KMinUSA
23-07-17, 19:09
Hi all, I have recently learned much about petechia and cherry angiomas—two distinct skin conditions that bring people a lot of fear—through my own experience. Since they cause people so much terror, I thought I'd try to help ease some of that.
Firstly, cherry angiomas are bright red dots, sort of like red moles, on the skin that come about as a result blood vessels not re-absorbing into the skin. They are totally harmless. Per my dermatologist, they are incredibly common over the age 30; genetics play a role; exercise can bring them out; stress can bring them out. Most people will get at least some. Once they appear, they will not go away, unless you opt to have them lasered.
Petechia are broken capillaries and can present in quite a few different ways. Unlike cherry angiomas, petechia will go away in a matter of days or weeks. They tend to be more brown in color than cherry angiomas, which tend to be a bright red. The lighter your skin, the easier these are to see.
This past winter, I began getting both cherry angiomas and petechia—for the first time. I get them both all over my body. Most of my cherry angiomas are tiny...some like the tiniest little pin prick, hardly even noticeable.
My petechia can get a bit larger and come in different sizes.
Here is the thing about petechia. For some reason, if you Google them, the results are ONLY terrifying. They *can* be associated with horrific diseases. But overwhelmingly, they will not be. Why Google doesn't present the full spectrum of reasons behind these little red dots on the skin, I will never know.
Like so many here, when I googled "tiny red dots on skin," I was presented with all kinds of terrifying diseases and blood disorders. I only came across one article that said they can also come about for common, harmless reasons, yet the reasons were not stated.
So like so many here, I fell down the terror rabbit hole and couldn't get leukemia out of my head for months. Seeking reassurance, I read all kinds of chat room conversations about these on various sites. I finally came across something called capillaritis.
Capillaritis is not a medical term, as I understand it, but a general term that refers to various harmless conditions that can cause the capillaries to leak into the skin now and then. (Do not quote me on this, but it seems that the dots on skin of capillaritis are referred to as both purpua and petechia; I'm unclear on the difference, but it exacerbates the confusion to be sure.)
I was finally able to get into see my dermatologist. Being a hot and humid summer where I live, I had noticed quite a few more of them on my legs in recent weeks. I began to notice a pattern: on the very hot days when I was outside walking a lot, I would get a huge number of them...10 to 15 on each leg. And then a smattering all over my body. They'd go away in a matter of days and generally wouldn't come back in large numbers until I was outside in the heat again. (But to be sure, one would pop up here and there even if I wasn't outside a lot.)
I also noticed that after a particularly hot shower, I would emerge with some.
My dermatologist took one look at them and said, "This is what's called capillaritis." She went on to say that it's totally harmless. Heat and sweat can bring them out. Exercise can bring them out. She also said she has some patients who've noticed they get them after they've been drinking b/c alcohol thins the blood. And as we age, our skin thins, so they become more apparent, too.
Per my own research, they can emerge as a result of some sort of allergic reaction to a medication or food. They can happen as a result of your body fighting a virus. While they are most common in legs (b/c legs bear the lion's share of our body weight and our leg veins sustain a lot of pressure), they can appear anywhere. I get them on my upper legs, arms, abdomen, chest, neck, face...I very well could get them on my back, but I can't see back there.
Long before these started presenting all over my body for reasons I didn't yet understand, I have always gotten petechia on my shoulder when I would travel. My heavy carry on bag would mildly traumatize the skin there, resulting in petechia, like tiny little bruises. (I never thought twice about them then b/c to me there was a clear cause and effect. It wasn't until they started showing up all over my body that I freaked out.)
At the dermatologist, there was no need to do bloodwork. My dermatologist knew immediately what was going on by looking at the red dots. Common, harmless, and something I will likely simply have for the rest of my life.
Sometimes capillaritis comes with itchiness. For me, it does not. But if it does, she said there are steroid creams people can use to alleviate the itchiness.
Why in God's name one must know to google capillaritis to get to the many and much more likely mundane, harmless reasons for petechia / purpua to present instead of google returning it as an option when you google petechia (which it does not), I do not understand. I have come to believe that Google itself is a hypochondriac!
Once and for all: petechia are common and harmless in the overwhelming majority of cases and not a cause for panic.
(Also, from what I have gathered, if they appear due to an underlying scary disease, they typically appear at the very latest stages...long after other symptoms would have presented to alert you to see a doctor. Which is to say, you'd already know long before petechia present in these cases something serious was going on.)
I should note, as a final point, that in my experience, many doctors will look at these on the skin and not know much about them. Go to a dermatologist if you can, not a GP or internist, for peace of mind with these.
Other things to google to get at capillaritis are Schamberg's disease or pigmented purpua dermatoses. These are not scary things to google, I promise. They are reassuring things to google.
