Your finger nails with LS

Correct, it is not old age it is a sign of maturity.

Hi Janet are you using a moisturiser as well as the steroid cream. I was diagnosed in February after suffering for 12 years. Soon as I started with the steroid cream things got much better now only use a tiny amount about every 10-12 days and if I feel itchy I use Hydromol ointment looks like goose fat but stops the itching, was using every day during the day but it was staining my trousers so try to keep to using it at night if needed. My bits aren't seizing up and I'm 70 so hope yours don't either.

Hi I've been using the steroid cream once a day for the last week as diagnosed by the doctor.  I have some petroleum jelly on hand  use soon but just doing what the doctor told me for now.  Can  use petroleum jelly in between steroid cream ? X

My clitorors seems be fusing there is hard skin around it and it is boxed in? 

Some people get LS more mildly than others and Holiday girl sounds lucky to me.  Well, none of is lucky of course,    but relatively so I mean.

 Mine started 12 years ago and I was very quickly having shrinking and fusing andintolerable  itching, and it wasn't long till I was given dermovate, thank goodness, for itch relief.

Even now I still have to use it twice a week. 

To answer Janet's question - can you stop or control it, I have read many ladies saying you can control it with steroid ointment and barriers and emu oil etc,  but personally mine seemed hell-bent on achieving its  goal of fusing whatever I did.

You can certainly control how it affects you though i.e. learn what is the best way for you to manage yours.

LS does not seem to follow the same pattern with everybody, so you need to try things out and see what suits you.

Click on "Related Information - lichen sclerosus" below left if you would like more information Janet.

Janet, that does sound like yet another version of LS. Mine really sped up around age 50/menopause. My labia fused right over my clitoris during my fifties. At age 62 I have these yellowish hard bits on the back wall of my vagina, which my gynae simply said were 'irreversible'. (She has 1000 LS patients.)

Certainly use the vaseline or other oily shortening-textured stuff between applications of the Dermovate. Just give it half an hour to soak in before slathering stuff on. We don't want the ultra-potent steroid ozzing onto perfectly healthy skin. LS skin is thick and needs thinning, but healthy skin doesn't.

I'm starting to conclude that the treatment doesn't actually stop the disfigurement of LS, but it does calm the inflammation and prevents festering wounds that could then progress to cancer. And it keeps us comfortable, which is no small thing.

Yes can use every day but put steroid cream on at night so gives a chance to work then in the morning use the petroleum jelly after washing your bits.

Morrell, I have no soreness, itching, or cuts or anything at the moment, but even so I am continuing to apply Clob once a week in the area where I have had some fusion this year, (the top part of my labia minora has fused to the top part of my labia majora) its difficult to explain, but at first glance you wouldnt notice anything wrong except when I look at my two inner labia carefully, the one on the right doesnt quite match the one on the left, they dont quite meet up together, the right side looks like it has shrunk away (back) about half an inch, and so basically i am applying the cream on top of the fused area..in the crease. My question is I have also applied the cream in exactly the same place on the left side of my Vjay, to be on the safe side....do you think that is wise?  I figured if it has fused on the right hand side it might fuse on the left, and remember I am only applying this once a week...but i am being very careful with lubrication, I am using coconut oil all the time and so I do feel that with this constant treatment and looking I should be okay...what are your thoughts....Also with this constant monitoring am i right in thinking that I should not get any further fusing.

Hi lots of people on this forum talk about Clob.  Is this a cream I should be asking for ? I am using steroid cream Dermovate but only diagnosed last week and need to clear up the.  Does Clob prevent fusion or is it doing more or less what my steriod cream is doing ? Also does the lubrication with oil etc stop the fusion ? I can't look at my bits and am relying on my husband and touch when putting cream on but think things around my clitoris are fusing !!! my only pleasure !!!

