What is Hives? Symptoms, Causes, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Prevention
If you’ve never had hives, consider yourself lucky. About 20% of people get hives at some point in their lives, making it a very common condition. (1) Hives can be a source of physical and mental distress, especially if they appear frequently and continue to occur for months or years.
The important thing to know is that hives can affect anyone. While some people may be at higher risk for hives, you can get them regardless of your age or gender. Here’s what you need to know about the common condition, including why you get hives, how to manage them if you do, and how to prevent them from coming back (or in the first place).
Signs and Symptoms of Hives
Hives, formally known in the medical community as urticaria, typically appear as red or skin-colored bumps or welts that have defined edges. They can be as small as a pen tip or as large as a dinner plate, and when you press on the center of a red hive, it can turn white, which is called blanching. (1) They can appear as a hive or appear as connected spots or patches. And they appear to help control the body’s allergic response to certain triggers.
Hives can be itchy, not to mention irritating. While they bring an obvious physical burden, they can also hamper emotional well-being, often isolating individuals socially and affecting performance at work and school, especially if a person has been battling hives for a long time, says Sarina Elmariah, MD, PhD, a board-certified dermatologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
As you might expect, hives are easily confused with other conditions, but there are a few characteristics that set them apart. “While many conditions can look like hives, they often don’t behave like hives,” says Adam Friedman, MD, professor of dermatology at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, D.C.
Knowing how long they last and how much they move can help you determine if a rash or skin condition is hives. Common symptoms of hives include: (2)
Red or skin-colored bumps or welts with clear edges that usually go away within 24 hours, but may reappear in another location
Bumps or welts that appear alone or in clusters, covering a larger area
Itching around the bumps or welts
Swelling around the bumps or welts
Sometimes pain or tingling at the site of the bumps or welts
If hives last six weeks or longer, you may have chronic hives, which can be a sign that something else is going on. (For more information on chronic hives, see below.)
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