Take heart. If you have these, odds are *overwhelmingly* on your side. These things are nuisances and harmless.
Firstly, cherry angiomas are bright red dots, sort of like red moles, on the skin that come about as a result blood vessels not re-absorbing into the skin. They are totally harmless. Per my dermatologist, they are incredibly common over the age 30; genetics play a role; exercise can bring them out; stress can bring them out. Most people will get at least some. Once they appear, they will not go away, unless you opt to have them lasered.
Petechia are broken capillaries and can present in quite a few different ways. Unlike cherry angiomas, petechia will go away in a matter of days or weeks. They tend to be more brown in color than cherry angiomas, which tend to be a bright red. The lighter your skin, the easier these are to see.
This past winter, I began getting both cherry angiomas and petechia—for the first time. I get them both all over my body. Most of my cherry angiomas are tiny...some like the tiniest little pin prick, hardly even noticeable.
My petechia can get a bit larger and come in different sizes.
Here is the thing about petechia. For some reason, if you Google them, the results are ONLY terrifying. They *can* be associated with horrific diseases. But overwhelmingly, they will not be. Why Google doesn't present the full spectrum of reasons behind these little red dots on the skin, I will never know.
Like so many here, when I googled "tiny red dots on skin," I was presented with all kinds of terrifying diseases and blood disorders. I only came across one article that said they can also come about for common, harmless reasons, yet the reasons were not stated.
So like so many here, I fell down the terror rabbit hole and couldn't get leukemia out of my head for months. Seeking reassurance, I read all kinds of chat room conversations about these on various sites. I finally came across something called capillaritis.
Capillaritis is not a medical term, as I understand it, but a general term that refers to various harmless conditions that can cause the capillaries to leak into the skin now and then. (Do not quote me on this, but it seems that the dots on skin of capillaritis are referred to as both purpua and petechia; I'm unclear on the difference, but it exacerbates the confusion to be sure.)
I was finally able to get into see my dermatologist. Being a hot and humid summer where I live, I had noticed quite a few more of them on my legs in recent weeks. I began to notice a pattern: on the very hot days when I was outside walking a lot, I would get a huge number of them...10 to 15 on each leg. And then a smattering all over my body. They'd go away in a matter of days and generally wouldn't come back in large numbers until I was outside in the heat again. (But to be sure, one would pop up here and there even if I wasn't outside a lot.)
I also noticed that after a particularly hot shower, I would emerge with some.
My dermatologist took one look at them and said, "This is what's called capillaritis." She went on to say that it's totally harmless. Heat and sweat can bring them out. Exercise can bring them out. She also said she has some patients who've noticed they get them after they've been drinking b/c alcohol thins the blood. And as we age, our skin thins, so they become more apparent, too.
Per my own research, they can emerge as a result of some sort of allergic reaction to a medication or food. They can happen as a result of your body fighting a virus. While they are most common in legs (b/c legs bear the lion's share of our body weight and our leg veins sustain a lot of pressure), they can appear anywhere. I get them on my upper legs, arms, abdomen, chest, neck, face...I very well could get them on my back, but I can't see back there.
Long before these started presenting all over my body for reasons I didn't yet understand, I have always gotten petechia on my shoulder when I would travel. My heavy carry on bag would mildly traumatize the skin there, resulting in petechia, like tiny little bruises. (I never thought twice about them then b/c to me there was a clear cause and effect. It wasn't until they started showing up all over my body that I freaked out.)
At the dermatologist, there was no need to do bloodwork. My dermatologist knew immediately what was going on by looking at the red dots. Common, harmless, and something I will likely simply have for the rest of my life.
Sometimes capillaritis comes with itchiness. For me, it does not. But if it does, she said there are steroid creams people can use to alleviate the itchiness.
Why in God's name one must know to google capillaritis to get to the many and much more likely mundane, harmless reasons for petechia / purpua to present instead of google returning it as an option when you google petechia (which it does not), I do not understand. I have come to believe that Google itself is a hypochondriac!
Once and for all: petechia are common and harmless in the overwhelming majority of cases and not a cause for panic.
(Also, from what I have gathered, if they appear due to an underlying scary disease, they typically appear at the very latest stages...long after other symptoms would have presented to alert you to see a doctor. Which is to say, you'd already know long before petechia present in these cases something serious was going on.)
I should note, as a final point, that in my experience, many doctors will look at these on the skin and not know much about them. Go to a dermatologist if you can, not a GP or internist, for peace of mind with these.
Other things to google to get at capillaritis are Schamberg's disease or pigmented purpua dermatoses. These are not scary things to google, I promise. They are reassuring things to google.
Take heart. If you have these, odds are *overwhelmingly* on your side. These things are nuisances and harmless.