Hi Janet,

Dermovate is a brand name for clobetasol propionate .05%. There's a list of quite a few ultra-potent topical steroids prescribed for LS. We tend to call it clob for short. Dr. Goldstein says the ointment version of it penetrates deeper and fewer people have allergic reactions to some of the non-medicinal ingredients in the cream. My pharmacist was willing to sell me a new tube and change from generic clob cream to Dermovate brand ointment.

It has been said that years of estrogen cream may reverse some fusing, mostly in younger women. I can't use the stuff.

Clob keeps the inflammation at bay. It's inflamed raw flesh that wants to fuse with raw flesh next door. That's how I lost my clitoris, two raw labia stuck together and healed shut (before I was diagnosed, before I had any clob). When we are flared up and there's raw flesh, thick oily stuff prevents sticking, which comes before fusing.  I used to wash with soap furiously thinking that would stop the sticking. Just the opposite was true.

What clob doesn't seem to prevent in my case is the formation of hard scar tissue in sort of a ring inside the rim of my vagina, making it totally inelastic.

janet, buy a small magnified shaving mirror..you need to be able to keep an eye on this yourself.   I would read some of the older posts so you become more informed, this is not a condition you can forget about unfortunately.  I tend to have a look at my undercarriage every two or three days, it only takes a minute.  I got fusing because I didnt keep an eye on things, and I didnt use clob cream, and didnt lubricate, and so thats what happens.

Janet, make sure you read up on this condition a lot..the cream should help and stop you feeling itchy, also a little bottle of water with a pinch of bicarbonate of soda helps after urinating, just spray, it really does work, and stops you feeling sore afterwards from the urine.

I'm only 50 years young! 

Haven't noticed any nail ridges but for my 70th birthday party daughter persuaded me to have false nails which I did and never looked back have them in filled every 3 weeks and can do anything gardening cleaning etc and they always look perfect to go out no rushing to put on a bit of nail varnish and usually smudging within 5 minutes wish I had done it years ago they are such a morale booster make me forget all my other problems try it if you haven't already.

False nails at 70!.. Good for you...I'm an artist (painter) and so they would get messed up.  I can definitely see why you get a boost when you have them done ..I'm a bit that way with my hair lol

I'm with Holiday Girl, false nails are awesome.  I have gel nails which are brill and last so long.  The varnish is so long lasting and withstands all sorts of housework.  Expensive £15-£25 for about 3 weeks but so worth it when you consider I no longer drink much alcohol(diabetes); no longer eat much chocolate/sweets for same reason; I no longer smoke (angina); so my nails have become my treat.

Ridges on nails.  I always thought these were due to my arthritis which is what I was told by my Doctor years ago.  I also have developed brittle nails which are constantly splitting since I started using statins.  I am told this is a side effect of them.  Hence the gel nails (kinder to your real nails)  These can let your real nails grow underneath and the gel polish makes them stronger preventing the splitting. 

Chrisy, I have had oral lichen planus for years and I never had any problems with ridges on my nails, it was ony this year after being diagnosed with Lichen Schlerosus that my nails changed quite dramatically, and so I knew what had caused it, and then of course I looked online and that confirmed it.  It is a shame when you have to stop eating and drinking the things you enjoy, but long term I guess it makes sense!  

When you first had your nails done was it just tips then paint on the gel then after shaping painted or do you just have gel polish painted directly on your own nails. I had a split nail after shutting in a car door years ago but with the gel it never splits now and as you say these are my treat I don't smoke, drink very rarely so my treat which I think I deserve just like you .

Had tips done at first then when they grew out it was my own nails that got the treatment.  Can't get out at the moment to get them redone after my op and had to remove them.  I can't wait till I am mobile again.  Although with no washing up or anything my nails are much better condition on their own. 

When I had my broken ankle and was in bed most of the time my nails were lovely long and painted as didn't have much else to do but when back to normal they were back to normal as well just horrible 

I'm the same,  hubby bought some sensitive washing up liquid for me.  Giving that a try when he goes back to work. Making the most of being waited on at the moment.

Don't blame you my partner does the washing up even though we have a dishwasher he does it by hand so I'm not complaining.