Help! I’m not sure if this is Pityriasis Rosea or not!

From what i know you do get a herald patch. but you may not have noticed it. I personally think that the steroid cream might be useful to help itching and minimize potential scarring, I don't think it will harm. PR doesn't last too long. So keep an eye on it and see if if goes away. If it goes on go back to the GP. Although people say there are no triggers and you only get it once. I have had it twice and it was definitely stress induced (in hindsight) i hope it clear soon 😊

I've read stories of people who had PR and no noticeable herald patch. I didn't notice my herald patch until the rash had taken over my shoulders and back. Sunlight, coconut oil and taking herbal antivirals (cistus incanus/rock rose and scutellaria baicalensis/Chinese skullcap) are what ultimately helped me. You can get cistus incanus in tea form. It's good for flu and other viruses as well.

hi laura

you may have had one and never noticed! I put my experience in the forum 2 years ago as it was the only place you can actually get good advice, I will pop it below for you incase it may help. Best to try and get rid if it now before it starts to get warmer. I also suffer from Psoriasis and can say its totally different as PR is harder to combat, PR tends to hit you when your immune system is low and youre stressed where as psoriasis can often be triggered by hormones . Anyway heres my previous experience and what i did to combat it, hope it helps;

So like many of you I discovered a herald patch and confused it with ring worm. I applied fungal cream for days until it wore down to a red patch. Then more patches appeared all over, mostly under my arms, my chest, stomach and inner thighs. It's summer so I thought my summer was over after learning that it lasts 3 months. The doctor basically said there was nothing I could do and just had to wait for it to go, all she suggested was avoiding sweating (pretty hard considering it was during a heat wave) After leaving it and pretty much crying for a week I decided to be pro active and search the forums online. The first thing I read was that head and shoulders has an active ingredient that some how helps against the rash so I bought two varieties, the original and one for instant dry scalp care. I had also read that many people in the medical profession believe that PR is not really a virus (virus's are contagious and PR is not) but it is something that is dormant in our bodies and is brought out by a bad diet, lack of exercise or stress. To counter act this you need to build up your immune system. So I also purchased the following:

Aloe Vera juice - drank 2 X 25ml each day

Benadryl actrivistin - x1 a day

Wellwoman inner cleanse vitabiotics to help the immune system - X 2 a day

Boots herbal acne relief tablets (helps blemishes, eczema etc) X 3 a day

Aveeno moisturiser

I then showered twice a day, washing my body with the head and shoulders in a cool shower. I then had 6 minutes on the sun bed and after a week I was just left with a few dry patches. (The head and shoulders will dry your skin out - that's where the aveeno comes in)

Now unfortunately due to the heat I seem to have suffered more than most. The rash inside my armpits grew into large patches, these became raised and blister like. I was in agony and could not move. After seeing another doctor I was told these were deeply infected and I'm currently on a heavy course of flucloxacillin to battle the infection. However the rest of the rash has almost disappeared completely.

Ignoring the agony of the infection it would seem the rest has worked and I would deeply recommend trying some of the things I used. The shampoo dries the rash, the moisturiser combats this and the sunbeds get rid of the red marks.