Anyone ever had a sebaceous cyst?

Call Dr. Pimple Popper, that female doc on TLC who's always taking out cysts and popping blackheads on tv.

Do you mean a zit?

About 10 years ago, I had one on the back of my left shoulder blade. The dermatologist said don't do anything. A few months later, I was on vacation in 100+ degree heat, and my bra strap kept scraping against it. It ruptured and leaked. It's been gone ever since.

^^^ I’m glad I wasn’t there, but congratulations.

Yup on the back of my upper neck head. It flares up around every 10 years. Thanks for asking!

I wouldn't leave it once it 'ripens' to a certain point - sorry to be gross. Once it gets to a certain size and tenderness, it needs to go or like r3 it will rupture on its own and make a mess (stain your underclothes, shirt, etc). You'll feel better once its gone because all that infected stuff in it will be out of your dermis/skin.

I don't want to sound like a Flying Monkey but how selfish of you to presume upon our time and attention when there is another current thread about cancer of the tongue

Some, r6, but other older parts of the cyst may be more like gummi worm in texture. .

Don't be so anti-diversity r7! our sebaceous cyst support can co-exist with tongue cancer posts. It's not mutually exclusive you know, One Big Tent as they say. The Rainbow Coalition and all that.

Thanks so much, r8, I just involuntarily gagged.

I've had a few. The first was in an armpit. I wondered why I was feeling pain and then I noticed while taking a shower. POOF! gone. Big spray . Then some blood.

Another much smaller one under my earlobe. Hot compresses and POOF! Gone. Lots of discharge squirted on the bathroom mirror. The cleaning boy will wipe it away.

Another on my hips, where my belt holds up my pants. Hot water compress and POOF! Gone forever.

I've noticed some of the bodybuilders I fuck have a lot of them. I bust the easy ones and cleanse them with peroxide..

I know of a guy who charges 30$ an hour to suck the discharge and eat it. A bodybuilder told me about it.

It's all related to testosterone. The horniest guys have bacne, unless they are bodybuilders.

What the fuck causes them?

Insufficient washing.

A fuck buddy of mine had one on his lower back that was maybe 1" by .5" or so (as I usually fucked him doggie, I mentioned it to him once - just to make sure that it wasn't something that he needed to look into further from a health perspective). He said that it had been there for over a decade. Years of fucking and never a problem, but after one afternoon of sex, we were hanging out with a drink when he noticed a sticky dampness on the back of his shirt. Moral of the story, the cyst ruptured on its own for no known reason (I am pretty sure that we didn't "pop" during sex). The smell was terrible (it really reaked), there was a teeny tiny bit of blood (but mostly puss and fluid) and I applied some rubbing alcohol to the area and found a band-aid for him. Basically, he had little to no pain to speak of. I saw him a week later and you couldn't tell that the cyst was ever there. Another fuck buddy of mine has one on his elbow - this one is probably 2" or bigger. That said, his seems deeper inside his body if that makes sense. I think that they are pretty benign (although if I had a big one I would get it checked out just to make sure).

Not necessarily r13. It's a collection of skin cells and oils that gets caught under the skin and starts growing. The tendency to have these can be hereditary. I had a friend whose entire family used to get these often. Some people never get them.

They pop and they drain, but that doesn't mean they are necessarily gone. Sometimes, after popping and draining, the damned things fill back up. If you want it completely gone, a very small outpatient surgery can do it.

ingrown hairs?

The ones that I have seen on friends and acquaintances are usually a lot bigger than that R17. Ingrown hairs are much smaller and usually hurt. These cysts usually do not hurt at all from what I am told.

R12 You are describing boils not sebaceous cysts. You should start using Dr. Bronner's tea tree oil soap. You have a lot of bacteria on your skin.

Funny you should ask, OP. Years ago, a lump developed on the back of my thigh. It grew. It became annoying. It was a large sebaceous cyst, about the circumference of a half-dollar. It took a minor operation to extract it. I’ve never had another one, but I can still feel that thing explode and expire.

