Vitiligo (vit-uh-lie-go) causes the skin to lose its natural color. Patches of lighter skin appear. Some people develop a few patches. Others lose much more skin color.
Vitiligo can also affect other parts of your body. A section of hair can turn white. Some people lose color inside their mouths. Even an eye can lose some of its color.
What causes this color loss is still a mystery. We do know that vitiligo is not contagious. It is not life-threatening.
But vitiligo can be life-altering. Some people develop low self-esteem. They may no longer want to hang out with friends. They can develop serious depression. Most people have vitiligo for life, so it’s important to develop coping strategies.
A coping strategy that helps many people is to learn about vitiligo. Another helpful strategy is to connect with others who have vitiligo.
Up to 2% of the population and an estimated 2 to 5 million Americans have the condition. It doesn’t matter if you’re a man or a woman.
In most cases, it develops early in life, between ages 10 and 30. It will almost always show up before age 40.
Symptoms
You’ll often lose pigment quickly on several areas of your skin. After the white patches appear, they may stay the same for a while, but later on, they might get bigger. You may have cycles of pigment loss and stability.
Vitiligo commonly affects body folds (such as armpits), places that have been injured in the past, and areas exposed to sun, around moles, or around body openings. It can also affect eyelids and hair.
Diagnosis and Treatment
Your doctor can usually make a diagnosis of vitiligo by looking at your skin during a physical exam.
There’s no known way to prevent or cure the condition. But you can improve the appearance of affected skin with cosmetics and corticosteroid creams. Your doctor can also try re-pigmenting the white skin using UV light therapy or lightening the skin in unaffected areas, or a skin graft.