Symptoms | Solar Allergy

Symptoms

Usually a short time after prolonged exposure to the sun on unprotected skin, the first symptom is a painless redness. This goes unnoticed and is often mistaken for the onset of sunburn. In contrast to sunburn, sun allergies lead to the formation of pustules that become visible in the reddened skin area.

Mostly parallel to this, patients complain of an agonizing itching that increases in intensity. Manipulation in the form of scratching the corresponding areas of skin worsens the situation and even leads to the skin opening and becoming sore at the scratched areas. In severe cases of sun allergies, small blisters may even appear, which are increasingly filled with liquid and grow in size.

Affected body regions are usually those areas of the body that have come into contact with the direct sun.Usually the skin areas in the face, forehead, cheeks, but also arms, legs and back can be severely affected by sunbathing. The otherwise typical allergic symptoms, such as eye tears and burning eyes, as well as running nose and scratching in the throat, do not usually occur with a sun allergy. The symptoms usually occur locally only in the area of the irradiated skin.

The duration of the symptoms is usually only as long as the skin is exposed to the sun. If the skin is protected with a sun protection cream or if the skin is covered with a piece of clothing, the symptoms usually disappear quite quickly. First the itching subsides, then the redness and pustules disappear.

In most cases, patients who have already experienced a light allergic reaction always experience the same symptoms as soon as they come into contact with sunlight. Overall, however, the symptoms of a sun allergy vary greatly from person to person, i.e. a sun allergy can manifest itself in different ways in different people. In most affected patients, however, reddening and itching of the skin is a major component of the symptom complex.

In some cases, sun allergy can also occur when sunrays meet salt. Patients who swim in seawater may therefore experience itching of the skin when the skin wetted with salt water comes into contact with sunlight. However, after washing the salt off the skin with fresh water, the symptoms usually disappear.

The term sun allergy does not exist in the medical sense. A sun allergy can describe various diseases, but mostly the so-called polymorphic light dermatosis is meant. However, this is probably not an allergy in the conventional sense.

The skin rash that occurs with such a sun allergy can look very different. Spotty redness, pimples, nodules (papules) or blisters can develop. The symptoms usually appear a few hours after sun exposure.

Only those parts of the skin that have been exposed to the sun, i.e. not covered by clothing, are affected. Therefore, areas such as the neck and décolleté as well as the arms, back of the hands, legs and face are particularly affected. Mostly it is an unpleasantly itchy skin rash.

The type of rash that can occur in case of a sun allergy varies greatly. There can be spotty redness, blistering, nodules, but also the formation of numerous small pimples. The rash occurs only in the sun-exposed area.

Redness and even slight swelling in the facial area can occur in the case of a sun allergy. However, an isolated swelling of the mouth area or tongue, for example, indicates a different type of allergy. Such swellings can occur, for example, after an insect bite in the case of a known insect venom allergy or food allergies such as nut allergy.

If the swelling of the mouth or tongue increases, a doctor should be consulted immediately. There is a risk that the respiratory tract also swells up, thus hindering breathing. A sun allergy can manifest itself on all parts of the body that are exposed to the sun without protection.

It can also occur on the face. However, a sun allergy that occurs isolated on the eyelid is rather untypical. Possibly another disease is behind it. A visit to the dermatologist can clarify this.