Here's something new which may or may not be menopause related so I thought I'd try it out here and see if anyone has the same symptoms.

I've always had fair skin and first exposure to the sun on any year makes me go bright pink which eventually fades to a comfortable shade of brown.

Now we get hardly any sun here so it isn't easy to see trends with this, but yesterday we had a sunny day and I sat out in the garden.

In the evening I had a red blotchy rash (slightly itchy) on my arms, not seen anything like that before. The hubs thought I'd got an allergy to some plant because I had been gardening, but this is the same as a couple of weeks ago when we also had a rare sunny afternoon and I had the same thing.

Yes, I know there is going to be chorus of "Wear sunscreen!" and usually I would but didn't have any seeing as the sunshine has caught us by surprise.

Has anyone else found that menopause has affected their skin's sensitivity to sunlight? Or should I be looking at plant allergies?

Are you on any meds or supplements that have sun sensitivity as a side effect? St. John's Wort is one of them and I think some antibiotics can cause a reaction too. It's something to think about anyway.

My whole life I've had a weird response to the first few times I'm out in the sun every year once the warm weather starts. On my upper chest just below my neck and also on the tops of my hands and part of my arms, I would break out in tiny, itchy bumps and slight redness. It would last for a few times in the sun and then it would go away and not return until the next year with the first sun exposure. My mother also had this happen and I never have found out why this happens. Very strange.

My mother during her late 40's would suddenly only have to be int he sun for 10 -15mins to get a new crop of freckles and a light tan. Now, at 47 yo I've become the same way during peri. Prior to this I used to only turn pink after sun exposure and maybe a slight tan by the end of summer. Weird huh? Oh, and I didn't have freckles before. Regards, JZZ

I've always gotten sun poisoning - that itchy bumpy rash - but with the increase in the UV exposure, because of the thinning ozone layer I guess, I get it a lot faster. I've even gotten a rash sitting in the sun next to a window. My life has been spent covered, under a hat and with zinc oxide on my nose.

I have become sun sensitive and heat sensitive as well. I have been tested for everything that could cause it (e.g., lupus) and I am not taking meds that would cause it. The only thing that could be related is my hormonal fluctations.