So glad we have a real specialist like r19.

i had an epidermoid inclusion cyst removed from my neck. The derm said i could leave it, but every time i would turn my head, the lump would protrude from my neck, so it was more for cosmetic purposes i got it removed. If the lump is kind of squishy and easily mobile under the skin, it most likely is okay. If it's hard and immobile, you should run to the doctor.

I wonder if mine has a tooth or eyeball. It’s at the base of my skull.

One in my armpit. It was big. It popped and I had to baby that motherfucker for a while to get all the crap out. Didn't have insurance at the time. It was like a really bad pimple. I got most of the crap out and (cover your eyes if you're squeamish) was even able to pull out the sac that all the gunk had been in. That's usually what refills if it's not removed. I only got part of it, though, I think because there's still a lump there and it might be getting bigger again. It was really, really gross.

I got tired of the pimple popping videos. I even got tired of the bot fly extraction videos.

Then I found the rat catching videos!

r22 those kind of cysts in the neck can be dangerous if they get too big as they can cut off circulation or affect the arteries/veins there. I knew someone who got these in their neck and always had to have them removed because of this.

Get some campho-phenique gel. Put it on a bandage before bed. It's break it up and cause it to pop.

Yes, I used to get them and I had a couple removed. Years later, they never returned but I have psoriasis. I had no idea these were related.

I had a sebaceous cyst on my back about the size of a pea. Went to a surgeon, who removed it in about 5 min using a local anesthetic. It was biopsied, came back benign. That was 2 years ago. Never had another one.

I once had a big one on my bum. My GP wasn't available to look at it so some scary surfer dude type doctor with a big nose and beady eyes and scraggly hair had to look at it.

So embarrassed about the really hard woody I had for this ugly hot guy.

As R19 points out, it sounds like several of you are describing boils/furuncles--an abscess--not the type of cyst OP is talking about. And to clarify, what many call a "sebaceous cyst" is actually, as R22 said, an epidermoid inclusion cyst, because they don't actually contain sebum. It's really just a mass of macerated skin cells within a sac under the skin. A true sebaceous cyst occurs with a condition called steatocystoma multiplex, which causes many cysts on the body called steatocystomas; they are actually filled with sebum, so could be called sebaceous cysts (but are not). It's possible for epidermoid cysts to become infected/inflamed, but generally they are just painless, kind of squishy, mobile, superficial lumps under the skin (they can go quite deep, but are generally superficial). I, personally, have removed several epidermoid cysts for patients on the lower body--I'm not cutting into anyone's face (go to a plastic surgeon)--though many insurances consider removal cosmetic and therefore won't pay for it; in which case I just bill for a regular office visit or figure out a creative diagnostic code that insurance will cover, though not everyone is as nice as me.

I never thought I'd find another mink man fan on the DL like R25!

There's a couple of people who do videos of shooting rats with air guns that I like. I love a dead rat!

Yes, get that thing removed. It’s a numbing shot and they cut it off. Maybe minute or two and it’s over.

I asked my dermatologist to remove one between my shoulder blades. He said if it didn't hurt, to leave it alone. So, I'd poke at the thing while watching TV to see if it had gotten any bigger. One day it just burst. I squeezed out as much of the white crud as I could. I can spot it in the mirror because of the lack of pigmentation. It's slowly filling back up.

Are you a gargoyle or a troll? Either way, you sound disgusting.

I knew a girl who popped a sebaceous cyst on her back. But then she died.

Tape a firecracker to the sebaceous cyst and have a friend or family member light it for you.

Generally speaking, only tacky people and nose pickers get sebaceous cysts.

Morning urine

Hi, dolls. Went and had that thing taken care of. Hurt like a bitch. Not sure if it was the needle or whatever they used for deadening but it fucking hurt. Drained and got antibiotics but have to go back for sac removal.

