hidradenitis supurativa...skin boils....?

Question

Does anyone here suffer from or know anyone who suffers from hidradenitis supurativa? I'm not looking for links to sites or descriptions. I've been to all the sites and I know everything there is to know about it. I was more or less trying to get an idea of how common it really is. It's claimed to be a very rare skin condition...I'm not a believer in that. I think it's labled "rare" because it's wrongly diagnosed in too many cases and left undiagnosed in even more.

Here is an example of how under-educated health officials are on H.S.:

"its associated with obesity, poor hygiene and diabetes....usual treatment is surgery".

That statement is so untrue. You can weigh 100 lbs and develope H.S. You can be the cleanest person in the world and develope H.S. Most people that have H.S. are not diebetic. Surgery is done as a last resort in severe cases and the boil/infection usually reccurs in the same site of surgery.

The truth is...there is no known cause. There is no known cure. The reason for this is because not enough research is being done. When a condition is labled rare...it gets no funding for research.
Why? Because not enough people have the condition to keep a new drug profitable, were a treatment or cure be found. In the meantime....H.S. can be an extremely painful condition and unfortunates who have it are left to suffer.

Answer 1

Yes, I agree with everything you say! My mother-in-law was diagnosed years and years after she suffered from this and why they did not diagnose earlier, I have no idea. However, she used to suffer from really bad boils, mostly on her legs, I think and sometimes had to have surgical incision and drainage of them. She died years ago of a heart condition, not from that. But, something that I always found interesting was that she never had to use deodorants (really, and she never perspired!) because she never sweated! Now, I do not know exactly what the connection is with that, but there has to be something, right? Anyway, I worked in a large teaching hospital for many years and there were quite a few cases diagnosed and treated, but as you say, a lot go undiagnosed and are called simply, "boils" I guess.

Answer 2

its an infection of the sebaceous glands , usually in the armpits.
they swell and become painful and exude a smelly yellowish material.
its associated with obesity, poor hygiene and diabetes.
usual treatment is surgery.
i personally treated a case with im penicillin and flagyl tablets for 1 week . no surgery was needed.