'What will I look like in ten years?'

The course of vitiligo cannot be predicted

WOGNUM Vitiligo: a difficult word for a chronic skin condition in which pigment cells disappear from the skin and hair. The condition can be recognized by milky white spots of different sizes and shapes. It is not contagious and not life-threatening, but it can be annoying, especially in the psychosocial field. To raise awareness of the disease, Tuesday, June 25 is World Vitiligo Day. Jolijn Goudswaard from Wognum: “I hope this will lead to more acceptance.”

Daisy Beer Bread Spot

In the Netherlands, approximately 240,000 people suffer from vitiligo. It usually manifests itself between the ages of ten and thirty. That also happened to Jolijn. “It may be that I already had the gene in me, but it was only expressed when I was thirteen. I didn't immediately know what it was. I thought they were scars: scrapes I got from hanging against the wall at the pool.” Since she has tanned skin, they were easy to see. Through her GP she ended up with the dermatologist at the AMC.

The spots spread very slowly at first, but six years later the process accelerated.
“That was difficult for me. I was going through puberty and I looked different from my peers. My face was half pigmentless. I was ashamed of that.” Through light therapy, in combination with a skin ointment, almost all the pigment in her face has returned. “It could remain as it is now, but it could also suddenly go very fast. The bad thing is that you don't know what it will do. I have no idea what I will look like in ten years.”

CAUSE The cause of the condition is unknown. It is probably an autoimmune disease. A certain degree of heredity cannot be ruled out either. About thirty percent of patients have someone in the family with vitiligo. “I'm the only one in the family with white spots, but my brother was completely gray at the age of seventeen. That is also a form of vitiligo,” says Jolijn

She receives positive reactions from her environment. “They don't know any better than that vitiligo is part of me. But I have had nasty reactions in the past. I was asked if it is contagious. And when going out there was always someone who said: 'You have holes in your pantyhose.' Even though I wasn't wearing one. People are sometimes not too subtle because they don't know what they are talking about. That is why World Vitiligo Day is so important.

I would like to say to everyone that people with vitiligo are no different from others, even if they have a white spot here and there.”