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Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS): the symptoms, getting a diagnosis, treatment, and living with it
For anyone with painful lumps or boils that keep coming back in the armpits, the groin or other places where skin rubs, anyone just told they have HS, and the people beside them. The National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS, part of the NIH) says hidradenitis suppurativa is a chronic, noncontagious, inflammatory condition with painful bumps or boils and tunnels in and under the skin; that it starts in the hair follicle; and that poor personal hygiene does not cause it. This page passes on, by name, what NIAMS says: the symptoms and where they show up, who gets it and what may raise the chances, how it is diagnosed and who treats it, the medicine, surgery and laser it names, and what you can do day to day. It puts first our own rule for when it cannot wait, builds the words to say to a provider, and prints a card for the visit.
A word with a dotted line under it, like this, opens its official definition, quoted from a U.S. government glossary.
Right now
- Someone very sick: confused, hard to wake, having trouble breathing, or with skin that is cold, pale or blotchy: call 911 (ours). Do not drive yourself. See our page on when an infection might be sepsis.
- A fever or chills with a painful lump, red, warm, swollen skin that is spreading, or a fever while you take a medicine that calms the immune system: get care the same day; if you cannot reach your doctor, go to an emergency room or an urgent care (ours). Do not squeeze, pop or cut a lump yourself.
- Thinking about suicide: call or text 988, any time.
More help
- Related: A rash, an itch, or something on the skin: find the right page · Chronic pain · Depression · Anxiety · Quitting smoking.
- Day to day: Symptom diary · My medicines list.
- Care and costs: When you need a doctor and can’t pay · When medicine costs too much · Get ready for your appointment.
- In a crisis: Help right now (988, 911). All our free tools.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No doctor or nurse has reviewed it. The facts were read on October 15, 2026 on NIAMS’s Hidradenitis Suppurativa page, both parts: Overview, Symptoms, & Causes and Diagnosis, Treatment, & Steps to Take (NIH, last reviewed June 2022), and on its Spanish twin, Hidradenitis supurativa (June 2022), which adds a few details; where a fact comes only from the Spanish page, this guide says so. Ours: calling 911 for someone very sick (confused, hard to wake, trouble breathing, or skin that is cold, pale or blotchy); getting care the same day (an emergency room or urgent care if you cannot reach your doctor) for a fever or chills with a painful lump, red, warm, swollen skin that is spreading, or a fever on a medicine that calms the immune system; calling your doctor soon for new lumps, a flare that is not getting better, a wound that will not heal, or pain that keeps you from work, sleep or walking; calling or texting 988 for thoughts of suicide; not squeezing, popping or cutting a lump yourself; not stopping or changing a medicine on your own; asking a pharmacist before adding anything; asking what a test or treatment would change and what it costs; and the order of the steps. What we left out: any brand or dose, any medicine NIAMS does not name, any supplement or remedy, any bleach-bath recipe (NIAMS says to ask your doctor), and NIAMS’s research pages. This page saves nothing and loads no trackers.