The problem that the starter of this discussion described is not that uncommon. Certain areas of the body, such as armpits, groin, the anal area, or inner thighs, have skin folds that rub against each other. These areas also have plenty of hair follicles, as well as sweat and oil glands in the skin. Sometimes, pimple-like bumps may develop in these areas, due to the friction of the skin or blockage of follicles or glands. These bumps may appear small and red, while sometimes they may develop into larger boils filled with pus.
The member who replied first suggested the discussion starter to visit his/her doctor.
It could be some kind of an infection and you may need antibiotics for the bumps to go away.
According to this reply, postponing the appointment with the doctor could only make things worse.
It happened to my friend once and she needed a surgeon to fix things.
For the participant who replied next, the cause wasn't an infection, since antibiotics and the creams he/she tried didn't help. The cause was blocked sweat glands as it has been diagnosed by the doctor. He recommended not using the products that block the sweat glands, such as antiperspirant deodorants, and to use natural deodorants or ointments made of honey, which helped this participant in the discussion heal the boils as well as old scars.
Folliculitis has been mentioned as a possible cause by many participants in the discussion. It is a common skin condition in which hair follicles become inflamed, usually due to a bacterial or fungal infection.
While the infection of hair follicles and blocked sweat glands are the most likely causes for them, the pimples or boils in the armpit are also characteristic of hidradenitis suppurativa, a chronic skin condition that affects the hair follicles and sweat glands in the affected areas.
I believe that you may have a condition called Hidradenitis Supprativa. It is a condition of re-occurring boils/ cysts/abscesses , that are often misdiagnosed as ingrown hairs, herpes, being unclean and folliculitis.
One participant explained in detail her experience with this condition that started as a pimple under her armpit. After she tried to pop it, the bump got bright red and swelled to the size of a grape and it was very painful. She kept getting the boils and all of them left scars. Then she developed the boils in her groin area (inner thighs and crotch), across the stomach (waistband friction), and between buttocks. Each boil would last for about a month and it never developed a head like a pimple.
They just swelled, made the skin red and shiny, and hurt like hell.
She visited her doctor who told her that it was folliculitis and prescribed several types of antibiotics, but neither of them worked. She was tested for a sexually transmitted disease (negatively) and after years of wandering for a correct diagnose, she went to a dermatologist who diagnosed her with hidradenitis suppurativa and prescribed the proper treatment and diet changes that helped.
What do experts say?
Painful bumps and boils often occur in the folds of the skin or areas where skin rubs together, or in areas where there's a combination of hair, sweat, and friction, such as the armpits, groin, inner thighs, under the breasts and between the buttocks.
The two most common causes are inflamed/infected hair follicle, a condition known as folliculitis, or more likely an inflamed/infected hair follicle around sweat glands, a condition known as hidradenitis suppurativa.
Folliculitis
Folliculitis is a common skin condition in which hair follicles become inflamed, usually due to a bacterial or fungal infection. Folliculitis usually presents as small red bumps or white-headed pimples around hair follicles, which are the tiny pockets from which the hair grows. Older lesions that have lost the pus appear as red bumps surrounding the follicle. The infection can spread and turn into non-healing, crusty sores.
Folliculitis affects areas where hair follicles are present on the body, such as the face, scalp, chest, back, buttocks, groin, thighs, and armpits.
In most cases, folliculitis is caused by an infection with Staphylococcus or "staph" bacteria, which lives on the skin and normally doesn’t cause any issues, unless it gets inside the body through a wound, such as shaving cut.
Other things can also cause folliculitis, including:
- Hair removal, such as shaving, waxing, and plucking
- Ingrown hairs
- Blockages from skin products, such as moisturizers with oils
- A fungus
- Certain medications, such as corticosteroids
Anyone with a hair can develop folliculitis, however, certain groups of people are more prone to develop this condition, including people with diabetes and those with a compromised immune system (such as from HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, chronic diseases, cancer and chemotherapy, immune-suppressing drugs, etc.).
Mild folliculitis might go away without any treatment, or with minimum interventions such as washing the area with antibacterial soap or using saltwater or vinegar on a cloth. If these self-care treatments don’t work, your doctor may recommend antibiotic or antifungal cream, or steroid cream to help reduce swelling.
