Bad Stretch Marks

A couple of years ago, I had an itchy rash under my breasts. Long story short, a doctor gave me some steroid cream (I didn't know it contained steroids) which helped clear it up pretty well, but not completely, so I kept using the cream. I developed these hideous red and purple and blue marks on my body; they looked "angry," if you know what I mean.

I asked my doctor about them, but he didn't say anything, really, just nodding that he saw them. I went to a dermatologist, and her assistant was the first to see these marks on me and she gasped. The dermatologist told me to stop using the steroid cream immediately and prescribed an OTC powder (Zeosorb), which eventually cured the itchy rash. She said it was the steroids that were causing these horrible marks on me.

I was told the marks were severe stretch marks, and there's no way to get rid of them. I was devastated, and wanted to sue my doctor. However, the lawyers I spoke with told me the case wasn't "big enough." My mom, ever unsupportive, took up for the doctor: "He didn't mean to." Now, I have these hideous marks on my stomach and, worse, my breasts, so that even if I showed some cleavage, you could see it. The marks have lightened up (but still very noticeable, pink and blueish) and are nowhere as shocking as they were in the beginning, but I feel deformed and I feel nothing I ever do will make me feel good about my body. I already had weight issues and flabby, stretched skin to feel like crap about, but the stretch marks really have beaten down my self-esteem.

I'm told plastic surgery won't remove stretch marks, unless you're having like a tummy tuck and the skin that's removed has stretch marks on it. I would like to know if anyone knows other information; is there plastic surgery that might remove these marks, or am I stuck with them? Thanks.

From my understanding there is no way to remove them completely without surgery - I know there is laser surgery these days that is said to minimise them, but I don't know it's effectiveness.

My aunt used vitamin E though and swears by it. She said that it didn't remove them completely but made them fade so they weren't so red and noticsble.

Totally get where you're coming from ... I've got stretch marks from years and years of gaining and losing hundreds of pounds of weight ... The last round of weight I lost has left me with sagging breasts and a tummy flap in addition to the stretch marks ...

Ya know, it just is what it is ... My war wounds and battle scars are no different than any other wounded combat veteran ... The only difference is we don't get purple hearts for our wounds ...

We can certainly learn to be patient, gentle and kind with ourselves about them though, and give them the Nurturing TLC they've been crying out for all along ...

And, as long as they're not causing serious complications to my health, I'm not going to make them worse by trying to medically alter them ...

They have a story to tell, and I'm giving them their voice to tell it ... If other people don't like it, then that's their problem not mine ... !!!

,
Pfrog!

I have them too and have had them for years and I agree with pfrog if people don't like then that's their problem.

I think I have had mine since the birth of my first baby, I have them on my legs and stomach, They did bother when I was younger but not as much now.

Maybe surgery is your only way of getting rid of them but I can imagine that being really expensive.

i don't know what it is called but there are some creams on the market that claim to help/reduce stretch marks...look in the baby section of your pharmacy as they are aimed at ladies who have just given birth

I don't know if you have inch loss body wrapping in you area. It is quite expensive. It aids in detoxing, weightless and brings in oxygen to keep from getting lose skin while losing weight. But it can be used for scaring and stretch marks. People who have severe burns, or are in accidents and have deep scars often use this as an alternative to plastic surgery.

Thanks, all. Unfortunately, I've researched those creams and treatments, and they don't actually work all that well. I'm also very skeptical of anything that "detoxifies" the body and new age treatments.

I'm not in a place where I can accept my body as is. I find the stretch marks repulsive, and I can't feel sexy when I feel flabby, saggy and marked.

I have a lot of personal experience with this, not me but my boyfriend, not the most common problem for men. Also caused by basically a medical problem, tho his was more extensive across the areas of the body and severe like you said. He did opt for surgery.. a tummy tuck, plus legs and arms. If that is something you were considering you could PM, I would not mind sharing with you at all, tho it doesn't go the same for everyone that is for sure. It is something that can go either way.

I know there is really probably not much I can say to help you feel better about yourself. But I will say this.. my boyfriend felt so bad about his body, I mean I have dealt with anorexia for years, it's not new to me, but the extent of his feelings were quite bad. He also thought no one would ever love him, or want to be with him, let a lone find him sexy. Well He was so wrong about that, I find him very sexy, and to me.. it's nothing, it speaks about what he has been through and learned, nothing bad what so ever. He also used the word repulsive to describe himself, I cannot see it at all.

Tho yes you have to find it within, and I understand, I have struggled for years with body issues, I am finally overcoming them, but it has been a long road. I don't minimize it at all.

I am sorry you have to deal with this too tho. It really saddens me, and the cause.. well I don't even know what to say, that's unacceptable to me.

Tho do feel free to PM if you want, I am pretty open and I would not in the least Maven.