I knew you were waiting with bated breath :-)

Had a lipoma on my back. It ruptured on its own, and I went to the dermatologist to have the wound checked (they had already put me on antibiotics because it was enlarging). The doctor numbed the area and went in with surgical tweezers to remove the sac. If you don't, it will re-fill. I have a bit of scarring and a lot of pigmentation, which should go away over time.

Yep. Same place. Had it drained because it looked awful. A giant goiter looming back there.

It’s very sore. When does the pain stop?

I used to get them in my ears until I had them removed. Then I had two erupt on my face. I went on Acutane and never had another. Unfortunately, I have two scars on my face from the massive zits.

My guilty pleasure is that Dr Pimple Popper’s videos on YouTube

I had a huge cyst on my lower back. I kept putting off getting it checked. I was in my 20s and had better things to do. At work one day, I sat down in my chair and felt a huge sploosh, all wet and warm and sticky. The smell was horrific. I had to run home and change. It was August in Philly, so intensely hot and gross. I squeezed out more brownish yellow goop at home, dumped peroxide on it and slapped a big gauze bandage on as best I could.

I'm beginning to think of dermatologists as — barely — one step above a chiropractor (sorry R31, turn off your offense-o-meter). Echoing those posts in which patient goes to dermatologist pointing to something that is bothering them and being told to just leave it alone, I had a wart pop up on my arm and it grew to the point it was casting a shadow, and since I had a pending appointment with a new doctor, I let it be until I saw the doc. I point at it and tell him I want it removed, and he's like "oh, buy some amlactin lotion and scrub it with a loofa" which I found unacceptable. Meanwhile, a mole I've had on my abdomen literally my entire life was of great concern to him. I say, "I've had that since I was a baby. It hasn't changed in appearance. Why are you concerned?" and he replies "It looks bad! We must remove it!" I reply, "okay, and while we're at it, let's remove this wart" and he replies "I'll have to bill you for a cosmetic procedure which your insurance won't cover."

Did I mention that the walls of the exam room, the waiting room, and almost every other flat surface was covered with ads for plastic surgery?

So, I ask if my insurance is covering the removal of the mole that isn't a problem, which of course it does. At that point, I declined any procedure, which really set him off. "You're denying care?" he asks with a tone of alarm in his voice.

"Yes. This appointment has been a waste of time and money." He wants me to sign a form that acknowledges I've declined care for the lifelong mole and which expulcates him from any and all responsibility, which I refuse to sign and say "if you're not going to perform the removal of a wart, which is bothering me, and as requested, and instead subject me to a procedure that I don't find necessary, I'm not going to sign anything. I say again, this appointment has been a waste of time and money." He gets huffy and says our appointment is finished then. Indeed, it was.

I found another dermatologist, pointed to the wart, and he said "no problem, and I'll submit it as a cancer screening so your insurance will cover it" and about five minutes later it's gone. I also pointed at the mole on my abdomen, said I've had this since I was a baby, but the last dermatologist I saw thought it was a problem and wanted to remove it. What do you think?" and he looked at it, felt it, and asked "you've always had this?"

Me: "Yes."

Him: "Have you noticed any changes to the shape or color?"

Me: "No."

He snaps a photo of it with the little pen-like camera attached to his computer, which pops up on the monitor: "Then I'll note it, and we'll revisit it on your next yearly appointment. If it changes, bothers you, or you want it removed in the interim, let me know."

Me: "Ok."

---two years elapse---

Dr. Wart Remover: "Let's check that mole on your abdomen. Any changes?"

Me, undressing: "Yes. It itched when I was i the shower a couple of months ago, I barely brushed my abdomen with a washcloth, and it came off completely. No blood, no remaining mark or blemish... like it just was pasted on. It freaked me out. It was like losing an old friend" I said, smiling.

Him: "Sometimes breaking up is easier than you expect."