A 21-year-old woman has been left with red, sore and bleeding skin after using just three prescriptions of steroid cream for her eczema. Sophie Cooper says she suffered with eczema as a child but when it got worse in 2023 she sought help from her GP who prescribed steroid creams. She was given three ten-week courses of the cream - each one getting progressively stronger.
When this did nothing to clear the itchy skin on her arms, she stopped applying the cream. But that's when she began to suffer from topical steroid withdrawal. Sophie, 21, said she hadn't been made aware that there was a risk of withdrawal from steroids until she read the small-print on the boxes - but by then it was too late. Within weeks red, sore and 'oozing' patches spread across her face and body, until 95% of her body was in agony.
Despite being off the creams for 18 months, her condition is so debilitating she can't work and says showering is like an 'acid bath'. She's often left sobbing, and after months of hiding her flaky, bloody skin from even friends and family she has started to share her videos on TikTok - soon gathering around 9,000 supporters.
Topical Steroid Withdrawal: A Growing Concern
A recent paper by skin experts revealed the problem is widely discussed on social media and '#TSW' has over 1.1 billion views on TikTok. Despite that, a recent survey of UK dermatology clinicians revealed only 34% believe TSW is a distinct condition, leaving sufferers like Sophie frustrated and unheard.
'The itching is so intense,' said Sophie, from Canterbury, Kent, who works in sales. 'People say 'just don't itch' - but it's bone deep, like you want to claw your skin off to get right down to your bone. I have to change my bedsheets every morning and hoover the bed and the floor from all the skin that comes off in my sleep. I have blood on the sheets every day. Showers are like acid being poured on me, or getting sunburn with a thousand paper cuts on you at the same time.'
'The other day I managed to go out for a burger with my boyfriend but I couldn't even eat it because moving my jaw to bite it opened up sores on my face and they started to weep. When it oozes, I can't sleep lying down at night because it makes my face ooze and crust all over. I have to sleep sitting up.'
A Long and Painful Journey
Sophie had eczema as a child but noticed it worsening in 2023, spreading further up the arms, which she put down to stress after finishing sixth form. Unaware of the risks, she was prescribed a ten-week course of steroid cream by a GP - then a course of medium-strength cream, then a course of strong steroid cream - none of which worked. But by the end of 2023, she was told by doctors that nothing more could be done for her if she didn't want to take more steroids, and she stopped using the creams when her prescriptions ran out. Months on, she began to notice her skin getting worse.
Red, itchy patches spread across her body and further trips to the GP proved fruitless, as she begged to be referred to specialists. By November 2025, nearly every inch of her body was impacted by the condition - and this remains true today. She said: 'That was when I became concerned it might be topical steroid withdrawal. It's this burning, intense itching, inflammation.'
Sophie is on a waiting list for ultraviolet light therapy (UVB) which the NHS says can reduce inflammations, and injections which might help. But she has been waiting for months - while the condition has continued to tear her life apart.
'Now it pretty much covers all of me - bar my feet,' she said. 'I suffer with insomnia, nerve pain, I struggle with temperature regulation as well as bleeding and oozing. It is hell on earth. It is all I can think about and all I feel it every day. I'm a completely different person to who I was - I used to be so confident, love make-up and fashion, and love taking pictures for Instagram. Some people mistake me for a burns victim. Others come up to me in the street and ask if I'm okay.'
'I'm housebound most days and I can't work. It's so much more than just red and itchy skin. At last no comments about it can hurt me - because nothing can hurt me more than my own skin does.' She wants greater awareness among people and doctors of the dangers of steroids because she claims she had no idea, and wasn't warned of the risks.
