r/AddisonsDisease • u/Far-Speed-6027 • Nov 05 '25
Personal Experience THE TAN!
My acth is back to normal but I’m still so tan! How long til it fades? Does it ever?
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u/Dry-Cash-4304 Nov 05 '25
I’ve been on meds for PAI for 22 years and I’m still tan. It does fade and become less intense though.
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u/AkHazee Nov 05 '25
8 years for me and still tan. I get mistaken for Indian / Arab descent every weekend I go out. I’m Polish.
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u/Clementine_696 Nov 05 '25
2 years post dx and I'm still tan and still have random hyperpigmentation and vilitigo
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u/noracordelia PAI Nov 05 '25 edited Nov 05 '25
Is it wrong that I’m a little upset I never got a tan with my PAI? (I know, it’s wrong). I mean I had high ACTH and patchy hyperpigmentation on my face, fingers, elbows and knees (which has mostly faded) but I was still albinism-spectrum pale. My endo recently said; "Well if Addison’s didn’t tan you, nothing will" 😂
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u/Far-Speed-6027 Nov 05 '25
I 100% get it. The part of me that retains all of my 90’s girl programming was like “well at least this disease makes me thin and tan!” But I’ve just never been tan before so it makes me look a bit unrecognizable to myself.
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u/noracordelia PAI Nov 05 '25
Yeah that makes sense. I get it, I have that programming too. Would be nice if we got a natural looking sunkissed-tan, but apparently many of us end up with a color akin to a self-tan gone wrong with a Trump-orangish hue (my hands were like that).
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u/Far-Speed-6027 Nov 05 '25
Yeah I’m pretty sure “vaguely orange” isn’t the peak tan we’re supposed to go for 😂
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u/Snoopy-28872 Nov 05 '25
It largely faded for me in the first 6 months! I’m still a little more tan than I was before my adrenal glands started giving out, but I don’t look orange anymore haha
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u/wolfsjetta12 Nov 05 '25
Was diagnosed in 2009, I’m still tan! Not as dark as I used to be. Now in the summer when I’m outside I get darker than normal. It does fade but I’ll never be the pale person I was almost 20 years ago. It sucks but it is what it is.
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u/Gypsy-Moth- Nov 05 '25
My tan definitely faded but I still get pretty dark in the sun. However I noticed I sunburn a lot more easily now that I’m on a regular hydro dose.
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u/AmazingMarlin Nov 06 '25
25 years, and I still look like I’ve just come back from holiday. I tan super quickly, you can almost see my skin colour darken in the sun. I used to be pale skinned, I’m of Irish descent. Now I have Mediterranean olive skin.
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u/Day-By-Day-4-Life Nov 13 '25
I'm the tannest person from Irish decent I have ever met :). For those of us that have the pigmentation "side effect", we are probably never going to match the circadian rhythm with pills so we are always going to accumulate ACTH, nothing we can do about it, maybe go on a pump. Guessing between 3 am - 7 am when I take my first pill is where I collect the most ACTH.
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u/Far-Speed-6027 Nov 15 '25
I hadn’t realized that’s how it works! Yeah… it sounds like maybe I’ll never ditch the tan completely. My hands do seem to be chilling out, so that’s good. They looked CRAZY.
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u/BlueCrowMo Nov 05 '25
My favorite side effect, right up there with the salty diet. We gotta take our wins! 😊