I have had sensitive skin ever since I can remember, but this is a new problem. It feels like the skin on the left side of my lower back (right about where pants sit) is very irritated, but there is no rash, no discoloration, nothing that is visible. My skin tends to have reactions (rashes, hives, etc.) when I use new products so I haven't changed soaps, lotions, detergents, fabric softeners, or anything at all in at least two years. I'm also really careful about washing clothing or anything that I just bought or that a friend used before I wear it again because sometimes (not all the time, though) I'll have a reaction to the lotion, perfume, or something just from touching it briefly.

Usually, my reactions are a pretty major - I'll get hives that spread so fast and so badly all over my body that I end up going to the emergency room for treatment through an IV. But this is something very different. The irritated skin doesn't itch and it doesn't sting or burn or anything like that. It's just a non-specific but very irritated feeling.

At first, I thought it was just something about certain pants or shorts that was scratching me but it has gotten worse over the week and a half or so, to the point that I'm feeling it before, after, and in the shower when there is nothing touching my skin. I've tried everything I know to do for skin irritation - trying colder or hotter showers, anti-histimines, Cortisone lotions, creams, and ointments, Benzocaine - but nothing helps at all.

I've read about a ton of things that it could be, including some kind of fungal problem from tanning beds, but where I get stuck is that there are no visible symptoms whatsoever and almost everything I read about included some kind of rash, discoloration, bump, etc.

My dermatologist doesn't have an available appointment until next week, but like so many people say on some forums I've browsed, he usually just blames my usual skin irritations and hives on stress or a new lotion or soap (even though I tell him I haven't even been near anything new) and gives me some Cortisone concoction I haven't tried yet. I haven't seen him for this particular problem yet, but I'm guessing that will be the "diagnosis" again. Even if I do make