Katie Hester
I am a 40 yr old woman who has had this disorder for almost 20 yrs now. I have had 2 surgeries under 1 arm and 1 under the other to remove the affected areas. This left me with alot of scar tissue and due to this, I cannot shave in these areas or use any form of deodorant or other products. The alternative was to have a final surgery to remove all sweat glands and hair follicles under both arms and use skin grafts from leg area to cover the surgical site. Very painful and debilitating alternative, so I opted to just deal with the problem as it occurred and to forgo the surgery as the previous 2 were not enough to keep it under control. I have found that I have breakouts more often due to stress and hormonal changes (menstrual and latest was after my daughter was born a little over 1 yr ago) When I quit my previous job (very stressful) approx 8 yrs ago and moved to a quiet area instead of the city, my breakouts actually ceased for many years and I only had rare episodes until I was under undue stress or hormone changes. I found that there is no real cure, and if other areas of your body are subject to breakouts also (groin, breast area) surgery under the axillary area of arms will not take it away fully. I read on internet site that some people were having luck with Antibacterial soap like Lever 2000-antibacterial soap and I gave it a try recently after several months of continual episodes and it worked!! My areas are almost all healed and the breakouts have stopped at least for now! Have your sister make sure that she really needs surgery before she jumps into anything as I have talked to others who have done the radical procedure as was offered to me, and it didn't take the problem away completely. Apparantly antiobiotic treatment can also be helpfull if you have a severe breakout that is causing infection. I tried this before I had the previous surgeries, but didn't feel like long term antibiotic use was right for me either. I wish your sister luck with this and would advise looking up internet sites also for more information. It sure helped me realize that this is a more common problem than I ever thought. sorry this is so long, but if it helps another deal with this horrible problem, I will feel better. You are not alone in your suffering!!!!