Sandra (not her real name) was born with delicate skin. As a result, she was accustomed to being careful and cautious with the things she came in contact with.

"Since childhood I have had sensitive skin," she said. "I am very fair and most over-the-counter products sting and burn so badly I have to immediately rinse them off."

When she developed rosacea just prior to turning 30, it was really no surprise.

Matthew Trumble of England was just 28 years old when his first signs of rosacea developed -- three large, hard spots on his face. A confident young man, Trumble assumed the problem would just sort itself out, so he left it alone.

However, the condition began to spread across his face. "It became harrowing," he said.

"When my rosacea was at its worst, I got very depressed and didn't even want to go outside or speak to anyone," Trumble said. "Even worse, I got very little attention from the ladies."

Ramona McDaniels had no knowledge of rosacea when her symptoms first appeared. When her face began to flush frequently, with the redness lasting longer each time, she suspected everything and anything.

"I tried to figure it out," McDaniels said. "Everything under the sun was suspect. I thought it might be my makeup, allergies, foods, the sun."

The list of potential culprits grew until one day her mother read an article about rosacea. "She looked at me and said, 'This is what you have.'"

When Pearl Poole first found out she had rosacea, she couldn't believe her misfortune.

"I had acne as a teenager and it was detrimental to my self-esteem," Pearl said. "I already had a shy and sensitive nature."

She learned to live with her acne, though. "I couldn't wear makeup, so I tried to look my best in other ways," she said. "Although I wasn't a social butterfly, I did find true love and have a wonderful family."

Yet it was another blow to her self-esteem when she began developing signs of rosacea in her early 50s.

Kathlyn Fowler's co-workers often thought she was red-hot angry. Her face was so red and flushed, they kept asking her if she was upset about something.

As someone accustomed to the public spotlight, Marlane Fairleigh knows that when you look your best, you feel your best. So, having the red face of rosacea can bring you the kind of notoriety you don't want.

"A rosacea flare-up really bothers me," said Fairleigh, a classical singer and former business consultant and public speaker. "If my face is red, I am afraid people are noticing."

Joseph Sheehan may be a thick-skinned individual, but when his rosacea got out of control, it was more than he could bear.

Sheehan, a naval architect who teaches ship design, developed rosacea around 60. "At first it was basically just a redness, and oily skin around the nose," he said.

He tried a few home remedies and lived with the symptoms for about a year. Finally, he saw a dermatologist.

"He prescribed an oral antibiotic, but I didn't like the idea of having to use it indefinitely," Sheehan said. "So I never took it."

When Joyce Kierstead first began to notice the road map of tiny red lines appearing on her chin in her late 20s, she didn't realize it would lead her down the wrong path.

"It sent me right to the nearest cosmetic counter, where I ended up getting all the wrong information," Kierstead said. She was often told her problem was that she was not cleaning her skin properly, or that she needed a better foundation.

It wasn't unusual for Bob Vilsoet's face to get particularly red while he played volleyball. After all, the competition was usually fierce, and the game would get his blood flowing.

But when the facial redness persisted, and his face began to look red and "splotchy" all the time, he wondered what was up.

Mark (not his real name) couldn't see the whole picture. In fact, he was having trouble seeing at all. His eyes were red and irritated. But he never suspected that this irritation was related in any way to the mysterious redness on his face.

"I woke up one morning and my eyes were sore," Mark said. "It felt like I had something in them that I couldn't get out." Despite the irritation he went to work anyway.