To all Granuloma Annulare sufferers - what else is going on?

Dear Carole,

I have had GA for 4 years, it goes into remission after about 18 months, and then comes back again.

The location is my inner thighs, and buttocks.

Unfortunately, as I understand, there is no cure for this. I understand it is a autoimmune disease, could also be related to stress. Not sure.

It is very unsightly, does not hurt, just a bummer to have.

All the best,

Margo

Good day, all. I have been plagued with this condition since about puberty and I will be 40 this year. I've been to a few dermatologists over the years. I have tried pretty much anything they suggested. The ONLY thing that has been successful in clearing up an outbreak sooner than the usual months to years of just waiting it out has been cortisone injections. When I was a teen, a dermatologist injected a few of the lesions with cortisone along the raised outer edge and within probably 2 weeks, the treated one's dissolved. Everyone's experience may be different. for me.. they have been incredibly itchy. No topical creams have worked for me. I also have MS.

hi there. i was diagnosed two years ago with GA and had only 2 spots. i was given clobetisol (steriod) cream which did make the spots go away after using for a few months. this past summer it came back in full force and is all over my legs and forearms. ive been trying the cream but it hasnt been working. when i was younger i was diagnosed with raynauds phenomenon which seemed to go away for a good part of my adult life, i actually forgot about it...but now it is back too! its pretty bad now that it is cold outside. so im wondering if their could be some correlation between the GA and the raynauds? has anyone else experienced this? the dermatologists dont seem to know much about GA. any thoughts would be helpful!

Hi Carole, I know how annoying GA is. I first had GA back in 2015 and I am now almost GA free. It took 4 years, although one of the Asian dermatologist told me that they would never go away. I tried steroid creams prescribed by a few dermatologists (I wanted to get 2nd, 3rd and even 4th opinions), but the steroid was effective only temporarily, not a long term solution. I heard from my colleague whose husband had a sort of auto-immune system problem that acupuncture might work. Obviously her husband's symptom improved after acupuncture. So with some skepticism I went to see the same acupuncturist. He is an Australian doctor (I live in Sydney) and Caucasian, but he studied and practiced in a hospital in China for 5 years. After listening to my story about how GA developed, he said, "It may not work, but what I will do is to set your auto-immune system back to normal as I believe it went abnormal (I can't remember exactly what word he used) for some reasons; may be caused by some medication I had taken - possibly cyklokapron which I had to take after laser treatment on my face). I had 5 acupuncture sessions with this doctor. It took a few months, but my GA gradually lost angry looking and 7 months after the treatment there is almost no scar of the GAs and a few light brown spot on my legs and backs. I highly recommend Asian acupuncture for GA treatment.

This is an update to my earlier post. This year my GA has significantly improved. I still have small bumps on my hands, and one on my ankle, but they are not inflamed, don't hurt or itch. The only thing that has changed is that I have been on a ketogenic diet for 14 months. Very strict, no sugar products at all, no carbs, not even fruit. Leafy greens and cruciferous veggies are allowed as well as blackberries and raspberries. No artificial sweeteners except for those made with Stevia. Processed foods are out. Natural foods only. I also use MCT oil every day in my coffee. I am not plugging this diet, but it is one that is known to "heal" the body. It certainly seems to have helped with my GA.

Hi

Is this a current post as i notice most of the comments were 5 years ago but the original post has been edited two months ago so not sure if its still a live discussion?

I finally figured mine out!!!! TOO MUCH ESTROGEN.

Mine started in my teens when i started the nuvaring birth control which is very high in estrogen. i tried everything, mostly related to steroid creams and different foods i thought might be causing an allergy, but it didnt seem to be correlated to anything. After 12ish years, I started realizing it would start to look calmer when i got off birth control and then get angry again when i got back on. This wasnt immediate. It took probably 6 months to go away and 6 months to come back the last time i got off and back on the nuvaring, which is why it was so hard to recognize this correlation.

Since testosterone decreases in menopause, that would naturally increase estrogen and explain why this is more common in menopause. I'm not saying this is the cure because i know every body is different but i thought i'd share in case my story could help anyone else 😃

Is anyone else getting allergy shots? I'm thinking my years long GA could be connected. Shot in the dark... but who knows?

Thanks

Tracy

Hello, I am new on this forum and have been reading this thread with interest. I was diagnosed with GA about 3 years ago. It started around my groin and around my buttocks and is now all over my body. The doctors have no idea why this is happening. As I read this thread I was looking for something that we all have in common. Some things that have turned up several times are dental work, menopause, hormones, (it gets better during pregnancy and worse after menopause), improvement with dietary changes and cramping.

I have attempted an elimination diet and found that the condition improves in appearance with the elimination of carbs and sugar but doesn't really go away. This disease is caused by something systemic in our bodies, perhaps a metabolic syndrome that becomes worse in menopause that is tied to our hormones..

I have a question to you all.. were any of you diagnosed with poly-cystic ovary syndrome at any time in your lives? Apparently this can pre-dispose us to metabolic syndrome, diabetes, auto immune skin problems and a host of others after menopause.. I haven't thought about it much, being post-menopausal but there is a lot of literature out there.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6831757/

Finding the cause of this illness is like finding a needle in the haystack.. Doctors are trying unsuccessfully to treat our symptoms, sometimes with powerful drugs that have side effects, whereas the unknown cause lies within..