Doper Ladies - Help! TMI

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I am having a bit of a girly issue. Normally I would go to my OB/GYN for this kind of thing but as I am in a bit of an employment kerfluffle I do not currently have insurance so that option is out unless this isn’t able to be fixed any other way.

Consider yourself warned that this is a TMI kind of issue and those people who do not wish to have mental images of horrid girly things for the rest of time should go find a thread about the election or cat pictures or something.

I have what I originally thought was a zit on my labia majora except that now (several days later) it still hasn’t formed a head or popped or anything and it is growing in length, which is mother nature’s way of telling me I have an ingrown hair. On my labia. Goddammit. Usually on an ingrown hair I can go take a long, steamy shower or apply a hot compress to the site and it is easily removed via tweezers, but so far the shower thing hasn’t helped and I am not about to hold a hot compress on my vagina!

Please tell me one of you other beyootiful lady dopers have had a similar problem and were able to fix it at home. Anyone? looks around hopefully

2

I would take a needle and tweezers to it, but that’s just me.

3

Planned Parenthood charges on a sliding scale. I’m a patient at the Hempstead NY center, and a “medical visit” (which involves a physical exam but no pelvic or labs) was $25. (a full pelvic with labs was $80). I feel like you live in NYC, is that right? There are offices all over the city.

I would give PP a call. You can be assured they’ve seen waaay stranger shit than this!

4

Hot compress, seriously, and it might not be an ingrown hair.

Bartholin cyst.

I had one of these, and it opened and drained after I sat in an almost-scalding hot water bath for an afternoon. However, it had been growing for about a week before then.

5

Okay, this is so not fair. I’ve wondered for YEARS if my labial zits make me a freakazoid with some bizarre untestable STD, and now we’ve got two labial zit threads in one month? No fair. :smiley:

Yeah, it might be a cyst or it might be a pimple or it might be an ingrown hair - all of which are apparently perfectly normal, if painful as fuck. (Speaking of which, don’t - fuck, that is. Irritation and pressure are not what you need right now. Plus, this counts as an “open wound”, or will as soon as it pops, and if that’s while you’re having intercourse, you’re much more at risk for catching something than you would be with intact skin.)

A compress needn’t (shouldn’t) be hot, just warm and moist. Run the tap water until it’s warm, soak your washcloth, wring out the water and hold it or sit on it for a while. If it’s a pimple (which can be elongated on the labia), this will help bring it to a head in a day or three. When it pops, it’s gonna be bloody - bright red. It will probably pop when you’re wiping after using the toilet or moving the compress. You’ll know it when it happens - it’s a sudden sharp popping pain, followed by sweet, sweet relief as the pressure and pain you’ve been dealing with disappear.

If the compress doesn’t bring it to a head, but it disappears anyway within a couple of weeks, it was probably a cyst. They often burst inside and their contents are just reabsorbed by your body.

It’s also possible that it’s a varicose vein. Gross, I know. Those aren’t too common in that area, as I understand it. I don’t think there’s any home care for those, that’s doctor territory.

If you get red streaks running away from it, or if you get a bunch of blister looking things, go to the doctor ASAP. Then you’re probably looking at staph. Streaks are bad - ER time, not “wait until morning” time.

6

I will be happy to volunteer to inspect the area in question, and use whatever tools are necessary to effect some relief.

What?

Seriously, hope you feel better soon.

7

And, if you get a fever, or already have one, go to the doctor… quickly.

8

I consider you a good friend, so I’m going to give my male perspective on the issue. If it doesn’t hurt or interfere with sex, I’d just ignore it until it goes away. It’s far from an enlightened opinion, but hey, that’s what I would do.

9

Nope.

I love the internet. It’s so damned… *reassuring *at times.

When I was younger, I thought I had some very weird form of occasional vaginal cancer, or else the worst hygiene habits. Turned out that it was neither.

10

This is neither zit nor cyst as best as I can tell. I’ve had both in the general area before and they were not like this. I have, however, had an ingrown hair in another unpleasant place at one point that did this exact same thing and since I shaved and waxed the area for the first time in years about a week ago I’m betting dollars to donuts that is what this is. (Generally I just keep things down there trimmed, not bare, but it was a special request. I’m never doing that again though! It itched very badly.) No red streaks, no fever, etc. I will try holding a compress on it to see if that helps though. If this isn’t gone by monday I will call PP and see if they can get me an appointment to fix it. I would just take the tweezers to it right now but I can’t hold a mirror and tweezers to do this properly and I don’t know that I want my boyfriend to lend a helping hand.

11

How many dates into the relationship before you can ask your SO to do something like that, eh?

12

At least 2 years into marriage. :smiley: Maybe not even then.

13

Sounds like it’s time for the GIANT LAZER, one way or the other…

14

20 - 30 minutes in a bath tub with a half a box of baking soda should do it. No tweezers needed, just a little squeeze and it should pop right out of there.

Oh, and IME, it was 4 years before my ex would allow me to practice DIY OB-GYN, and about a year later the relationship ended.

I’m 2 years into my current marriage (4 1/2 years into the relationship) and, although I’ll always offer, I doubt it will ever happen.

But, yeah. Long soak in hot water with baking soda.

15

I swear they sometimes make a little popping or snapping sound when they finally burst.

16

You might try putting a little Neosporin ointment on the area, I’ve heard of good results with that.

17

I have baking soda on the counter ready for me to take a long soak in the tub. Hopefully that will do the trick because this is not a pleasant sensation.

Do you mean tools ortools? :smiley:
Okay, I am going to go take a bath. Hopefully I will be able to report back ingrown hair free here shortly.

18

The bath didn’t help. I am now putting neosporin on it in hopes that it will work a bit better. If this doesn’t work I swear I am just going to freaking cut the thing open with whatever sharp thing I have handy. :mad::frowning:

19

gah, don’t want to go there, but… You have to squeeze really hard sometimes. Really, really hard and it hurts. I had to have the gyno show me how hard and how bad it hurts before I got it. Hot tub, gin and tonic, squeezing in a definitely not orgasmic sort of way…life is good.:slight_smile:

20

If you shaved for him, I do believe that he should lend a hand in removing the hair. He will realize (one hopes) just WHAT his request might cause.