News: How to use the corticosteroid cream/ointment

Posted , 13 users are following.

I'm listening to Dr. Andrew Goldstein's lecture on LS. He a preeminent expert. He's decribing tht LS skin is not thin but extra thick, because it's all scar tissue and hardly any skin cells. The white blood cells that cause inflammation are way down deep at the bottom of this thick tissue. So, he makes two major points I would like to have been tols, say, A YEAR AGO!

1. Soak it in warm water for twenty minutes first (bath night! I thought baths were bad, haven't had a single bath in a year) to soften the tissue

2. Rub, rub, rub, the cream/ointment in for about 90 seconds. That's a lot of rubbing!

2 likes, 49 replies

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  • Posted

    thanks so much for posting this..where is he a lecturer??
    • Posted

      It's on 'Lichen Sclerosus Treatment (all one word). There's a new thread from today about Dr. Goldstein's webinar. It's not a live webinar now, just audio and slides. Try putting what I wrote above plus dot org. I asked the moderator to post the actual link on that thread, but you should be able to get it. If not message me. Kellie sent me the link.
  • Posted

    He says forcefully that it takes this 'ultra-potent' steroid (8000 times more potent than hydrocortisone) to treat the incredible amount of inflammation way down deep in the 'basement' layer of this extremely thickened skin.

    And he says, stop worrying about thinning the skin. It's way too thick! That's one of the treatment strategies of clobetasol. We want the skin to get thinner.

  • Posted

    He says to use the ointment, not the cream, because the cream tends to stay near the top and not penetrate. Geez, I just refilled my prescription. I see my gynae in a week or so., Boy is she going to hear from me! (I may see if I can send her this video.)
  • Posted

    Dr. Goldstein has 1200 patients with lichen sclerosus, the most in the world.
  • Posted

    I am so glad I joined this forum and was able to watch that video.  He really needs to make sure Drs. around the world are informed better.  I was always told it was thinning of skin so of course using an ointment that further thins Im going to be scared to use it.  now Im going to start really paying attention to using it right and hopefully I wont get these horrible flares anymore. think its a good idea to still use other cream or vasaline on the days not using the Clob.  
  • Posted

    Wow.  Thanks for all of the great information.  Thickening makes sense--seems like other autoimmune skin problems like psoriasis are also caused also by too rapid cell turnover so that the skin actually thickens too quickly.  The one issue that I question is the scarring.  If the skin returns to normal (absent permanent anatomical changes like fusing) then this would argue again a scar which wouldn't recede with treatment.  Looking forward to learning more from Dr. Goldstein--glad you passed this along!  --Suzanne
    • Posted

      Suzanne, you're thinking is in line with mine. It all fell into place. He mentions at one point that thinning is actually part of the treatment strategy. So my interpretation is that if the ointment takes off some of the scar and the meds can then reach the inflammatory cells down deep, the cycle will be broken. I'm not expecting miracles. I'd be a candidate for both of the surgeries he shows, if I were twenty years younger and cared that much about sex. But there are only four surgeons in the US who even do those.
    • Posted

      Hi Morrell--Yes, I'd be hesitant to do such surgery too, but glad that it is an option.  It would be daunting though--ouch!  Overall, I'm not thrilled with this weird disease that we have.  --Suzanne
  • Posted

    I'm listening to the Dr. Goldstein's presentation and it is excellent!  Thank you so much for sharing this!  --Suzanne
  • Posted

    Thank you Morrell for forwarding this on, the more people that see it the better.
    • Posted

      Kellie, I don't even want to think about what my life would be today if you hadn't posted this. It's huge! I see it was on the Facebook group I joined, but I took it off my newsfeed, so I didn't get a notification.

      Thank you, thank you, thank you!

    • Posted

      Aww you are so welcome. Now we just have to make our doctors watch it too x

       

    • Posted

      I just had a big talk with my pharmacist. She wrote down the lecture site. She was so impressed and so amazed at the root of the problem, so simple: Gynaes don't know vulvar skin diseases and dermatologists don't aks anyone to take her panties off. So, we fall through the cracks.

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