Painful boils in the groin (and now beginning to spread upwards)

[Balrog1978]

Hi all,
Out of sheer desparation I'm turning to you guys for any help/suggestions.
Ive been ravaged by painful boils that erupt ever week consistently for the past 5-6 years.
They are mostly erupting in the inner thigh region of my groin area.
They grow in size(sometimes to size of the small fingernail) and are ALWAYS extremely painful. (reddish/purple in color).
Eventually, I rupture them or they rupture themselves letting out a lot of pus and blood and leave a lot of scarring.

Recently, for the first time, these booils have appeared in the upper region of the groin (just below the stomach) and on the hips.

IF these symptoms are familiar to anyone - first and foremost: what is this condition? boils/carbuncles/folliculities/hiderentitis supparativa?
Secondly, whats the best course of treat ment I can take?
Thirdly, can anyone recommend any good dermatologist in theNYC area (I have HMO insurance) who I can show this to?

Please help!

[Can_U_Help]

Have you had these bumps cultured and tested for MRSA? I have very similar symptoms to Balrog's discription. Mine too has been going on for several years. I went to the doctor last week and had a bump on my lower leg cultured and it tested positive for MRSA. I don't know a whole lot about this or if the bumps in the groin area are also staph but I do know that I have very similar bumps to the ones you are describing and they do not always turn into the huge gapping and oozing sores like the one that tested positive for MRSA. My nephew had a small bump come up and beside his testicle and they cultured it. It came back staph but was negative for MRSA. You may have already been tested for this but if not it's worth checking. If you have it it is EXTREMELY hard to get out of your system but they say you can get rid of it, it just takes time and the length of time varies by patient. Please keep us posted. Since your symptoms sound identical to mine I would like to know if you are ever successfully diagnosed because it might give me something to go on if this turns out to be two entirely different things.
Good luck to all.

[xmaggiexx]

I've been going through the same thing for about 6 years or so now. Mine started out small and over the years have grown to the size of silver dollars. Very painful and very irritating. I have two at the moment one on each inner thigh and have been going over what to try and do to relieve them. I was perscribed Fusidic Acid cream back in Feb when I last had one. I've also tried other home remedies and one I found helps alot is TUMERIC. If you have a teaspoon in say...chocolate milk for example it's virtually tasteless. Also apply a HOT compress of tumeric with hot milk which has been dipped with a slice of bread and apply for 1/2 to an hour. This helps with the pain. Last resort when all else fails a hot water compress. VERY hot as hot as you can stand it. Just did that to mine and the swelling has gone down immensly. I've also applied the cream after and most likely will bandage them up overnight. Hopefully these tips help you some.I wish you luck in the future...

[RJ233]

I have been going through the same thing for over a year. I have been given some antibiotics at times (Keflex), but it has not stopped it. My primary doctor said to use perioxide and try to get it open to drain. I asked him to lance them, but he wouldn't. I just got over having it in both eyes on the lids.I went to my eye doctor for that. It started in one, got it about cleared.It went to the other eye, then back to the first one. My eye doctor gave me eye drops (antibiotics). I ended up with one cyst that I have to go to an eye surgeon soon. He will test the contents. Hopefullly, he will find what I need to take to clear it out of my system. In the beginning, I was told by the primary dr., it comes from ingrown hairs (on my body), but when it went across my first eye lid, they continuously spread and were in clusters, up and down. It came out the second time at the lash line completely across both eyes. My eye doctor told me they are caused by a bacterial infection.
My insurance company practioner told me my primary physcian should have taken a swab and blood and tested it. My eye doctor sent me to the surgeon and told me to tell him about it and he could put me on antibiotics for my whole body, not just the eye area.
You are right, they are very painful. Mine on my body were in the loin area, also, and I had one there while on my eyes. My sister is having the same problems in the loin area. If I find out anything, I'll post it.

[Balrog1978]

Some images of my condition..

http://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s352/Balrog1978/DSC01081.jpg
http://i511.photobucket.com/albums/s352/Balrog1978/DSC01083.jpg