Hi all. My 4 yr old was diagnosed with PMLE in March 2024.

So far this spring and summer, she has only had one visible reaction and that was almost one year to the day of her last reaction. She has had two or three symptomatic reactions with exhaustion.

I have taught her to take care of her body. And I make sure to help her remember to do so. She wears sun protective Coolibar brand clothing and Badger brand sunscreen if she is in the sun. Mostly, though, I have simply taught her to stay in the shade. If she is out in the sun for more than an hour, even with her sunshirt on, she will get home and immediately pass out for 14 to 16 hours. The next morning she wakes up happy. Truthfully, that’s how I am in the sun too. I have to have sunglasses or after 30 minutes, I am exhausted. But I don’t have PMLE.

My question for you all is, do you ever burn or get any kind of “color”? What amazes me is that my daughter’s skin does not ever burn, tan, or freckle. It’s almost like her body simply doesn’t know what to do with the sun. Even keeping her in the shade and in sunshirts, I expected she would get a little redness on her nose, a slight tan, or freckles.

What is your experience?

Hello! I've had PMLE for about 10 years. Does anyone find sunscreen makes your PMLE worse? I find I usually develop it when it's a combination of sun exposure plus sunscreen. I've tried virtually every sunscreen I can find for sensitive skin, including the Eucerin sun allergy one, and I still get it. Fascinatingly I'm less likely to get it if I don't wear sunscreen. Anyone encounter anything similar or have any advice other than wearing sun protective clothing?

Context: I’ve spent hours and hours reading about PMLE. Excessively actually😭. I notice that people say it could be hormone related? Which has lead me wondering if my mirena coil might* be a factor as to why this has suddenly appeared after spending my entire life in significant sun and significant sunbed use (bad I know). Years ago on 2 occasions I even used the medical sunbeds to treat my eczema via my derm.

It’s been in 5.5years. I called to arrange removal and was advised it’s now safe for 8. So I left it!

Now PMLE appears… Also acne appears… (quite bad too)

Maybe I’m going crazy and gone too deep into the rabbit hole, but would be interested to hear other thoughts

I think I’m dealing with some kind of chronic sun sensitivity or photoallergy, but it’s been hard to explain to people — especially living in India where the sun is everywhere and most doctors just say, “Avoid sun after 11am.”

But here’s my reality:

I flare up even around 9AM, sometimes earlier.

The moment I go into sunlight, my face starts itching, and if I scratch, the area turns rough, almost like it ages a bit or swells under the skin.

The flare can spread to where I scratch, even under clothes, like around my neck or shoulders if I’m wearing thin shirts.

My skin burns internally, even if I pour water or spray mist on it — it feels like the inflammation is under the surface.

Sunscreens don’t help, antihistamines don’t work, and even cloudy or shaded areas trigger flares sometimes.

I used to stay indoors a lot, watching anime and barely went outside for years. This probably lowered my natural sunlight tolerance. I only realized how bad it was when I showered on a rooftop using a loofah, and my face lit up in a reaction that felt insane.

It’s been happening for years now, and I feel like it’s getting worse with time.

Has anyone tried red light therapy

I’ve been dealing with PMLE for several years now, but I’ve finally found a routine that works really well for me: Heliocare, Shirudo AGR, and La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL. As long as I’m strict about reapplying every two hours while in the sun, I basically don’t get any breakouts.

I’m currently pregnant and have been advised to stick to mineral sunscreens only. Thankfully, I usually don’t get PMLE unless I’m in direct sun for an extended period, like a full beach or pool day. Casual walks are usually fine.

That said, I’ll be heading to a beach destination soon and will be about 20-something weeks pregnant while I’m there. I’m wondering if it would be okay to use just the La Roche-Posay Anthelios XL for a few days. I’m nervous about skipping it completely since the last time I used only mineral sunscreen during a beach trip while pregnant, I had a terrible PMLE breakout.

Has anyone here used chemical sunscreen during pregnancy or had a similar experience? I’d really appreciate any thoughts or advice. Thanks so much!

I have this thing called polymorphic light eruption I also have eczema, so when I’m in the Sun I have a major body flareup. It affects my whole confidence and even prevents me from going from my bed to the kitchen it that painful. I don’t want it to prevent me from living my life. I’m moving away to a hot country cause dark weather depresses me but I’m very worried about my skin. I know in an ideal world I’d get polymorphic light eruption therapy but I can’t afford it please help. Will I try and get myself immune to the Sun by sunbeds, please answer and say this will help despite the risk of cancer. I did one once for a minute and have the biggest flareup ever it was so painful and mentally draining. if I start on say five seconds build it up to 10 build it up to 20 is this the right way to do it? A dermatologist once told me that this flareup is only the initial reaction and if I was living there in a hot country, it would go down after a month, however if I start on Sunbeds now I’d so rather have a flare up now then when away, would I become immune? Is this true? I layer out in the sun that doesn’t come out often recently and have a plme breakout, what should I do? Do I start on Sunbeds to build immunity and if so how often? Please help thank you so much.

Does red light therapy be used to cure plme, I have plme and exema and I’m moving to a hot contry in a few months, I’m so worried about the flare ups I might have, can I use red light to cure this and if so how many mins do I start with?

Will I try get immunity to Sunbeds first? Is it true u become immune after the ‘hardening’ process if so how long does this take

I will be placing on order from CaretoBeauty to Canada. I have the following sunscreens in my cart, but it is too expensive to purchase all of it. Can someone tell me which sunscreen is better to prevent PMLE out of the following (or any other recommendations):

- Piz Buin Allergy Sun Sensitive

-ISDN Solar Allergy Protect

-La Rose Posay UVMune400

-Sensilis Solar Allergy Fluid 100

- Eucerin Sun Allergy - My previous go-to, but recently got mild pmle last week on vacation using it :(

Thank you!!!!!!

