I am about to turn 40, and the last couple years have not been great for me physically, so if this is middle-age, then I don't want it. In my case, the problem is dry skin, which has plagued me more or less all my life, but looking back, it seems like in former decades it was a relatively minor annoyance compared to the scourge it has become. Sometimes I go into an itching frenzy. Not good at night when I'm trying to sleep or when out in public.
In a certain sense, you could consider my question a male version of
http://ask.metafilter.com/59650/Hypothyroid-or-hypochondriac from last year. FYI, andropause is the medical term for "mid-life crisis" and is like a male version of menopause. In summary, the idea is that for various reasons your hormone levels begin to deviate from normal.
For me, about 2 years ago, at the age of 37, my dry skin started going from bad to worse. Before, my dry skin was made tolerable by simply doing extra dollops of hand lotion on my hands and face throughout the day. I grinned and bore the jokes if it happened to be scented stuff. But now, my skin is dry and cracked and flaky, and regular lotion doesn't help at all and some brands even make it worse. I've been trying lots of different creams and ointments, and have accumulated quite a collection. Then I developed a tenacious jock itch.
The skin between my fingers often erupts in a yellow-crusted rash. Sometimes something similar happens behind my ears, such that if I sleep on one side during the night, then I wake up in the morning with that ear plastered flat to my head.
The dermatologists only seem to offer stronger prescription creams with various side effects. Then they prescribed oral antibiotics which really messed up my digestion. I fired him and went to an Osteopath.
The Osteopath put me on a bunch of vitamin and herbal supplements and told me to avoid dairy and carbs/sugar in favor of protein and fats. She also put me on hormone -replacement therapy (testosterone cream) and oral hydro-cortisone capsules. The jock itch went away, but the rest of my skin is as dry and itchy as ever. In fact in some ways it seems worse and the rash has spread to the backs of my knees. Also, my shins are so itchy I sometimes claw them raw.
I started a homeopathic remedy last month, but the homeopath said it might take a year to work. Sometimes I wonder if I'll have any skin left by then.
The osteopath's next suggestion is for me to see an acupuncturist. Other un-tried suggestions include: 1. buying a $400 cranial-electrical stimulation device; 2. undergoing a $700 genetic test for hormone deficiency.
One thought I've had is to try hypnotherapy because I think I'm "addicted" to scratching myself. Sometimes it feels good (endorphins?). But I almost always regret it--sometimes within a few minutes, although sometimes it isn't until an hour or so later when the pain kicks in.
Another recent symptom is that I'm often cold and hungry in the afternoons: More so than just the snack-cravings from my younger years. These days I find it hard to wait until noon for lunch, and can still pound down quite a lot of snacks only a couple hours afterwards.
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What kind of side-effects? Do they effect your quality of life? Do you have pustular psoriasis? No amount of accupuncture or "cranial stimulation" is going to help this. Maybe you need the prescription creams.
No offense, but this Osteopath sounds like a quack to me. It's always a red flag when they want you to buy a bunch of stuff.
posted by LoriFLA at 6:20 PM on June 6, 2008