Hi Gerri, I joined
medhelp.org just to try to figure out my rashes! You can see a brief outline of my thyroid history in my profile. My thyroid has been gone for 10 years now. After it was removed I started getting these rashes; I used to refer to them as the perfume rashes, as in, where you would put perfume... inside the elbows, behind the knees... but then I got them on my shins, inside my thighs, inside my arms, under breasts, up my spine and in private places where you never want to have rashes! There's even one spot on my outer ankle that gets elephant skin! I definitely have some kind of sun allergy thing too... I get rashes behind the knees and along the bra line the first few times I am out in the sun for any length of time but these are usually remedied with Benedryl.
I'm sure my rashes are autoimmune; 8 years ago, throughout a pregnancy and all during the time I breastfed, the rashes were GONE! As a matter of fact, all symptoms were gone.
But who can be pregnant or breastfeeding all the time!
I get my rashes at 'moon time'; about the time I ovulate and through menstruation. If I get a bad dose of them, they can linger for months! After any prolonged time, the rash area turnes all purpley, then brownish, until it fades away.
A few years back we stopped the rashes, when I was on too high a dose of my thryoid meds. The rashes stopped BUT I felt horrible otherwise... so we had to lower the dose back down. With the higher TSH, the rashes came back.
My blood tests for the last few years look great but so far, no luck stopping the rashes!
So here's what I'm wondering: First: Does a woman, with a normal functioning throid, have a lower TSH during 'moon time'? Second: Can 'the pill' in some form or other stop these symptoms?