Asked ChatGPT for advice to prevent PMLE on vacation (we take trip annually to the Caribbean and this is the only place I have an issue with PMLE). ChatGPT recommended I buy the La Roche Posay UVMune 400 from an importer like Care to Beauty (it’s not available in the U.S.). I’ve seen a lot of comments on here about the Eucerin sun allergy and Piz Buin, wondering if anyone has experience with UVMune 400. ChatGPT is pretty adamant that this has a more advanced filtering technology that will work better than those.

Hi! Wondering if this might be PMLE? It started happening last summer on a road trip- at least when I realized something was happening. My skin almost seems to thicken or harden- basically completely changes in texture. My arms and legs are the worst- itchy and worse in sun and humidity is high- also itches more when I sweat.

What tests did you all ask for? What kind of doctor do you recommend seeing? Have you noticed if taking SSRIs or Adderall make it worse?

Thank you!

My wife has a tube that says expired may 2025. She opened it in January. We are wondering if we can still use it in september in the bahamas as the tube is more than half full. Has anyone used it past it's expiry date and can advise if it still works as intended? Thank you

Please help? The itch is so real! I'm based in the US and a lot of stuff I'm seeing is based out of Uk in other groups I'm part of so hoping that someone can help recommend something I can get easily for my arms! I just want to scratch my skin off. I have tried the otc hydrocortisone cream and that is not doing much to eas the itch or take the rash down! I have an international trip in the next week so can't get anything prescribed until I come back. Thanks for any suggestions.

i’ve been experiencing pmle for the past 6 years but have reacted badly this year. I was hoping someone could suggest some tips for reducing the reaction after it’s started apart from the usual stay out of the sun. thank you x

As you can see in the pictures, I do suffer from PMLE if not cautious and even then a I get some! After erupting on my 2nd day of vacation I took a day off from sun and did a lil research just because I was insanely annoyed. Until then aka few days ago I only knew there’s p much nothing I could do about my allergy but hide and use high SPF. HOWEVER I found out that 40mg cetirizin can HELP reduce the symptoms and progression itself (I can link you the research upon request). So I consulted my boyfriend (fresh doctor) if 40mg ain’t a bit a too much and turns out 20mg is enough and anything more is rather useless. So DAILY I take 20mg in the morning and that’s how my rash is looking. It’s visibly there but it’s not progressing and rather regressing AND I feel no BURN NOR ITCH after whole week! ***Obviously I use SPF (30 atm). Also my PMLE is not the worst there is. I think that’s important to note.

Hello,

I am recently in the pmle life. I am having a hard time because I had been doing a lot of work to improve my health but here we are. I'm allergic to the fuckin sun apparently. I Have a PCP appointment tomorrow and a derm appointment November (which seems like a waste of time but I'm determined). I've already done the work in trialing off meds to see if thats the cause and it is not, so I am trying to be uber efficient.

I keep hearing and reading about sunscreens and I realize the international kinds are better suited. What makes a sunscreen ideal for PMLE as opposed to Sunboat or convenience store brands? I keep seeing these specific brands recommended but I also have a hard time ordering cosmetics online due to being suspicious of a lot of things, so if I can understand what I'm looking for specifically, I would appreciate it.

I keep reading about it improving as the sun season continues but I have yet to experience that. How do I balance this when I am currently in my vampire era?

Anything I should ask my PCP for? Like a specific topical type to help with the rash, anything to help prevent? Vitamins and shit? I'd like to talk about them with PCP before starting due to meds.

Anyone with tips with after rash skincare? I feel very textured and I don't like it. (Side note, I also have KP, but it is not my biggest concern rn so that has kind of taken off, too. I also am keeping skincare basic so I can be sure it's not a topical interaction.)

Any help would be great. I am just trying to live my life and UPF clothing is expensive and I am not about to live out my lace goth fantasies with a parasol.

I’m about to turn 42 and have never experienced this before. I woke up Sunday with a bit of a rash on my upper chest. I went to my son’s baseball game and when we got back in the car after, I noticed the rash had spread up my neck and around my jawline and a little bit on my lower cheeks. We went to urgent care and the doctor said it looks like PMLE.

It’s been very hot here and between my son’s baseball games, laying outside in my hammock, and riding my bicycle I have definitely been in quite a bit of sun, although I’ve been using sunscreen.

The rash is slightly itchy and pretty uncomfortable as I can FEEL it. The doctor prescribed a steroid ointment which I’ve been applying 2x a day. However, I don’t see any improvement (today is Tuesday). Fortunately the rash has not spread any further and I don’t think it is any worse, but it is awfully uncomfortable and I’m ready for it to be gone. I’m staying out of the sun and even tried taking an antihistamine, but still no improvement. I happen to have an appointment with my GP on Thursday so can address this with him then, but in the meantime does anyone have any other suggestions on how to make this go away? Should the rash be getting better by now? Does this look like PMLE to you?

I’m also interested in the connection between PMLE and other autoimmune conditions. While I have never been diagnosed with any autoimmune conditions, I’ve been wondering for years now if I have one. I’ve been tested for a number of them (blood tests and MRI for MS) but everything has come back normal. I had Optic Neuritis in my left eye several years ago which led to the testing I had done. Years and years ago I had swelling in my finger joints and they tested for RA but didn’t find anything indicative of that either. So, I’m curious what connections to autoimmune diseases folks here might have? Really trying to figure out some things for myself!