I've been trying to buy nickel free jewelry for years — usually this meant purchasing items that were gold or sterling silver. But it turns out that nickel is a non-issue for me — at least at this point.
The most surprising thing about the results from my T.R.U.E test was the positive reaction to gold sodium thiosulfate, or gold salt.
Oh man, the gold patch burned! It flared up the worst and itched for months after the test.
The nurse who removed my patches said that she had never seen anyone react so strongly to something. Yet my dermatologist was completely unfazed. She told me that gold has a high rate of false positives, and it looks like there are studies out there that back that up.
But just because gold can show a false positive doesn't mean that it's always a false positive. If that were the case, there would be no point in including it on the test.
Research also shows that although an allergic contact reaction is more common to gold salt than it is to elemental gold or gold alloys, it is certainly possible for gold jewelry to cause dermatitis.
My grandmother was allergic to gold. Like, actually allergic to gold — not just the nickel content that is in many golds.
Which leads me to wonder... do allergies have a genetic component? Perhaps.
I haven't been wearing a whole lot of gold jewelry lately, but looking back I remember that my favorite necklace (which happened to be white gold) always left my neck a bit red where it would touch.
I don't know if gold will end up being a long term problem for me.... I'm actually hoping that my derm was right and that it was just a false positive. Once I've got my skin all cleared up I'd like to see if I can go back to wearing my wedding ring. I miss it.
But for now I've switched to a tungsten ring. Better safe than itchy, right?
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