Hidradenitis suppurativa
Hidradenitis suppurativa is a painful, long-term skin condition that causes small lumps under the skin, as well as abscesses and scarring on the skin. The lumps typically develop near hair follicles where there are sweat glands, and where the skin rubs together, including:
- in the armpits
- around the groin and genitals
- on the buttocks and around the anus
- below the breasts
Hidradenitis suppurativa tends to start with a firm pea-sized lesion that develops in one place. This lump either disappears or ruptures, oozing pus after a few hours or days. New lumps will often develop in an area nearby. If these aren't treated, larger lumps may develop and spread, often causing narrow channels called sinus tracts to form under the skin. These channels can break out on the surface and leak pus.
Many people with hidradenitis suppurativa also develop a pilonidal sinus - a small hole or "tunnel" in the skin.
Some of the lumps may become infected with bacteria, causing a secondary infection that will need to be treated with antibiotics.
Hidradenitis suppurativa usually starts between puberty and age 40. The exact cause of hidradenitis suppurativa is not known, but smoking and obesity are both strongly associated with this condition. Other factors that may play a role include:
- hormones
- genetics
- an irregular immune system response
- excess weight
Hidradenitis suppurativa also affects women more than men, and most commonly occurs in women between the ages of 20 and 29.
Persistent and severe hidradenitis suppurativa often causes complications, which may include infection, scars, swelling due to obstructed lymph drainage, social isolation due to drainage and odor, and even squamous cell carcinoma in the affected skin.
To avoid these, it is important to diagnose hidradenitis suppurativa its early stages and prevent it from getting worse. Unfortunately, there is no cure for hidradenitis suppurativa.
Treatment for hidradenitis suppurativa
Since it's a recurring condition it requires constant management and treatment that will be tailored to the individual. Treatment options may include:
- antibiotics
- retinoids (drugs derived from vitamin A)
- oral steroids
- antiseptics
- contraceptives
- drugs that suppress the immune system
- hormone therapy
- surgery
People diagnosed with hidradenitis suppurativa are advised to lose excess weight, stop smoking, wear loose-fitting clothes, avoid shaving of the affected areas, etc.
Also, one of the greatest challenges of living with hidradenitis suppurativa may be coping with pain and embarrassment. It is important to find support among your family and friends.
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Discussion highlights
What symptoms have been reported?
- And trust me I know they hurt I have like 10 on my left armpit and 7 on my left.
- Sometimes they would grow as large as a grape under the skin, more like a swollen lymph node but very painful.
- Hi All, I too get these kind of boils,but i smash little garlic clove and apply on it.without hurting the boil and it works
- The older I get (56) the more fast and furious they become.
- IT STARTED LIKE A SWOLEN NODE.
- The next day It had swollen to the size of a small grape.
- Well now it has become very large and very painful and I don't really see any sign of a white head.
- On my armpit , theres a spot /pimple and underneath, it feels like a little egg ITS PAINFULL
- Well yesterday I got out of the shower and I noticed these pimple-like things nunder my pits.
- I HAD JUST 1 SPOT THEN IT WAS TWO NOW ITS 5 IN THE PAST 3 DAYS.
- 1 OF THE PIMPLES HAD PUS LIKE A PIMPLE.
- I POPED IT THEN WASHED WITH PEROXIDE.
- NOW IN THE PAST 5 HOURS I NOW HAVE SEVEN.
- THEY HURT SO BAD I CAN BARELY LIFT MY ARM AND WHEN I FLEX MY CHEST IT IS EXREMLY PAINFUL.
- I hate to pain to specially when it right in the middle of your back, I get the hard to breath ones too.
- That just ticked it off and it got bright red and swelled to the size of a grape and it was very painful.
- They just swelled, made the skin red and shiny, and hurt like hell.
- Another week later, one on my right armpit appeared and started to grow.
- I recently had a similar condition - a large, very painful node in my left armpit - it felt like a painful pimple, and over the next week it grew.
- Mine start out as pea size and withing 2-3 day are the size of big gum balls i go to dr and i have them cut open and drained dr puts a wick in and covers with a gause pad and they heal up by themselves, my dr says mine come from sweating in instead of sweating out, i dont ware bras or underware because of the friction and i dont drink alot of caffine i dont drink soda and i only have 1-3 cups of tea a week so i know its not that i have been smoking since i was 11 and cysts did not start till i was 18 so i know its not from smoking i stoped using deodorant and antipersperant years ago and i still get them i clean and dry my arm pits and viginal area all the time and that doesnt work dr said he could take out my lympnoids and sweat glands but that will not garentee they will stop so i guess that means i will deal with them the way they are, i am so use to them and my dr is so gentel that now when i have them out he is done before i even know it, it use to be real painful to have them out but now i have a real good dr and he is so gental i hve never had to stay in hospital he does right in procedure room at his office only takes about 15-20 mins.