Ad Infinitum

This living, this living, this living..was always a project of mine

Hi Maven, I am sorry for the way you feel about this. I could be the poster child for stretch marks. What you have described, I would give anything to trade for. My mom had four children, and before I became a mother, I abhorred the look of her stomach. It was floppy, filled with freddy kruger stretch marks up past her belly button, and there was NOTHING that could make it go away. Sadly, I inheirited the EXACT same stomach, but worse!!! I remember when I was pregnant for the first time, I used cocoa butter RELIGIOUSLY. I did not scratch my skin, as I was told this would prevent stretch marks. Right at five months pregnant, the first stretch marks appeared below my belly button. I cried and cried and cried. Little did I know, that was just the beginning. I have HORRIBLE stretch marks on my stomach, and I have received MORE EACH PREGNANCY. I have had three children and each time I thought, how could I possibly get more stretch marks? BUT I DID. I also have the "kangaroo pouch" that has plagued our gender since the dawn of womankind. I was devestated to say the least. The marks on my breasts, thighs, and hips are ever present, but do not compare to my stomach. PLEASE COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS MAVEN!!! I know going from a perfect 10 body to having the least blemish is hard to accept, and torments us as we are forced to be surrounded by perfectly airbrushed crops of new and fresh eighteen year old playboy models each and every single year and new crop of perfect bodies reaches legal age. Beauty is passing. There is no hundred year old woman worth her weight in salt who can hold back the hands of time. I am certainly not proud of my stretch marks. If I could push a button and have smooth wrinkle free skin, I would kill a hundred puppies if I had to (not really, but you get the desperation lol) to have that chance. I am proud to be a woman who still finds that I have a reason to get up in the morning day after day, despite my imperfections. My family has rewarded me for my trade off. I wish I could come over to your house and show you the horror that is possible, or trade bodies with you so that you could really appreciate your body <3 I could only appreciate my body after it was gone like the wind. Don't make the same mistake I did. Love yourself Maven! <3

Thanks, Anika and Lightbulb. I know it could be worse, but I know how this world judges us by age and looks. It's hard to accept yourself when you don't see yourself as perfect. I look back on my graduation picture in my mom's home, and while I was a bit overweight, I looked beautiful. I don't mean that in an egotistical way, but I liked how I looked then, but for the weight. And I'd love to be at that weight now! Youth is magical, and so often unappreciated by its owner. I at least knew I loved being young, and wish I could stay that way. I want to be free to wear what I want, be flirtatious (if I didn't have a boyfriend, that is), not be afraid to say sexy and funny things about my looks, etc. I try to remember I look better than I'll look at 80.

I've had amazing results with reducing the redness of stretch marks (and scars) using vitamin e oil. I buy the 29,000 I.U. kind. I didn't have very good results with cheaper oil from the drug store (usually 5,000 IU). I used it twice a day on each spot. You can't tell I slit my wrists. My stretch marks are flesh colored as are my scars from shoulder surgery which I used to be so self conscious of. But best of all was the advice I read earlier in this thread... love yourself.

Kitty, thanks for the advice. One of my problems is the pinkness and also blueness where the veins show through, but also, there's the skin stretched in a way I can't quite describe. It's kind of like plastic bread bags used to be (maybe some still are, I don't know), where you could stretch the plastic, and at a certain point, it's integrity would break, and you'd have this weak, hanging bit of plastic between the two sides you'd stretched, and it couldn't be put back together again. Maybe sometime I'll get a photo taken (being careful not to show anything that would be censored) and post a pic here to show what I'm talking about.

Maven there is beauty at all ages and stages of life, in appearance, in innocence, in wisdom, in knowledge. Saying you were beautiful is not egotistical, we all are beautiful. there is something beautiful about an 80 year old women. I think so.

And there is no perfect.. what would that be? What would it look like? I mean unless we are all perfect just as we are, where we are, right now. I strived for this image I had of perfect for so many years, I have been anorexic almost my entire life. When I look back now at all the lost time I spent hating myself, my body. thats the painful thought. Loving myself as I am right now, and not because I reached that idea I held so tighly, that is the peaceful thought, that is freedom for me. I still struggle tho not as much, but that is only in this last year.

What are some things you could do not to reach the ideal.. The perfect, or anything like that, but that you could do to connect with your body, regain that appreciation right where you are now ? You still might want to change somethings, I understand what you are saying. But it might still help to really kind of fall in love with your body once again, it is a presious vessle, it house you, your being. That is pretty special in any form.

I am still working on this, but I found something to help me see my body in a new way. I wanted to change some things surgically, but sometimes what I wonder is if I had, would I feel any different. Was all my feelings about it really coming from my " problem " areas. If I changed what I felt was the problem physically.. I am not really sure but I think my internal feelings might not change with it.

Ad Infinitum

This living, this living, this living..was always a project of mine

Thanks, Anika. I know I need to accept myself more, and truthfully, as bad as the stretch marks are, there could be worse kinds of scars, or I could be terminally physically ill. Certainly, I'll take stretch marks over those choices. As much as I hate the marks, I'm not suicidal over them; I enjoy some parts of my life. I also feel, if I can just get my home clean (long story, but it's mostly because of my OCD that it's not as clean as it could be--it's not a hoarding situation, just messy), I will be able to get a dog or two, so I'd be valuable in that I'm saving another animal from needless suffering, because I'd be a great pet mommy!

I got a bad allergic reaction leaving me with scarring. They were also the colored scars. I have used vitamin E oil, and it has helped to fade them away.