Dh People--How Do You React When Glutened?

[BlessedMommy]

Curious if people with DH typically bypass the normal celiac symptoms and have mostly skin flare ups?

 

I am not diagnosed with DH via biopsy but had a severe gluten related skin rash during my first pregnancy. I've been gluten free for over 4 years and the way that I know that I may have gotten tiny bits of gluten is usually itchy or flaming skin--no GI symptoms whatsoever.

[squirmingitch]

People with dh tend to have fewer, or less severe, or no GI symptoms at all. This is because the antibodies deposit under our skin. We still have damage to our villi but it tends to be patchier.

Now, I have not been glutened (thanking all the powers that be!!!!!) since I went gluten-free. But I have read others with dh who have been cc'd or full out glutened & they get rash flaring as symptoms. However, there are always exceptions to the rule. Some people with dh have not only the rash but varying degrees of GI symptoms all the way up to raging GI symptoms. But it is far more common for those with dh to have mild GI symptoms.

[BlessedMommy]

Thanks, that's good to know! After 4 years gluten-free (and with lack of insurance), I will probably never know for sure if it's DH, but it's good to know that my lack of GI symptoms doesn't mean that it was all in my head.

[squirmingitch]

Nope, lack of GI symptoms when one has dh does not mean it was all in your head. Heck, before I had a clue I had celiac (via dh), I was at the GI doc for the colonoscopy when you turn 55 or close enough & he asked if I have "D" & I replied no. Why? B/C I did not consider that I did. I used to get horrid cramps & D about once every 2 months. Now, when someone asks you if you have D, you (or I) don't consider once every 2 months to qualify. I did have horrid belching like a sailor (sorry sailors ) & bloat that I thought was going to make my body just explode but the GI put that down to menopause. The belching was a constant. I also had bad, bad indigestion --- the GI said, "The things we eat these days" even though I told him I don't eat "those things". But D or C? No. NOW that I KNOW better --- I would have been more forceful with the doc & and explained how often I had D. Do I suppose it would have made a difference to him? No.