Help, boils...is this HS?

[inarmsofanangel]

Sorry in advance for TMI but those of you who have the same I'm sure will understand.
I've had one boil for over a year maybe more, which keeps coming back every few weeks/months. This is in my groin area (bikini line) It itches, get painful and red, usually drains and goes down. However the red scar is always there.
Last month I got a small boil on my bottom the other side which came and went and now....I have one inside my bottom :( (I think, painful lump but can't see it!)
I'm not sexually active at all (haven't been 1-2 years as separated)
I've never been to Dr about it but I read up on HS recently.
The first didn't really bother me but now getting a bit worried I am getting more in a short space of time.

Also I had a small mildly painful lump behind ear last month - I'm not sure if they are pimples/boils or whatever but they keep cropping up.

Does this sound like HS and what should (if anything) I do?

Zombie has never considered if it's autoimmune. Certainly that's never been metioned to her. She thought given her perceived link with her menstrual cycle that there might be a hormonal aspect to it. Oh, she also needed an operation to clear out a pilonidal cyst when she was 16 but that may just be coincidental.

She also thinks that at least a predisposition to it may be genetic as her mother also suffered from it.

Ask at your GP's surgery if any of the doctors have a special interest in dermatology.

Thank you for your kind wishes inarms. Zombie has Stage 4 Breast Cancer so she will need treatment of one sort or another until they either run out of things to try or the side effects compromise her quality of life to the point where she declines further treatment.

zombie

If it feels like it's inside you should see your GP straight away. It could be a pilonidal sinus infection which usually needs surgical intervention. Not meaning to scare you, but please get it seen to, regardless of if you think you have HS.

Best wishes and to Zombie

Iamthezombie - So sorry to hear that. I can only imagine what she is dealing with and I 'll send many hugs and strength her way to keep on going wherever she can.

Nicky, I was actually thinking tonight that the one on the inside could be a perianal abscess actually. I's larger than the others and tender although not in any excruciating pain atm. It just 'appeared' when I woke up this am. Funnily enough, I had an abscess in the same spot and same side when I was about 3! (never had any since but still have some scarring from that). I'll have to google the other you mentioned .
I'll make an appointment tomorrow if it's still there.

First, can i just say how pleased I am to see posts from Zombie. I haven't see her for ages. Hope she is doing okay.

inarms, I have HS too, it began in my teens -and was bad through my 20s. I think it is hormonal. Recently gone through menopause (at long last - in mid 50s now) and my skin is better. In the sense that I don't have constant problems - but when it flares it's bad as i am also immuno-compromised due to treatment for something else.It also got a bit better in my 30s - when I was pregnant for years!! (4 DC). It wasn't totally gone in my pregnancies but it was less troublesome. Like Zombie I had minocycline in my early 20s. I'm not sure it actually did much good.

I recall a gyn/ob telling me they couldn't operate in one pregnancy due to the baby - and I was like 'Yes you could - my groin is so scarred it's almost numb'. GPs were useless then too, but that's when I began using mag sulph paste, and I use it still as required. I get lesions on my breasts and armpits, my bum, my groin. i have old scars on my thighs. Sometimes I get them along my caesarean scar. and in my stretch marks. Gawd it's a lovely picture. My current GPs are pretty good - all about my age and they seem to know enough. The practice nurses too.

Best see a GP - and take it from there.

Thanks Topaz for info. Be interesting to see what GP says. Glad yours has improved now. I have a 7,5 and 2 year old and I 'think' this all started after. All very strange this lady stuff! hehe.
glad the menopause is treating you kindly :) You sound relieved? :) (from she who knows nothing)
I'm glad to be very much celibate at the moment tbh - nobody else has to see. :)
If this gets worse like yours and the other's on here I'll have to be fully clad in a long gown before long. I struggled covering my (third breast/giant cyst) on my back already!

I also have HS. Mine seems to be dormant at the moment as in I occasionally get lumps but they just go back down. In the past I have had 2 operations in the groin area and one to remove a cyst on my back, which I am convinced was related.

When mine first started in my 20s the doctor I saw said it was from wearing 2nd hand underwear! Luckily the medical profession is a bit more knowledgeable now!

I think I'll tell you about my GP in my late teens. He was almost retired - and with ref to the crops of pus-filled and pus-oozing lumps in my groin, he'd say 'It will all get better when you're 22 and get married'. Then he'd say, on a different occasion' 'When you get married and have children, it will all get better'. The last time he said this, a few years later, he said something about being '22, married, etc'. And I said 'I'm 23'. Which i was, and he looked slightly unsure and then said the spiel about being married and having children.

This was the 1970s into early 80s, but even then the idea of not being married first before having children wasn't a huge scandal any more. Except for him! But clearly he did think there was a hormonal link with the HS. Although that term was never used in my hearing then.

Haha Topaz and coffeetable, let's hope things have changed. Clearly, this HS thingy has a long history!!
I still haven't been to the GP I'm now on and that would just make it even worse!
Also the 'perianal' thingy has gone down. Interestingly this cropped up aain just before my period again!