I would love to hear if anyone has experienced similar symptoms or may know what could be causing these.

Key symptoms: faint, subtle outline marks (ie more like a hollow ring, than a filled in disc), pigment coloured, flat not raised, hard to see, which tend to appear after I get an itchy, prickly, burning, sensitisation in a specific spot, followed by a spreading heat sensation, like something blooming on the skin, in that spot. My face and neck are most affected, but I get these point specific sensations head to toe. I also get more generalised persistent itching, burning and pain, as well as pins and needles in hands and feet. Altogether the symptoms, the pain and the lack of effective treatment have been really distressing and have impacted on my quality of life.

It started over 3 months ago. My son developed this first, and was visually diagnosed by GP with tinea, a fungal skin infection. I got it next, and was diagnosed by GP, visually and based an my son, with tinea, however topical and oral antifungals did not help, and the symptoms /progression were not typical of a tinea infection - spread head to toe in a few days, not red or raised or flakey skin, just flat pigment coloured marks, of assorted oval or roundish shapes. My partner got it next. We all had the marks and itchiness, but I am the only one to experience persistent burning, heat and ongoing pain, and many itchy marks still popping up. Two dermatologists found no sign of fungal infection (2 and 4 weeks in) and a third dermatologist described the set of symptoms as unusual, they don’t fit with any common conditions, and the marks are barely visible (and don’t photograph well), while the sensations are significant.

My son and partner get the occasional mark still pop up, but thank goodness, it is only mildly itchy for them. When symptoms started no testing was done, a subsequent skin swab 2 months in and blood tests have not shown anything. Oral antihistamines, and topical and oral corticosteroids also made not impact.

If you have any ideas of what might be causing this, I would love to hear from you!

#Undiagnosed #Skin #itchy #Burning #faint