Bump/blister/cyst on labia minora?

So glad I found this thread (and the old one). So a few weeks ago I noticed on the left side of my vulva ( a little below my clitoris area) a small bump, about pea size. It was kind of itchy and sore and felt rubbery (not rock hard, but slightly hard). I didn't note any skin discoloration. I thought it was from too much vibrator use. I tend to use my vibrator on the left side exactly where this bump occured. Maybe it was that friction or irritation?

I left it alone. I did dab some bacitracin on it mainly for comfort but I think that made it stay longer and not want to burst on its own. About 1-2 weeks later it got worse. Today and yesterday I was in so much pain, I could hardly walk, I couldn't wipe the area. Very painful and SCARY. I started googling and started to imagine I have vulva cancer. I was thinking the worst. Sooo happy to find some answers here. I just took a very hot bath, poured some betadine in the bathtub and I barely touch it (it was very painful to touch!) and tons of gross gunk came out. A lot. Mixed pus/blood type, like a really bad zit or ingrown hair (which I get both of on occasion). I dabbed a cotton swab of hydrogen peroxide on it and it turned white. It still feels like there is stuff in there that needs to come out, but I squeezed..and nothing. So I'm hoping it will go away. And I will buy the epson salts to do with my hot baths.

I have been very stressed lately so maybe that made it worse? I don't know. The pain is so much better after the fluid came out, I can actually walk and sit without discomfort. I too am overweight, I know several of you said you were normal weight..so I don't think it's related, but it's an eye opener that I really need to take care of my health and be more careful. I'm a nurse and I'm so worried I am bringing home staph or some other horrible infection from being in the hospital all day and hoping this doesn't get infected. Wash your hands ladies and be careful if it pops. Of all places to get a cyst! Humiliating to say the least.

I'm curious as to if any of you that suffer from these horrible cysts also have Keratosis Pilaris (Chicken Skin) on their arms and or legs?

I too suffer from these little boogers and the crazy thing is I hadn't had one for years until recently (past year, usually once a month)........ The first one appeared when I was in my teens (before I was sexually active) and the most recent (right now) aged 34. So I #1 wanted to search online and find out once and for all what these "things" are and what was wrong with me and #2 why hadn't I gotten them in several years (what had changed) Someone suggested a survey and I think that that sounds like a great idea because I think that we can find commonalities and possibly narrow it down. So I will start a survey. Please feel free to add questions that you feel are pertinent.


Background questions

I too suffer from these little boogers and the crazy thing is I hadn't had one for years until recently (past year, usually once a month)........ The first one appeared when I was in my teens (before sexually active) and the most recent (right now) aged 34. So I #1 wanted to search online and find out once and for all what these "things" are and what was wrong with me and #2 why hadn't I gotten them in several years (what had changed) Someone suggested a survey and I think that that sounds like a great idea because I think that we can find commonalities and possibly narrow it down. So I will start a survey. Please feel free to add questions that you feel are pertinent.


Background questions

:D There are so many posts on this problem that I couldn't read them all! Soooo, what we all have if the drs haven't told you yet is, hidradenitis supparativa...i'm sure the S word is spelled wrong! Most people get them when going through puberty and will have major problems till menopause, getting a break while you're pregnant. I've been through every antibiotic know to woman, nothing helped. When I was in my 30's, I read a q&a in the newspaper that described me perfectly. I missed so much work from the pain. Thank God, I didn't get it actually on my labia or any other soft tissue down there. It is an apocrine gland disease that will peel away, burst, drain, heal, scar and then move on to the next one, like a chain link many times. Under arms, under breasts, groin, on my pubic area, in the crack of my butt! You name it, but those are the most common areas. Anyway, went to the dr and asked him about it. He didn't say much, but said he was giving me a course of accutane and filing it as cystic acne. After all my skin peeled off and my sweat was no longer oily, I stopped getting them. I went back for a check up and that's when he said I had HS. I guess insurance didn't recognize it as a disease, so he labeled it acne. Now, about 10 years later, I maybe get a teeny one that isn't extremely painful, doesn't need to be bandaged up just so I can get my pants on and doesn't thread into the next segment of the gland. Look up the disease and you will see some horrible pictures. I hope everyone on here found out about this condition before I've put this post on here. There may be other treatments now, but I doubt it...and yes, I also soaked in the hottest water I could stand and applied steaming hot rags until the thin skin with the mushy blood and puss just ruptured and exploded, staining my clothes with yellow tinged blood. Stress has nothing to do with it though.

