Any Gynae experts/medical people for advice

[worri3dmum]

going to try and be as discreet as possible so that I don’t get accused of anything.

Teen Dd has just come to me all embarrassed for advice. After a long chat and lots of reassurance to show me the issue it turns out part of her labia minora is hanging off and dangling down like a tampon string.
part of the labia minora seems to have turned from red to purple.
Dd says this has been an issue for around a year!!
I’m totally freaking out and will of course be getting a GP appointment first thing but I’m hoping that someone medical can give me some advice.
I promise I have been on mumsnet for years and I’m not looking for any personal stories and won’t be giving more info. I’ve just never heard anything similar before and am so worried about what this might mean for her going forward.
i have tried google but everything is about general dropping or labia fusing together. Nothing like this!!

Definitely labial? Or possibly a hymenal tag/remnant? Trip to the GP sounds sensible, but bet it’s nothing to worry about.

No it’s definitely labia

She's not tried to cut it, has she?

No, she’s a major prude (wrong word for a teen but very awkward and shy around anything private) and is also autistic so I know it’s taken a lot for her to tell me. She’s just really worried about going to the Dr now.

Anybody else? I’m so worried this will need to involve her seeing multiple people.

Please reassure her. Likely she will see the gp who will refer her to a plastic surgeon who will remove it and neaten it up.
I doubt it will be complicated. Does she know why it happened? Was it gradual or did she just find it like that one day?

She thinks it gradually got worse then just “came away” one day and started hanging. She thinks a hair may have been tightly wrapped round at one point and has caused this damage? Sounds very far fetched but I remember seeing damage to fingers/toes caused by a wrapped hair before: She says it’s more annoying than sore but she’s been wiping with baby wipes as dry toilet roll catches and pulls.

Could it be a skin tag?

Sorry to think the worst, but is there any chance she has been molested/raped and not wanting to say?

If the rest of the skin is red/pink then the purple bits might have lost blood supply and need removing. I agree it needs checking asap before it gets torn more.

Definitely no worries about SA, she’s very young for her age and due to our location all “play dates” are still arranged with her peers parents and usually take place at our house as we drive so it’s easier. She’s a very happy child who has no other concerns and is usually good at either talking to me or her siblings but like a say she’s always been very private around anything to do with bodies. I do appreciate the thought though it’s definitely something that I hadn’t even considered. After she talked to me I did ask her if it was ok to tell her dad only because he would want to know why I was making her a DRS appointment and she was fine about it.

I'd find it odd that pubic hair would have wrapped around part of her labia, but I guess it's possible. It does sound as if it's lost blood supply, if it's purple, rather than red. It definitely requires a trip to see a GP, and quite possibly a referral to have the hanging piece removed.

I had the exact same thing happen to me at around the same age! So interesting to hear that this happened to someone that. I have no idea to this day why it happened. I didn't tell anyone, I just lived with the annoyance of it.
But when I was about 25, I happened to mention it to my gynaecologist as it was getting increasingly uncomfortable and she performed a surgery to repair it.
Hope all is well with your daughter.

Oh thank you so much for that dailysnail! That’s very reassuring. Without going into too much detail does the description of it hanging down like a tampon string sound familiar. Honestly I could not believe what I was seeing. When she first mentioned it I just thought she was meaning she had more of an “outie” nothing at all like this. Was your procedure just done on the spot or were you referred and knocked out?

I think it would be hair from her head. I didn't have any consequences, but I did actually have this happen to me briefly, and I can imagine how leaving it for a long time could result in a situation like this.

This absolutely isn't as far fetched as it sounds. I once got a hair caught around the end of my urethra. It was absolute agony. I went to the doctor thinking I was dying. She cut it off and said that it had somehow knotted itself. You couldn't really see it with a mirror because of the swelling.

I know it won't be pleasant for your DD and I wish you both all the best.

Thank you Icantbelieve, Dd isn’t in pain but I suppose it’ll just depend on what nerves are around the area the hair catches if that is the problem. Surely the odds of this must be tiny though. I’m just really hoping we can get something sorted quickly.