Unfortunately for her, there was also an instant reaction – on her skin. Within weeks of meeting her soulmate, her eyelids erupted with eczema and her eyes had swelled to the size of golf balls.
Experts concluded that the euphoria she felt when she was with boyfriend, accountant Dean Strohm, was being played out on her skin.
She was allergic to love. Even more astonishing was that it disappeared after her wedding day.
The university administrator met Dean three years ago in a bar in Colchester, Essex, and the pair quickly became inseparable.
But a month into their relationship Charlotte, 32, awoke to find she could hardly open her eyes.
Strong reaction: Charlotte came out in itchy eczema when she met the love of her life Dean
‘I could have described myself as a bit of a Bridget Jones before we met. I was always looking for love, but was hopeless at finding a decent man.
‘When I found him I was deliriously happy but neither of us could fathom out why, when I was so in love, my skin had reacted in such an awful way.’
She added: ‘Dean told me he’d love me with red panda eyes or not, but I felt mortified. It was the time when you most want to look your best and I looked awful.’
Doctors struggled to explain the sudden reaction and it was a homeopath who eventually diagnosed the cause as love.
Eczema is often caused by stress. In Charlotte's case her red eyes were caused by love
‘He told me that it was common for eczema to be effected by emotions, but typically due to stress, trauma or unhappiness. This was the first time they had ever heard of someone being allergic to love’, she said.
‘I felt like my body was putting Dean to the test, because even though my heart told me he was The One, it was as if my body wanted to see if he really was a good as he seemed.
‘If he loved me after my eyes had turned into a bright red tomatoes literally within days of meeting him, then I’d know his love was true.’
The eczema continued for the next two years and flared up whenever she was particularly emotional.
‘When Dean asked me to marry him my eyes swelled up again because I was so ridiculously happy’, she said.
Charlotte tried a concoction of steroids, creams, and alternative medicines, to no avail. Eventually she chanced upon Skin Shop’s Dry Eye Gel, a product she describes as ‘miraculous’ at treating the symptoms.
But it was a much less conventional treatment that helped her to banish the ezcema for good.
She said: ‘In December we got married and the eczema started to get a lot better. Perhaps my hormones calmed down and I just felt more relaxed once we were married, but it certainly seems to have cured me.’
Dr Ed Seaton, consultant dermatologist at the Royal Free Hospital, London, said: 'There is a close relationship between the skin and the psyche.
'Emotional stress and big changes in your life can affect the levels of steroid hormones in the body and make people more susceptible to eczema and psoriasis.
'However, I have never come across a case of love triggering eczema. That would be very unusual.' ( dailymail.co.uk )
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