Labia Minora Punch Biopsy Recovery
Posted , 14 users are following.
Unexpectedly had a Labia Minora punch biopsy Thursday afternoon & have been in tremendous pain. The doctor suspected Lichen Sclerosis & did gave me a shot right in the labia Minora which really hurt, then did the punch biopsy & cauterized w/ silver nitrate after. Sent me home w/an expired tube of Lidocaine which only last 30 minutes & the burning pain returns. The throbbing has ceased but now 2 days later, the one lip is swollen & hurts just to softly smear on the lidocaine. Was hoping to feel better by now.
2 likes, 21 replies
debi14820 cris33486
Posted
Cris, I think you should go back and show him the swollenness. I had a punch biopsy too, and nothing got swollen to my knowledge. Maybe you are allergic to silver nitrate. You could try Recticare for now. It's actually a hemorrhoid cream but it numbs the area completely. But frankly, I'd get an appointment right away and have it looked at.
Also you can try cool baths and ice packs. That really helps and will reduce the swelling. But be sure you get it looked at!
lav131988 cris33486
Posted
Hi.
I just had my biopsy. 5 days later its still swollen and noticed that there's a hard lump on the site where doctor done the punched biopsy. No stiches just the medication to stop the bleed. Does anyone of you have the same situation? I am worried that its a new lump or an old lump that I did not notice from before. 😭
dotti143 cris33486
Posted
sofie13185 cris33486
Posted
Hello,
I know this feed is quite old now but thought id give it a go opening this chat back up...
I had a biopsy on monday done for LS and the sight was cautarized. 5 days on the sight is grey and very swollen, very sore. How do I tell if this is the normal process of healing and its not getting infected?
Thank you
atrebas sofie13185
Posted
Please read my reply to "Who does a biopsy and when?" from a few weeks ago. Like the OP in the current thread, I was subjected to a "surprise" biopsy, i.e. a biopsy for which I was not prepared, nearly seven years ago. I'm male btw, and I can't help that this disease is so often spoken about as if it were a female-only problem, but it isn't. Anyway, I won't repeat here what I wrote in that earlier reply, but without wanting to alarm you, biopsy causes trauma. When these doctors biopsy tissue which is inflamed because of LS, they punch quite deep, because the disease presents at the interface between the dermis and the epidermis. So the biopsy won't resolve without scarring. Yet trauma itself is widely thought to trigger LS. And pre-existing, chronic inflammation, just as might exist during an LS flare, will interfere with the wound-healing response. So it's hardly surprising that biopsying a patient with LS, in the place where the disease is worst, causes a few problems—or more than "a few" in my case. The biopsy aggravates the disease, which will further slow the healing response, independently of infection. The wound might well take a long time to scar, in the best outcome. And it'll be painful during that time. Unfortunately the doctors' belief in the diagnostic value of biopsy is so strong that they often do it when it is not really clinically indicated, as some of their more experienced colleagues will acknowledge. But there are alternatives; visual inspection alone should usually suffice to identify LS, if done by someone with the requisite expertise (which is admittedly rare). Anyway, I really hope things settle down for you; this is just an awful condition and there is really no concerted research effort into its causes, just a load of scattered clues, and often brutal diagnostics. Still, you should go back to your doc if you think you have picked up an infection, which is yet another needless risk associated with biopsy, in my opinion. You might be given either an oral antibiotic or a topical anti-fungal (like clotrimazole as combined with betamethasone in lotriderm cream), or maybe both.