - whose wife was telling me about the almost insufferable itching he was experiencing. Poor chap has become even iller now so I don't know what, if any, was the conclusion of his itching. I came to fully understand the impact of it a few weeks later though.

I, after copious applications of different prescribed creams, am ALMOST irritation free, at last. Was it the creams or was it the natural course of the condition? Or was it the removal of Ramiprol (?sp) which my GP said "can cause itching" at my ?

I certainly sympathise with you but you need to give some details of your condition and of the medication you're on before, perhaps, some more knowledgeable people on here can offer advice.

I do know GPs are casual about the hell of chronic itching so, as I said, if it persists, keep pestering.

[mega in reply to mega]

last appointment!

[Rugger]

Alternative suggestion! I don't suppose it could be due to a different washing powder or liquid? Just a thought, if someone else is doing your laundry for you? I hope it clears up soon, whatever the cause.

[Skrtjg]

Tom had a rash that itched. Took hm to doctor after doing some tests, they found it was a chronic skin disease called pity raisins rubra pilaris. It should go into remission in 3 years. Hope you don't have this.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Skrtjg]

Pityriasis rubris pilaris - what predictive text manages to achieve!

Though pity raisins seems less scary...

[Skrtjg in reply to PMRpro]

Sorry for the spelling , thanks for correcting me.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Skrtjg]

Not your fault - and I only did it in case anyone else wanted to look it up!

[Skrtjg]

Thanks, hope that's not your problem