I, too, am glad to have found this thread. I had my first "bump" when I was 28. I knew I hadn't cheated and reminded my husband that I was going to the dr and if the doctor said it was an STD I was NOT going to be in a mood to listen freely. He was adament he had not cheated and was as concerned as I was. I went to the dr and she told me it was not an STD but appeared to be a "zit" but they would run test on it. They scraped it and the test returned inconclusive. They had no idea what it was. Like others, it eventually "popped" and felt a lot better. I didn't have any more for a few more years. I mainly get mine during the summer when it is extremely hot and humid outside. Last summer I got another one and it was larger than any others I had ever had. I had moved and was seeing a different doctor so I asked him about it. He told me it was a cyst that was similar in makeup to a pimple and that it was caused from the pores around the area being inflamed from heat and moisture. He told me to make certain I cleaned the area there good (I already wash there A LOT!) and to make certain the area stayed dry. I started using Vagisil powder and I've not had any return until this week. Of course, I'm stressed right now and haven't been using the powder since it's been cold weather and didn't see the need. Guess I'll be making a trip to Walmart today to get some more powder as Spring and summer are certainly on there way to the South.

Ok Ladies, we all should admit that we are not an average weight.  I am 30 lbs over my weight for height and this is the main reason for this condition of mine.  There are two areas to talk about.  The sabacious cyst and the viral cyst. 

 

The sebacious cyst. as it is defined in Wiki, is made of a hair shaft with two inlarged sebacious sacs on either side. The sacs' normal purpose is to fill with melted fat (oil) and deliver it to the skin around the hair on the surface of our skin to keep it lubricated.  

 Normally, the skin has a thin fat layer in the genital area but when we are over weight by a tad (lol), that layer has far more fat.  This fat layer is where the oil comes from and it is normally kept in liquid form in that thin layer by body heat. When you have too much fat in that area, only the bottom of the fat layer gets melted by body heat and forms oil. The top layer, however does not melt and forms a thick hard layer of fat that moves around.   If the hard fat layer moves and covers a hair folicle or surrounds it, the folicle inlarges and absorbs the hard fat and starts to fill beyond capacity, making the sebacious cyst, which by all accounts is just a huge blocked pore or pimple on a larger scale.  The ones I have suffered are usually in the area between the thigh and outter labia on the panty line.  I get them because I am menapausal and have night sweats where my pores try to push out water but because there is fat in the way, the fat gets pushed out first and comes to the surface where it can block a pore and start the cyst again.

Warning:  DO NOT POKE them with a needle or try to squeeze it out.  Squeezing ruptures the sac and breaks off hard fat and makes another possible site for a bump later.

My solution has been :

Apply a heating pad directly to the bump and surrounding area to melt more of the hard fat -the swelling goes down and the bump either pops or the fat melts and gets reabsorbed.  In my case, I keep the bump clean with peroxide and neosporin with pain med.

Take a hot bath and soak until your feet have wrinkles - gives the tissue time to absorb more water in the bump and helps it pop quicker.  It also is very soothing.

After the cyst is gone I keep rechecking for hard layer fat and keep using the heating pad to melt them away until I can't feel any more.   After a week or two, there will be no areas of hard lumps.

The smaller white head ones that form inside the labia and inner vaginal tissue or hood, and clitoris are forms of a virus which is dormant in all of us and is brought on by stress or an allergic reaction to something.  This is a viral cyst.  It is closely related to a  fever blister on your lip or inside your cheek; these have the same causes of common viral exposure (think the flu viris) or an allergic reaction to something we were exposed to.  I usually take a Benadryl for those and the bump goes away over night.

I hope this helps alleviate any fears y'all have had about the bumps.  They are nothing to worry about but boy, are they a pain !!

