Cholinergic Urticaria

A description of my symptoms, is this cholinergic urticaria?

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I’m 33 and have had trouble with something very much like cholinergic urticaria at least as far back as my teen years. It affects my legs and feet, and is brought on by my skin being cooled then heated. Walks on cool/cold days are a real challenge. Once my legs cool due to the outside temp, but then start to warm up from the physical activity, they begin to itch, painfully. To stop it, I need to sit down and let my legs cool. It’s best to take off socks and shoes and roll my pants up. Once they’re cooled and the itch has passed (several minutes), I can carefully warm them up again, slowly, but the attack may return.

If it’s cold enough outside, the attack may not occur – my legs stay chilled. But then I have to be VERY careful about going inside. That can be the worst, transitioning from a cold walk to a warm indoors. I have sat out in sub freezing weather with my pants rolled up to cool off a bad attack.

Also: rubbing. Either just the material of the my pants or an object carried in a pocket, the friction can cause a localized attack, even if I’m otherwise fine.

It’s one of the banes of my life. I love cool weather and the outdoors. But the attacks are very painful and keep me inside when I’d rather be out.

-Wretzel

(the post above was submitted by a reader).

Comments

  1. Wretzel,

    Thanks for your post. Your symptoms do sound a lot like cholinergic urticaria. Based on my experience, it most commonly affects the upper body. However, I’ve read where some people seem to have it isolated towards the legs, and I’ve read people say that their doc diagnosed them with CU. Having said that, it’s always best to have a good doctor confirm the diagnosis.

    About the friction causing the attack–that sounds a little more like pressure or contact urticaria to me. It’s not uncommon for individuals to have 2 overlapping physical urticarias or other allergies.

    I hope that helps,
    Hivesguy

  2. Thank you for your reply! I have talked to two Drs (briefly, like all conversations with Drs), and one of them did suspect Cholinergic Urticaria. If you’re the guy who writes this website, thank you so much for it! Many people, and the other Dr I talked to, have never heard of it.

    I think, though I’m not 100% sure, that antihistamines help control my CU. I need to do more experimenting. Do you have knowledge of whether pressure/contact urticaria is responsive to antihistamines as well?

    • From what I know, antihistamines can help most urticaria types, as the basis of most urticaria reactions is histamine release. However, people do have mixed results with them. They can definitely help take the edge off in many cases of hives.

      And yes, I’m the guy who started this site–thanks for your kind words.