Hives (Chronic Urticaria) Going out of my mind now trying to work out what is wrong!!

I have just turned 23 so doubt it is menopause. But it is linked to my hormones, i just don't really know how to explain this to my GP cause he really doesn't care!!

Hi Lorraine, heat is a killer for me too. V worried about going abroad as I love sitting in the sun. Also worried that after 6 weeks on my meds with no hives/itching/swelling that I am getting just 1 or 2 red hot hives each night for last 5 days. When people find the meds work is it just for a while or long term? Also what happens during summer - does the heat make it worse or does it ease off? I had no idea this horrific thing existed and how so many people suffer with it until I had it. My consultant told me last week that he wouldn't need to see me again as the tablets were controlling it but I'm not sure if they are starting to stop working. Kelly definitely try another doctor as I settled with one and suffered for far too long, you need to get some quality of life back. The doctors all blamed stress on the cause of my getting this thing but though I had been stressed I think that was due to coming off the progesterone only pill. Had v aching joints and all sorts of weird symptoms most of which have gone since the HRT kicked in but the urticaria stayed and got intensely worse and now I rattle I'm on so many tablets to sort out the urticaria!

Also just wonder whether either of you had the weird thing with your throat and chest where it feels like you have swallowed a stone and it sort of comes and goes like you can't swallow? Often with a pain in chest and cough/wheeze? Thankfully that stopped when I started the meds 6 weeks ago.

I started by going to the ER for swollen lips and eyes along with welts / hives all over my body. I'm not big on doctors or for that matter ER rooms. Two days later after my ER visit I visited my PCP and I was referred to a specialist. The allergist diagnosed me with chronic spontaneous urticaria or angioedema. I was given nothing but a epinephrine pen and told that there is no cure nor anything I could do to help myself. I requested testing for everything in the world via blood tests, std tests, infectious disease test, and everything came back negative. I was kind of hoping for something to come back positive so that I would know what was wrong although that wasn't the case.

I'm not the type of person to tell everyone my business although hives aren't anything you can hide! While at work a woman friend looked at me and could see by my face that something was wrong. She questioned me and I told her. She stated that she had the same thing occur approximately 4 years ago and that she knew what I could take to stop the hives. I felt very exited. She also stated that after four years it still exists.

This is what I started taking that ended my hives / welts:

1) Famotidine 20mg, 2 tabs twice daily (40mg twice per day) (OTC). 2am and on 2 pm.

2) Zyrtec (cetirizine) 10mg, 2 tablets daily (OTC) 1 am and 1 pm.

I purchased both of these pills from Costco although I'm quite sure you could buy them anywhere.

For what it's worth I'm not a medical professional or in the medical field at all. I searched the Internet when the doctor gave it a name and could find nothing, I was very sad. I hope this works for you although I accept no responsibility for the outcome in your personal outcome.

First thing you have to accept is there probably is nothing the medical world can pin point as wrong.

I have had every test you mention and pages and pages more... three rounds at GPs and a round at a provate hopsital which cost me 1200 quid. 

Every single one came back saying nothong was wrong and that I was positivly healthy. 

Only one which was very low was Vitamin D... but as the consultant said, we live in a Northern European country I bet most people's is low.

Stop trying to look for a reason, it will only drive you mad. I have been there and done. 

If it doesn't go you learn ways to cope. I am in my ninth month now, but there are people who never get rid of it. 

When you said your thyroid levels are normal, what actual values were they, the NHS tolearance for normal is very wide. Did you get tested for Thyroid antibodies? Also, ask to get tested for Blastocystis Hominis and D. Fragilis as well as H.Pylori, or get that done privately (it takes multiple stool samples). Find out your Eosonphil count, high count will usually show if there's a parasitic infection.

You moved from Ireland to Glasgow, which is much much colder, have you done an ice cube test on your skin to see if that causes hives? I have what I thought were allergic hives but eventually discovered through bathing in cold water on holidays that it was a cold urticaria. Hands are one of the places I will first break out on. Sometimes it looks like sunburn rather than hives but will go away leaving a burning itching sensation when I warm up.