So my questions are
what is it?
what do i have to do to make it go away?
So yeah, thanks for your help. I thought i'd ask a health site before i went to the doctor (that would be extremely embaressing).
This poster describes a "bump" in the pubic area that initially seemed like a "giant pimple". He got worried when he noticed that blood was oozing from the area after "popping" the offending area of skin, after pus first left the building. Embarrassed to have a skin lesion in the groin area, or perhaps embarrassed to show his groin area to his doctor altogether, the poster thought he'd ask for advice from the SteadyHealth community before seeking medical attention.
Discussion highlights
Questions
Questions from people with pimple-like skin lesions in the groin area mainly wanted to know what can cause them and what can be done to clear them up:
- I have so many right now I wish someone would find a solution.
- So my questions arewhat is it?
- what do i have to do to make it go away?
- This is my 2cond time having a big bump on my pubic area wat habe i done wrong im only thirteen s i plz tell me its not a std
- So, I can't figure out what this is because it's close to my bikini line and it's only one, not a collection of disgusting bump pimple things.
Symptoms
Pimple-like phenomena in the pubic area were described in detail:
- I get big lumps in bikini area that are painful.
- but when i popped it the puss that came out was a dark yellow and it hasn't bruised or anything
- Its horrible, it hurts and I am a picker.
- They hurt so badly, I first had them on my bottom then between my breasts, now on my underarms and pubic area.
- I have had these for years and I know how unpleasent they can be.
What is it?
People had plenty of ideas as to what can cause pimples or things that look like pimples around the groin, too:
- IT IS NOT AN STD.
- your skin is probably sensitive to whatever you are usingit can be an ingrown hair , or infected.
- It's a cyst.
- It isn't technically a type of acne -- or at least it is different from the type of acne you get on your face because the infection is in the sweat glands and not the pores.
- The doctor told me that it could be hidradenitis supportiva, but he wasn't certain.
What to do?
There were — and quite rightly, too — more than a few suggestions for people with pimples in their pubic region to get themselves checked out by a doctor, but some other advice also showed up:
- Just contact your doctor and see what he says, i would really recommend getting the sack out by numbing injection and all that, it usually does not come back and it doesn't really leave a scar.
- If it's not cysts and it's acne, take accutane.
- If I don't use the right soap they come back.
- but you should get regularly checked anyways.
- If it is infected you should your doctor.
The SteadyHealth team reacts
What was wrong?
The person who posted the question described his problem as a "giant pimple" that felt like a bump just below the skin and that emitted a fair amount of pus when he popped it. Going by his words, we think he was most likely dealing with a boil, an infection surrounding a hair follicle often caused by Staphylococcus aureus, when he posted his question. Boils most often show up in sweaty areas covered by a lot of hair, the groin being a prime example — and they do indeed look like giant, angry, pimples.
The good news? Boils usually go away by themselves within two weeks. You can send them packing faster if you place hot compresses on the area a few times a day, but even if you don't, nothing bad typically happens if you don't see a doctor. Some people suffer from recurring boils, develop a fever, suffer from large clusters of boils (a carbuncle), find the boil doesn't go away within a few weeks, or just feel generally ill. Those are some of the signs it's time to ask for antibiotics for boils.
This is probably the right place to mention that popping boils isn't generally a good idea — it can cause the infection to spread. Even if you do pop a boil, however, it's quite unlikely that anything serious will happen to you.
We said the poster probably had a boil because he said his "pimple" was "giant", he appeared to have only one, and pus emerged from the site. He could also have been suffering from folliculitis, a smaller-scale infection that looks very similar but not as big. Also called barber's itch or razor bumps, this phenomenon is — as many posters commented — often caused by improper shaving techniques or wearing tight, often synthetic, clothing when found in the groin area. The best thing to do is to stop shaving for a while and to switch to roomier cotton undies.
Skin lesions in the groin: Other causes
Since skin lesions in the groin area are quite worrisome as well as very common, we should also take a look at other possible causes. They include sexually transmitted diseases:
- Genital herpes. Google Image it if you're brave enough — and actually, that's generally quite a good way to rule different kinds of skin lesions in or out. Genital herpes, unsurprisingly, resembles a cold sore quite a bit more than it does acne. The blisters that can form are more likely to emerge in clusters than on their own, but they do contain a yellow fluid that resembles pus.
- Genital warts look like anything from cauliflower-like proliferation of excess skin to protruding, rounded-off, moles. They will not contain any kind of pus, and cannot be "popped".
- Syphilis is a frightening sexually transmitted disease that should be taken very seriously. A single sore often shows up in the genital area shortly after infection, and this sore is usually hard and round but not painful.
Non-sexually transmitted causes of skin lesions in the genital region include:
- Molluscum contagiosum, a viral infection, was mentioned on the thread. It leads to multiple small lesions with a yellow center, but they can appear anywhere on the body.
- Hidradenitis suppurativa is a chronic skin disease that initially looks a lot like very angry and severe acne but that can also lead to extensive scarring. It most commonly appears in the armpits and groin.
- Psoriasis is another chronic skin condition that can cause red and scaly patches on pretty much any part of the body.
- Eczema causes dry, itchy skin that can ooze fluids when scratched.
- Jock itch is a fungal infection of the groin area that often occurs in athletes.
The take-home message
Not all genital skin lesions necessarily require medical attention — if you shave your pubic hair or wear tight, synthetic, undies, folliculitis is almost bound to strike you at one point or another, and it usually goes away if you just leave it alone. Boils, too, often get better without a doctor's involvement.
Sources: