Fashion to die for

The first in a litany of fashion catch-22s, skinny jeans have the potential to give you that long lean look of an adolescent fashion model, but also exponentially increase you chance of having a muffin top, oh yeah, and “tingling thigh syndrome.”

Before you get excited, this is actually a nerve condition called meralgia paresthetica, occurring when constant pressure — in this case, from the skin-tight denim — cuts off the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve, causing a numb, tingling or burning sensation along the thigh.

An MSNBC article found one such fashion victim: 28-year-old Parmeeta Ghoman.

When she wore a pair of super-tight skinny jeans to dinner with friends in December, she noticed an odd tingly sensation running up and down her thighs. And when she got up to walk around, things got weirder. She felt like she was almost "floating," because she couldn't feel her legs. “It felt really strange — it felt like my leg had gone to sleep,” Ghoman says.

Not to cast your favorite stovepipe jeans in a dark light, but this nerve condition usually afflicts construction workers or police officers with heavy, low-slung belts, pregnant women or obese people. Young women of a healthy weight who complain of symptoms should look to their closet for the culprit.

"It can take some time for it to dissipate weeks or months even sometimes, if the damage is extensive,"says Dr. Orly Avitzur, a neurologist at Yale University.

A WebMD article reveals that nerve damage isn't the only risk you take wedging yourself into those skin-tight pants.

"Yeast, being a fungus, grows where it's warm and moist. If you have clothing that's tight-fitting and won't allow air circulation, that's where the problem is," says Josephine Von Herzen, MD, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Salem Hospital in Salem, Ore., and a spokeswoman for the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Tight garments also cause rubbing and irritation, she adds. "That can be pretty uncomfortable."

What's the phrase? Right, beauty hurts. Maybe jeggings are worth a try.