Channel 9's Lisa Fernandez: "It's embarrassing, painful, depressing and ugly."

Channel Nine’s Today Perth presenter Lisa Fernandez has opened up about her long-time struggle with skin condition psoriasis.

In a post on her Facebook page, Fernandez said she had long lived with the itchy, painful problem.

“I have psoriasis and it’s pretty awful. I don’t tell many people I have psoriasis because it’s embarrassing, painful, depressing and ugly,” she wrote.

“I haven’t had to talk about my psoriasis because it’s been in remission for almost 3 years. Until a few weeks ago. When it returned with a vengeance. On areas of my body not usually affected. Huge patches of red, itchy, burning skin. It is disgusting.”

She went on to explain that she wears heavy make-up and chooses clothes that conceal the condition, but that she wanted to talk about it because the condition had taught her an “important lesson”.

“I’m constantly uncomfortable and the itchiness is very, very painful,” she wrote of her psoriasis.

“Who really gives a s*** what you look like? At the end of the day it’s about being a decent, kind, honest person. It’s about friends and family.”

“Some days I’m even grateful to have psoriasis. Because I’m not dying, I have full use of my faculties, my family are safe and I have food and water. Life could be so, so much worse.”

Fernandez was inundated with kind responses to the post, which she also shared on Instagram.

The empathetic advice & kind comments on my FB page about psoriasis has blown me away. Here’s what I wrote last night: I have psoriasis and it’s pretty awful. I don’t tell many people I have psoriasis because it’s embarrassing, painful, depressing and ugly. I haven’t had to talk about my psoriasis because it’s been in remission for almost 3 years. Until a few weeks ago. When it returned with a vengeance. On areas of my body not usually affected. Huge patches of red, itchy, burning skin. It is disgusting. But I wanted to share my condition because I’m so often in the public eye and appearances are not always what they seem. I wear clothes to hide my psoriasis and heavy stage make-up to cover my skin. I’m constantly uncomfortable and the itchiness is very, very painful. But having psoriasis has taught me one important lesson. Who really gives a shit what you look like? At the end of the day it’s about being a decent, kind, honest person. It’s about friends and family. Some days I’m even grateful to have psoriasis. Because I’m not dying, I have full use of my faculties, my family are safe and I have food and water. Life could be so, so much worse. Lise. xxx

A photo posted by Lisa Fernandez (@lisajfernandez) on Feb 2, 2016 at5:28pm PST

Speaking of her decision to share her condition online, Fernandez said getting criticised for choosing to wear pants during the opening of Elizabeth Quay in Perth, on a 40-degree day, was the catalyst.

“I think that people have perceptions of women in the media, they see you always made up on TV but I wanted to let people know it’s not always what it seems,” she told 9news.com.au.

Responding to well-wishers on Facebook, Fernandez said her psoriasis was linked to stress, a common cause of the problem.

Psoriasis is an inflammatory skin condition with symptoms that include red scaly patches on skin, itchiness and flaking of the skin. It is not contagious, but there is no cure.