 

I have had these bumps/boils off and on since I was in my early teens. I have been tested multiple times and have no known STD's. They are usually in different locations, but generally near the hood of the clitoris, or about halfway down the labia. There are most likely not Bartholin cysts because they do not occur at the opening of the vagina. I have also had these on my inner thighs and buttocks. They would first appear as painful itchy red bumps, then grow larger, form a head, and eventually burst. They vary in that some are more bloody, others more filled with pus or purilent clearish fluid. Some are closer to the skin and easier to come to a head and burst/pop. Others form deeper under the skin and are more of a problem and take longer to go through the process. I have noticed as I have aged and gained more weight, thankfully they do not form as often, but when they do, they usually will reccur in the same area, and do not seem to fully resolve as they once did before. In the past, to speed things along I would use Ichthammol ointment (a drawing salve) with a great deal of success. Would definitely recommend this for bumps close to the surface, but still under the skin. It would bring the bump to a head much faster and popping it would be far less painful if I used this ointment. Usually I would apply it with a Qtip, then put a little gauze over it, or wear a pad. Don't use it with any undergarments you don't want ruined, as it looks like black tar and it stains. Within 24-48hrs of reapplying the Ichthammol every 4-8hrs, it would burst easily, sometimes even on its own.  My present concern, however, is that I have an area where a bump has recurred 2-3 times over the years, and has not fully resolved. It shrank quite a bit to where it was forgotten for a few years. Recently, though brushing against it I noticed that it was getting a little sensitive and painful again. I was expecting it to come back, as before, but it is deep beneath the surface. Just simply rolling it in my fingers really irritated it and the whole labia on that side swelled up for a few days and then subsided. The bump is still very pronounced and feels like it is pressing on a nerve. Not acutely painful, but I am concerned that this may be a different kind of cyst, or even a (hopefully) benign tumor after mutiple cysts formed in the same location. Could also be a blocked sweat gland. Have to wait to get in to my OB/GYN. Has anyone else had the same problem where they don't resolve anymore and stay for years and not go away..if so did your Dr. diagnose the issue?

I do! Thanks, never new it had a name. Another recurring skin problem that I constantly have to treat and work at keeping it at bay.

I have been having these cysts or whatever they are called for 8 years. I showed them to my doctor and he gave me some name for them but not std's or anything to be alarmed about. He didn't prescribe anything. I do want to see another doctor because they come and go.

You more than likely have hidradenitis supurativa. Very painful...

Mine looks more like a blister than any cyst is this normal?

I've had a cyst for 3 years and just 3 weeks ago it came back. I don't know why but it goes away then comes back. I'm really scared and I don't know what to do. I'm 16 years old if it helps. I have had sex already with my boyfriend. But I haven't done anything in a while and that's when it came back. Im freaking out about it. Although it just stays the size of a pea it never grows or gets any bigger. It just stays the same size. Can I please get some advice? :/

Hi ladies, great to see all this chat about our secret cysts. I've had them for years. Been tested for all STDs. Nothing. Then I discovered I had Lyme disease and Bartonella. I've read thousands of research papers on these diseases. Guess what I came across??? Bartonella can cause theses subcutaneus cysts! Reading all these posts I see some of you have fibromyalgia and immune disorders. Is it possible you may have Bartonella. Do some research and check other symptoms. I am in a Lyme disease group and recently other women have admitted to the same problem. Eureka!!!! Once you get treatment theses cysts can go away. It's amazing. They can happen anywhere on our bodies. But usually close to lymph nodes. Groin, armpits, neck, thighs etc. Its also known as cat scratch fever. Very overlooked. It could explain some of your cysts. Worth a look? Hope that helps. :-)

could be friction. & mine was as the above. for the past few years i have had the bump inside the lips on the right side only and on the outside and butt area at times. i am definitely overweight and cysts run in my family also. i have recently had a lot of sex with my husband, i believe causing the most recent double bump on my right lip/labia. i actually did squeeze and take a needle to it (causing a decrease in swelling and some liquid/ bloody fluid to be released, but there is still a slight swelling and hardness to the labia) i also cleaned the area after with witch hazel which burned but seemed to help. i will try a hot bath also, but if anyone has a permanent solution, i would love to hear one! i don't want any issues like this anymore!