- I am a 41 year old female and I have been having cysts under my arms and my viginal area since i was 18 I have had more then 50 removed it is not all that bad to have them removed but the pain is having them in the first place.
- my arm pit is now extremely sore it hurts to move it at all and it's about the size of a grape.
- when she did that only a very small amount of puss came out and it quickly grew too about three times it's original size.
- so I woke up this morning and about 15 minutes later I realized that my arm pit was very sore.
- So I have always had these since I was little, just assuming that they were pimples I would pop them&only a little puss would cone out.
- Then they would get huge.
- I have a huge one now on the top of mine.
- Mine hurts, but not way to much, so Im not as worried as I usually am and now i know I'm not alone.
- Oouch i get thoses and they hurt but i just put some peroxide on it, it usually pops itself.
- I suffered with many painful boils for a period of about 9 months - even my family were getting them. One had sties in the eyes, one of my sons got whitlow twice (an infection in the cuticle of the finger nail) and my youngest developed a very big cyst on his neck which had to be treated in hospital. My doctor finally (after asking a colleague) sent us to have swabs taken from our noses.
- I recently had the painful pimples (at least that is what I thought they were) although they never performed a head.
- Its about 5 inches thick, 7 inches long and about 8 inches across.
- I am worried to put anything on my arm pits because of the sweat glands But in the same token Relief would be GREAT.
- they also appear in your mouth and are the most painful of all.
- everyone is notthe same and you should definetly always see a doctor when you get a white pimple or somethingof the sort with pus in it.
- I have strange bumps under my armpit.
- I'm in week two of having a painful node in my right armpit but thankfully it is starting to shrink now because I haven't used deoderant since it first appeared.
- My armpits were a constant mess of cysts in different stages of development.
- Luckily the pimples only get as big as peas so it sounds like I'm lucky compared to some.
- I even get them on my bum and on the corners of my thigh under the ballsack.
- I'm having a sever pain by these things.
- there was a acne looking like thing in my armpit, and it was swollen red and hurt to put my arm down and to touch it.
- it was still there, just smaller and less red.
- Would go away for awhile then come back in droves and really made it painful to move my arms.
- I had horrible huge pus filled pimples on my armpits for years.
- It was so painful and I was so embrassed of it.
- sometimes it will be gone then the next day it would grow again, it really hurts so bad.
- Their size actually grew whenever i came back to home after playing football and doing exercise.
- I hand the same painfull nodes on both of my armpits.
- I have a huge pimple on my armpit what should I do?
- I already popped it and its bigger than before .a lot of pus came out .do I use my acne ointment or no?if not what should I use ?i a lot of pain
- They are extremely painful.
- I have had them for about 4 weeks now under the right armpit and 4 popped up under the left one 2 days ago.
- It starts with just one, then, in a matter of hours, more start to appear.
- sore bumps under arms and in groin is allgy to purfume soaps and washes when i got them i treated then with anti hystermine creams and i then raleise that the shampoo was also causing them i stop using them and i dont get any more pusy sore bumps.
- I also got painful cyst like things in my armpits, they were huge and pus filled and then the rest of my armpits were covered in smaller more pimple sized bumps.
- Even I have same problem my left under arm I got one pimple I pressed in that white thing came out now that area I got two more pimples its paining I don't know what to do.please suggest
What diagnosis has been made?
- And the doctor finally found out what it is I have MRSA in my bloodstream and that is what is causing the numerous cysts and pimple like spots.
- My doctor diagnosed them as clogged sweat glands.
- Today I met with a new dermatologist and she said they were caused by a condition Hidradenitis Supprativa which is almost impossible to cure and often occurs with persistent acne (as I've had since 12 and am now 41).
- All the infections were being caused by the same bacteria - Staphylococcus aureus.
- I went to the doctor and they said it was folliculitis, which is a general term for "infection of the hair follicle.
- My doctor told me I had folliculitis and prescribed me doxycyclin and they were almost all gone within a week of starting it.
- said it's Folliculitis and my armpits are so bad,painful and scard.
