A woman when she had a reaction to a steroid cream said the pain was .

Keilah Govender’s skin flared up the day after giving birth due to hormones and being in the hospital, which irritated her skin. She was prescribed steroid creams, but this has caused the 27-year-old more agony as she now suffers from topical steroid withdrawal (TSW), a potentially debilitating condition which can arise from the use to treat a skin problem, such as .

At its worst she is unable to able to sleep more than 45 minutes to two hours, with symptoms including extreme nerve pain, intolerance to water and moisturiser and a constant burning sensation of the skin. She said: “At the worst, TSW feels like acid has been thrown on your body.

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“I lost my ability to sweat, lost all the hair on my body and half of the hair on my head, my vision was extremely blurry, and my skin was so atrophied it would constantly break in cuts all over my body even without scratching. The burning sensation is constant, you’re living in a constant state of pain.

“I’ve never experienced anything like it. I’ll take childbirth over feeling that level of pain again.”

Keilah, from , has criticised doctors, claiming no one told her the potential dangers of taking the steroids. She added: “Doctors never told me of the dangers of steroid creams, I was told to use the creams as often as I needed, all over my body.

“When I was younger I saw a dermatologist who would mix high potency steroids in an emollient and I was told to use it multiple times a day everywhere. I definitely have been gaslighted by doctors.

“I saw a doctor, dermatologist and immunologist at the beginning of my withdrawal and they all had seen patients with TSW however they all denied that this could be caused by steroids.

“The dermatologist agreed that steroids can have some side effects, but he severely downplayed the extent of this and said I just now suddenly have extreme eczema. I was fortunate enough to be able to work from home for the entirety of my withdrawal.

“My employer was very sympathetic to my situation after showing them pictures of what I was going through. I’ve missed out on so many experiences, holidays, events and opportunities at work because of TSW. I’ve been mostly home bound for the entirety of my withdrawal.

“I had to move back in with my parents because I couldn’t look after myself at my worst. I couldn’t move. I was completely bed bound.”