Hot or Cold Compress for HS flares?
I am new to the HS world and trying to get my head around this new monster in my life. I am considered a "late in life" onset...at 46. So lucky me?! lol and ugh. :\
At any rate, as I am researching...trying to formulate a treatment plan with my Derm...etc. My first of many questions regards temperature of compresses. Really warm (almost hot) feels the best to me. But I am seeing some articles that are saying cold is best.
I know these compresses are not doing more than helping me feel better and/or impacting blood flow. My doxy is doing the heavy lifting right now. But, if one is more helpful than the other--or if one is making my flare longer--I want to stop that.
Any advice for this novice?
Thanks and I appreciate the presence of this forum while I get my head around this.
Hi
I'm so glad you found our community here and have reached out. Getting a new diagnosis can bring with it a lot of challenges and emotions, please know that we are here for you! I hope some of our community members here can share with you their experiences with hot/cold compresses. What I've been reading from our articles here are mostly about warm compresses, and my gut is telling me that if hot feels best to you then it makes sense to do what gives you relief. That being said, I'm not a dermatologist, so it definitely is worth asking your doctor about the pros/cons of hot and cold compresses for you specifically. I'm also linking my search results for "compress" from our site too (hopefully it's not too vague) which includes articles where our advocates and community members mention using compresses, https://hsdisease.com/search?s=compress. And finally (sorry for all the information, hopefully it's not too overloading), I want to share this "advice for the newly diagnosed" from one of our advocates, https://hsdisease.com/living/advice-diagnosed. Please reach out here any time. Sending you gentle hugs. -- Warmly, Christine (Team Member) me too! I’m 59 and was just diagnosed a year or so ago. I don’t think I have it as bad as some, based on the stories I’ve read, but I hate this! My lesions are mostly in my groin, under my breasts, and now along my waistline… I was widowed about 3 years ago and want to date again, but the scarring! Oh
, my heart goes out to you. Getting a new diagnosis can bring with it so many different challenges and emotions, and to add dating on top of that (which has it's own challenges and emotions - whew!) it is a lot to be managing! You are in good company here, I promise. Also, I'm sharing an article with you one of our advocates put together about dating with HS, https://hsdisease.com/living/dating-world. We also have this article we put together about starting new romantic relationships that I'm linking here. https://hsdisease.com/romantic-relationships. I hope some of those words can help you feel supported. We are here for you! Sending you gentle hugs. -- Warmly, Christine (Team Member)