- I've had these forever and have dealt with them after being told they were foliculitis and abcesses.
- Doctor said it was blocked sweat glands.
- My first doctor (actually, he was an FNP) confidently told me that it was folliculitis and prescribed antibiotics.
- When that didn't work he tried a different antibiotic and then another.
- He was stumped when those didn't work, so he made me get tested for a sexually transmitted disease.
- When that was negative he told me that he just took antibiotics all the time for "weird bumps and skin thingies." I decided he was an id**t and decided to handle them on my own.
- He took one look and then explained that we have sweat glands in our armpits that secrete plain sweat and some that secrete sweat with pheromones in it.
- and still kept getting them.
- I explained how I'd been diagnosed with folliculitis, ingrown hairs, etc.
- Originally the dermatologist said it was from using a scrungie when she bathed and it was a staph infection.
- I am a 41 year old female and I have been having cysts under my arms and my viginal area since i was 18 I have had more then 50 removed it is not all that bad to have them removed but the pain is having them in the first place.
- I suffered with many painful boils for a period of about 9 months - even my family were getting them. One had sties in the eyes, one of my sons got whitlow twice (an infection in the cuticle of the finger nail) and my youngest developed a very big cyst on his neck which had to be treated in hospital. My doctor finally (after asking a colleague) sent us to have swabs taken from our noses.
- We were prescribed a nose cream - Naseptin - I think.
- wel i know you dont want to hear this but i had the same problem and i didnt do anything but what happened that one day it started to gush out puss and i had to go to the emergency rom and had to get emergency surgery it was somewhat painful and the injection for the anesthesia was the most pain full so i would recommend telling you doctor before you end up like me
- I had one located on my thigh and the 1st word out of my Doctors mouth by just seeing it was YOU OWN A CAT dont you!
- I said yeah, he claimed the cat licked me on a open wound or bite me.
- this has been very helpful for me because my doctor misdiagnosed me and stated that it was something else, but every time I take all my test, they come up perfectly find.
- However I get regular checkups and I was just examined about 2weeks ago and everything turned out to be good besides my weight.
- The doctor didn't have a clue, called it something, intertriger maybe, the cream he gave me was useless.
- the doctor said i could use it on other that my face if i ever got acne on my shoulders, chest, etc.
- Dr.
What treatments have been recommended?
- They have gave me antibiotics called bactrim and kefelexen but they always come back bc it is in my bloodstream.
- I didnt know what they were so I told my mom that theres pimple-like things undder my armpits but she told me to put some polysporin on .
- She gave me clindalotion to use on actual spots and said when I get a painful swollen one, to call her immediately.
- Her office injects a steroid into them which brings the swelling down almost immediately so I won't have to suffer for weeks at a time again.
- When one of the mystery bumps appeared I washed it and put some Neosporin and a Band-Aid on it.
- I had been on oral contraceptives for years, so he asked if I'd be OK with switching to Yasmin.
- I washed with gentle cleansers, lightly exfoliated once a week, and used Cetaphil moisturizer.
- Try with Benzac!
- I stopped using deodorant altogether, and I started continually dusting my armpits with Goldbond powder.
- i didnt have any vitamin c and like a dummy i looked in the medicine cabinet and only only seen omega fish oil caplets.
- We were prescribed a nose cream - Naseptin - I think.
- He prescribed this Ointment which didnt work.
- I have found that washing my armpits, then putting alcohol on them, lots of alcohol, then, when dry, put Gold Bond Powder really helps.
- It usually happens after I workout and I sweat a lot and they take a few weeks to fully go away Try putting some kind of talcum powder or Goldbond powder in those areas in the morning and at night it should stop you from sweating.
- Keeping a warm, wet washcloth on it may speed things along, and ibupprofen for the pain and swelling may be appropriate in this case.
- I was prescribed an anti-biotic and after 24hours there was little to no improvement so I went back and was given bactrium.
- I have been trying to figure this out for years and my doc just kept giving me antibiotics and while it maybe slowed it down it didnt really help.
- My doctor told me I had folliculitis and prescribed me doxycyclin and they were almost all gone within a week of starting it.
- And I've been on birth control for years.
In conclusion
Painful lumps, boils or pimples in the armpits are common and usually nothing to worry about. They are usually a result of an inflamed/infected hair follicle. However, sometimes these lumps may indicate a rare, lifelong skin condition called hidradenitis suppurativa.