Question: I have had these persistent, chronic abscesses in between my inner thigh and genital area (right below the tendon closer to my inner thigh than genital region). I have had this skin 'disorder' for approximately twenty years, occurring approximately 2-5x per year since my early twenties (I'm 39). I just thought it was some skin problem unique to me due to scar-tissue build up from ingrown hairs. However, I recently read something about a disease called "Hidradenitis Suppurativa XXXXXXX Until today, I had never heard of it, but I am almost certain that is what I have. It started with a nickel-sized "boil" on my right inner thigh, VERY painful to the touch, filled with blood and pus. I have scar-tissue built up there, permanent knots under the skin, and XXXXXXX XXXXXXX "pockets" beneath the skin. When an abscess appears and grows, I usually have to squeeze it to get any relief and prevent it from getting larger and more painful. When it pops, there is a large hole that appears to go very XXXXXXX and eventually fills up with what appears to be scar tissue until the next one occurs. Approximately 5 years after the first one, I got a second one on the exact opposite side, same place just on the left inner thigh. Now I have to deal with two, but never at the same time. Both scars are XXXXXXX and painful, same size, and both have XXXXXXX holes in my skin when squeezed.
My concern is that now that I know what I have, I am afraid that significant damage has been done to this area that cannot be seen on the outside of my skin from being ignored and squeeze for so many years. I have never had acne (except maybe hormonal at times, but nothing out of the ordinary), and this only occurs in this one are on both sides. Can years of this chronic condition lead to more serious problems if not addressed? After 20 years of it I am a little worried about some type of more serious skin disease occurring there, like skin cancer or something else. What can be done about this and should I be concerned about long term consequences of this condition? I also went through a severe bout of anemia and have had many other "strange" and undiagnosed symptoms in the last year both gyno and gastro. No source of the anemia or clear diagnoses have been made, although both doctors feel like they are missing something. Could this be the source of my mysterious symptoms if complications have progressed? I have no clue.