About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staff
The main sign of vitiligo is:
- Pigment loss that produces milky-white patches (depigmentation) on your skin
Other less common signs may include:
- Premature whitening or graying of the hair on your scalp, eyelashes, eyebrows or beard
- Loss of color in the tissues that line the inside of your mouth (mucous membranes)
- Loss of or change in color of the inner layer of your eye (retina)
Although any part of your body may be affected by vitiligo, depigmentation usually develops first on sun-exposed areas of your skin, such as your hands, feet, arms, face and lips. Genitals also may be affected. Although it can start at any age, vitiligo often first appears between the ages of 10 and 30. Vitiligo generally appears in one of three patterns:
- Generalized. In this most common subtype, pigment loss is widespread across many parts of your body, often symmetrically.
- Segmental. Loss of skin color occurs on only one side of your body. This type tends to occur at a younger age, progress for a year or two, then stop.
- Focal. Depigmentation is limited to one or a few areas of your body.
The natural course of vitiligo is difficult to predict. Sometimes the patches stop forming without treatment. In most cases, pigment loss spreads and can eventually involve most of the surface of your skin.
When to see a doctor
See your doctor if areas of your skin, hair or eyes lose coloring. Although there's no cure for vitiligo, treatments exist that may help to stop or slow the process of depigmentation and attempt to return some color to your skin.
- Goldstein BG, et al. Vitiligo. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Jan. 25, 2011.
- Vitiligo. American Academy of Dermatology. http://www.aad.org/public/publications/pamphlets/common_vitilgo.html. Accessed Feb. 8, 2011.
- Questions and answers about vitiligo. National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. http://www.niams.nih.gov/Health_Info/Vitiligo/default.asp. Accessed Feb. 8, 2011.
- Tahir MA, et al. Current remedies for vitiligo. Autoimmunity Reviews. 2010;9:516.
- Whitton ME, et al. Interventions for vitiligo (review). Cochrane Database of Systemic Reviews. 2010:CD7. http://www.thecochranelibrary.com. Accessed Feb. 8, 2011.
- Gawkrodger DJ, et al. Vitiligo: Concise evidence based guidelines on diagnosis and management. Postgraduate Medical Journal. 2010;86:466.
Find Mayo Clinic on