Steroid? Hydrocortisone? Sherri

[Guest guest]

HI Sherri,

You are right hon..... yes hydrocortisone is a steroid but it's one of the mildest ones out there and available OTC so it's not likely to be risky or that dangerous at all... as long as you don't use it every day for months and months. You'll find that in many first aid type skin pain relievers if you look at the ingredients.

Steroids are great for helping to heal damaged skin... (as long as all infections etc are ruled out)...BUT the key is to not overuse them!

And then often esp. with LS (lichen sclerosis) since they have to use an extremely potent one, a Class 1, as compared to the lowest class 6 like hydrocortisone, that's where the real risk might come in for them. But I stress it's with overuse as the Class 1's are 'very' potent, (600 X's more than hydrocortisone) If it's needed it's not to be feared but can be a double edged sword so one just has to be aware. (just like aspirin) *smile*

Usually a steroid is one of the first things reached for, esp. by a dermatologist to help quell inflammation, itch, burning etc., in other words your symptoms to break that viscious cycle so the skin can start healing itself. And if we don't stop that, the damage to the skin takes place fairly fast and why we must halt that ASAP.

If it's ''overused''?? (esp. the high potency ones like Clobetasol, Temovate, etc.) then yes it can make you much worse than what you began with and again I stress OVERUSED OR ABUSED... that's the risk. But used correctly it can be a godsend!!

I'd only use one of the very high potency ones for 2-3 weeks nightly myself at the most and definitely start the tapering down if it were me. (keep in mind that the HIGHEST Potency ones are rarely used for typical skin symptoms unless it's LS, as for LS that potency is needed to reach deeper into the basement layer of the tissue 'and' needed for a much longer time than general vulvodynia.

With midrange ones?? Probably a week or two is enough for general vulvodynia skin with symptoms.

With the lowest ones (hydrocortisones) ? I wouldn't worry much but still not overuse any of them and would probably start here (no prescription needed) but if that doesn't work I'd not be afraid to step up to the next level although all others over that are a prescription.

(I'll send a chart on next post showing potency's with class's that'll help)

And the other thing is that one must always taper down with a steroid, not just quit one cold turkey, that goes for topical steroids as well as oral so that you don't get a 'rebound' effect where you do end up worse than you began.

Often a person will have that rebound and so instead they use it again and again and have no idea the very thing they're using is what's causing all of that. BUT that's with the highest potency ones, not likely at all with the hydrocortisone.

In fact there are some yeast meds made up in combination with a mid potency steroid & an antiyeast med for the same reason (prescription)... to help ease the pain and then to kill the yeast.

And hon yes you are right the steroids too can cause a yeast infection or make Herpes or any viral infection worse *be aware of that* in case one has an undiagnosed herpes infection which happens far more than anyone would suspect....

That's why I'd always suggest gently massaging any meds in gently to perhaps a count of ten... You do not want to let 'any' medication just lay on the tissue as it could give a perfect breeding ground for yeast being dark, dank and moist which it loves. *sigh*....

HugsDee~

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