Diagram- what is HS?

This helped me with an understanding of what happens.

Great diagrams on this page. The site itself is quite informative and helped another person understand what it does both physically & mentally.

http://www.bad.org.uk/public/leaflets/ bad_patient_information_gateway_leaflets/hidradenitis/ causes.asp

Thank you for the link, that was very helpful. I added it to my favorites. The diagrams are a great way to show someone how the disease 'starts'.

piscespainter(k)

Perhaps the site is down for repairs or sprucing up.

I clicked on the link through a Google search and it wouldn't load.

Sorry folks. I will sort through my unfiled medical documents to see if I still have the diagram.

Give me time..lol..that unfiled docs folder is quite big.

One of those things I have been meaning to do..lol.

Hey Carmen,

Funny you should say the British do more research. I have found that myself. Dermatology units there don't consider it acne out of control. The less HS is disassociated with acne the better.

1: if it is bacteria that is helping to cause all the trouble, how does that explain the lesion being sterile when swabbed and tested. Being sterile explains why antibiotic's don't help most of the time and only cause more trouble.

2: also their theory on on families, both of my parents didn't have this illness, both I know for a fact as I've asked and seen.. but yet two of my three brothers have it though not as severe as mine.

Any ideas? their diagram makes a lot of sense.

Post edited by: carmen33, at: 07/05/2008 10:37

You bring up some really good points.

My questions are:

Why does the fluid build? How does it keep filling and why? Where and why does it lay dormant?

Perhaps due to the easy access to each pore. In our 20's & 30's our hormonal levels fluctuate so much (man or woman) due to just normal aging, stress and diet. These out of whack hormonal levels allow for an HS feeding frenzy. However what is the genetic marker that is in HS sufferers? What allows it to skip or pick its victims from the different generations of family members?

I don't know much about my family history.

Not sure of my grandparents health on mother's side.

My mother is 1 of 13 siblings. No one talks about any health problems, that is just the kind of generation they are from.

My HS problems is the exact copy of all the areas my mother would get attacked with HS. Her worse spot, left armpit,is my worse spot as well. It was only recently she finally confessed that she had it in the same areas. Up until that point she made me feel like some freak of nature.

Her family members are in denial about me getting it from them and I quote "if you had some illness, if it is real, she (my mother) would show signs of it."

Well...she has been lying about it for 2 decades to them but I was there to haul her, especially while she was in her 30's, to the doctor for a lancing.

Getting the worse of it in her 30's, was something that occurred for me as well.

I do know this...all the women in my mother's family have horrible menses. This includes females who are older and younger than me.

They wouldn't admit it while in the room with each other ..lol..but I hear stories. Another common element I share with them. That just proves the hormonal connection is correct..for my situation.

Since no one in the family will share info lol..the road I am taking to assist my HS is the hormonal route.

It took 2 years, starting in 2006 to really straighten my diet out. All doctors had me on the pill since the age of 15 to "help with my female problems". Not one pill had me feeling well nor did it help with said female problems. I stopped the pill on my own in 2004.

I am now having the easiest time with my menses. First time in 20+yrs! That eases HS but it is not perfect. My HS is more manageable than the last 3 yrs but can still knock me down in pain. I do know that other female HS sufferers use birth control pills with great results as well. So it is a matter of personal preference.

That lower belly wound I received in early June has now acted up again. It just burst... I am running a low grade fever for the latter part of this week. But it is right on time as I am due "for that time of the month"..lol that will now be the big indicator to me and hubby.

Lots of questions about HS and I keep the faith about possible answers in the future.

Post edited by: hsshutterbug, at: 07/06/2008 04:23

PCOS in women seems to come hand in hand with HS and tends to lead to female problems, but that doesn't explain it for the men.. it also throws a kink in the hormone aspect.. the fluid build up could be like they say, from the hair follicle being blocked, but it would seem then that when they burst they would not come back in the same place, once you poke a hole in a can, you can't fill it up again, would not the same principle work with the HS? and yet they do fill up time and time again..

Shutter and I have agreed we both have problems with the low grade fevers or feeling like you have one, anyone else here have that problem? I have the skin tabs too that they think come along with the PCOS and seem to be related to the HS as well.