Ingrown hair? Cyst?

[Aredlump]

Just in the bath and found a red area on my pubic region. Palpating it I discovered it’s a lump under the skin, a little tender. I am assuming it’s an ingrown hair but if it is it’s extremely deep as there’s nothing visible. I exfoliated it but nothing doing.

can I manage this at home or is the redness, soreness and lump (it feels big) indicative of an infection and I need a doc?

I have health anxiety so I am worried it’ll end up in my blood and kill me. Can’t post a pic or you’ll be seeing my bush.

Give it time. Got soaks. It will either get better, or come to a head and burst. It only needs antibiotics if it gets really big and doesn't open.

It's fine. If it helps I have a skin condition and currently have about 6 of the buggers, plus I'm immunocompromised
I ignore them, use hot compresses and burst them if needed and keep them clean. Try to avoid any clothes rubbing on them as it'll irritate them
If it gets huge, incredible painful or massive amounts of redness then yes GP

I’ll share a cropped pic. It’s about the size of a £1 coin. Not sure it’s going to come to a head!

I pluck all the hairs in the area so I can see better. It'll almost certainly be fine, no need to do anything unless it gets much more dramatic.

It’s just an ingrowing hair. Leave it alone and stop poking it, it’ll go away by itself in a few days. It probably won’t come to a head, it’ll just heal. You don’t need antibiotics.

I suggest you give it a week & see if it gets Aby worse. Hardly seems a big deal to me!

That's fine. Just leave it. If it was infected it would be massive with puss.

Take it from me that has been on antibiotics for 3 months due to folliculitis that became bacterial. Stop poking too!

Thanks all! I will

Well it was really sore today so i saw the practice nurse who said it a cyst that needs antibiotics. She then freaked me out about it getting bigger and more painful and said I’d have to go straight to a&e

A&E really?

Okay.

I occasionally have something like that. I soak in the bath, wash the immediate area thoroughly with antibacterial handwash, and then leave it alone. It generally goes away in a day or two.

That's a bit alarmist of her. Are you immune compromised?

Antibiotics aren't great to take, unless you really need them. I'm not telling you to ignore the decision of an HCP, but from that photo, I'm more than surprised. Did you have health anxiety before you started seeing her?!

I'd be tempted to try an antibiotic cream in the first instance.

I'm immune compromised hence the specialist dermatologist giving me 3 months antibiotics, dermol (?) to wash with, cream to apply directly and another cream to relieve the itchiness.

Never once mentioned A&E.

By big and more painful, they mean a lot worse
I did go to a&e with one but it was in my armpit, I couldn't put my arm down as it was so big and tramadol wasn't touching the pain
That kind of thing
I have hidradenitis supprativa so I deal with them at home unless they're huge

Armpits are the worst.

Everything I have becomes infected. Usually bursts.

The only time I had to go to A&E was to get a stye 'cut' . The GP laughed at me when I called saying I was scaring children. He said you're not joking!

It was very Rocky!

@BertaHoon I'm immunocompromised too (neutropenic)
Hibiscrub washing helps a bit

I've had similar and it was a raised lymph node. Call your GP as they're the best people to give a diagnosis and treatment if required x

I'll have a look thank you.

Washing with Dermol doesn't make me feel very clean if that makes sense. I guess we are conditioned to bubbles etc.

I'm seeing her (dermatologist) this Monday actually. It will be good to check in.

yes. That’s what she said 🙄 I’m not making it up.

the redness had continue to spread by the evening so I started the antibiotics.

I’ve got some magnesium sulfate as well.

I don't doubt that's what she said, I'm just surprised she said it. If it had grown/spread that fast after your photo then you obviously needed them.
I had them introvenously recently for an injury that was fine for 24 hours, but then suddenly flared up.

Strangely the IV ones didn't upset me anything like as much as the tablets.

Do eat with them, if told to. I just didn't think about it as I don't usually have breakfast, and was sick as a parrot.

Yeah I was surprised by the spread too. It’s decreased in redness today so they’re working.

these are ‘on an empty stomach’ ones, thankfully I haven’t had any side effects. I do with the nasty ones for uti’s so I’m relieved gives it’s four a day for 7 days!