Hi all and thanks for the responses regarding my piercing. As Far as Angie’s question as to my late diagnoses, I was diagnosed in july 2002, when I was 17 years old. My younger sister was diagnosed at age 7 with CAH and after gene isolation and DNA testing we discovered that I was a carrier, but asymptomatic. After a surgery in december of 2001 (a surgery to correct a deviated septum in my nose and remove my adenoids) I was put on an antibiotic (a penicillin derivative) to prevent infection. The day I started taking it I got a mild reaction, consisting of hives on my arms. The doctor immediatly took me off of that medication and put me on cipro instead. I got the same reaction the next day, only slightly worse. Within the week I was taken off of all antibiotics, but the reaction continued to get worse and worse until the hives were so bad (covering my entire body) that I had to be hospitalized due to circulation loss in my legs and arms and problems with my throat closing. From there they figured it was an allergy problem and I was tested for every allergy under the sun, only to find none whatsoever. At this point I was on about 4 different medications (ranitidine, singulair, clarinex, and zyrtec) to control the reaction (it just barely kept it in check) and if I missed even one dose of one med it would go out of control. This continued with no deviation for about 5 months, to the point while even on the medications the reaction would get severely worse and put me in the hospital for a night about once a week and then go back down with the steroids they gave me in the ER. After ruling out any possible allergy and any auto-immune diseases a thought was given to being tested for CAH, and after going through all of those tests we have a positive diagnoses for it, as well as for Polycistic Ovarian Syndrome. After being put on Hydrocortisone (30 mg a day) all of my side effects have dramatcially decreased to the point where I can lead a normal life again and my numbers in the bloodwork are showing up within the range the doctors want. So, thats the story of my diagnoses and side effects for ya. Mainly just the severe hives, but looking back we remember that my sister, about 2 months before she was diagnosed came down with a case of hives (not nearly as severe, it was attributed by us just to nervousness about a trip) that lasted aobut a week. Some more possible side effects that probably have something to do with the CAH, though they never occured to us until recently is acne (once again that has completely healed upon my starting the hydrocortisone) and a mild weight gain within the last two years. And that would do it for me and my late diagnoses.