Itchy skin

Diprobase or Dermol 500 are good for dry, itchy skin and can be prescribed by your GP. They can be used instead of shower gel or soap as well as an emollient lotion.

Do you get enough oil in your diet (eg olive oil, rapeseed and/or cod liver oil?)? A course of pure fish oils can often help skin conditions.

When I used to go on holiday to Greece I always came back with lots of olive oil soap which is really cheap there but very expensive over here.

I love hot baths but am sure that it gives me the itches, so really showers are probably better. I also get eczema when using shower gel - I can only use soap

We have found that we both need very simple shower gels and soaps - anything perfumed immediately causes itching, often in embarrassing places! E45 cream helps too.

Have you tried the creams with manuka honey in them? Available in health fproduct shops. DH has similar problem and we found an olive Oli based cream in Kefalonia that gave a lot of relief.

I have had eczema all my life and always get very dry skin in autumn. I use A-Derma products for all bath, shower and moisturising. I still get very dry skin on my face and yesterday my French doctor suggested almond oil.

If you wash your hair in the shower and use conditioner sometimes the conditioner can cause problems. My skin erupts at a mere sniff of anything perfumed so I use Aveeno in the shower. You could start taking a non drowsy antihistamine every day. Apart from that Teetime is right.

The most common cause is dryness, sadly our skin grows dryer as we age and its a particular feature of the menopause (not that I am suggesting either of these things apply to you). E45 cream applied a couple of times day will do no harm and may bring you relief until you get this diagnosed properly. Try also using less soap and cooler water to shower/bathe in. I know how miserable this can be and it seems to get worse in the evening when we are tired as well. I hope these few suggestions work - they should help at least.