Itching my leg has caused terrible bruising :(

[Chlobo]

Hello everyone, I really need some help. My legs have been itching the last few days and I've been scratching at them really badly. I was in the shower last night and my calf was so itchy I scratched away in a kind of day dream. After a bit I looked at my leg and there's a huge black bruise where I itched and smaller blue ones where I've been scratching over the last few days. I have acrylic nails at the moment and there really hard on the skin to scratch with but surely it should t cause bruising this bad. It looks like I've been beaten up. I had bloodwork done in August/September time and my blood count come back normal. Would anything like leaukimia have developed since? This bruising is frightening me :(

[Carnation]

I have this problem and found out that the itching is yet another Anxiety symptom. In fact there isn't really an itch at all, it is all psychological and next time you itch, resist it and say out loud; 'there is no itch and it is just my Anxiety', the itch magically disappears. I also caused a bluey/black blotch and it disappeared in a couple of days. You can use some witch hazel gel which brings bruising to the surface and heals it a lot quicker, if you are worried. Cold water on the leg also seems to calm it down. :)

[Chlobo]

Surely getting a massive bruise from itching isn't normal though

[Katki]

Once I had false nails on and had a 14 hour flight. I had an itchy calf on the flight and itched my leg loads during that flight.

My whole calf was literally black purple and blue when I got home and had a bath. I had bloods checked and was fine, it was just the itching. You can do quite a lot of damage from nails!

[popejoan]

My legs are always itchy, always all the time, it's worse at nights, sometimes my abdomen and arms are itchy too but it's mostly my legs. The worst parts are my inner knees and my ankles. I don't have bruising and had blood work done as well but it came back fine. Now I'm scared of lymphoma to be honest as I realized I have slightly enlarged lymph nodes on my right groin.

[Annie0904]

I have had bruising from scratching itchy legs before. Scratching causes trauma so quite likely (and normal) to bruise.

[Lin71]

I suffer from itchy legs too especially at night. It gets a lot worse in the winter with the central heating on.
I've always had bruising from scratching my legs. I bruise easily anyway and if I really scratch I will be black and blue the next day, and this is with my own nails. I'd say this is normal for a lot of people. Those acrylic nails are hard, and when you scratch you're essentially injuring your skin and possibly the tissue beneath. I'd be more worried if you didn't bruise!

Lin x

[Chlobo]

Thank you all for your reasurring replies means a lot ❤️

[Laura86]

This has happened to me and recently I realised that each time it happened I was wearing newly bought black tight trousers. Someone at work then told me that manufacturers put chemicals in that make them look shiny and appealing, and that these chemicals are bad for skin. I guess this could happen when wearing any new clothing? Just another idea.