Pilonidal cyst during pregnancy... ouchhhh!! Anyone had this?

[marigold91]

Holy crap, this hurts!!!

I was diagnosed with an infected pilonidal cyst this morning. It's super embarrassing, because basically it's a small cyst at the bottom of my tailbone (aka the very top of my buttcrack!!). It is soooo painful. They said they are going to give me antibiotics to try to get it to go away before considering the surgical removal, but they said the antibiotics that are most effective at treating this are not safe during pregnancy. So they are going to give me a different antibiotic that IS safe, but they're not confident that it will help the cyst

Has anyone else gone through this, especially while preggo? Would love to hear your experiences! It's so embarrassing, but then again, there is no shame or modesty in pregnancy anyway so I guess I'm getting used to it! Lol

 

[minties]

Yes, I had one for years. It wasn't infected till this year though, it was just this huge lump on my tail bone. A doctor said it was just a lump of fatty tissue for all these years (about 7). It would get really sore every now and then and I couldn't sit, then grow a bit bigger.

Then this year it got infected and exploded...yup...pus went everywhere!

I don't know what you can do while pregnant but antibiotics did nothing at all to help mine or to help after it popped. I had it surgically removed, which wasn't fun either. It took a good 10 weeks to heal over, but I'm happy to say that I feel great now.

So sorry you have this, it's truly horrible!

 

[heychrissie]

I've had it burst on me twice so far...😌 The first time it got immensely painful and huge, the second time I used a butt load (haha) of tea tree oil on it and a heated wheat pack and it went much quicker and was less painful than the first time. Both times it burst I had been using heat packs and it didn't hurt either time it went - just really bad beforehand. Give it a go as well as antibiotics - so far in pregnancy they make me vomit so I've been avoiding them.
I was also using some baby castor oil cream the second time but I think the tea tree oil brought it out the most. It sucks! Good luck x

 

[marigold91]

Thank you both for sharing!! I really hope it goes away soon... I read on some other forum about someone using tea tree oil on it. Hmm... I might look into that more. I was under the impression that it bursting wasn't necessary and that the swelling/inflammation would go down on it's own once the infection passes. But now I'm wondering if it's just bound to burst sometime soon. Ugh, so gross!

 

[minties]

There are a few forums out there dedicated to these cysts, most don't get rid of them without surgery unfortunately. I had the worst sort of surgery apparently with the least chance of fixing it (closed excision), the most appropriate seems to be a cleft lift. They don't offer that where I live. Mine burst and did not heal at all for the few weeks before surgery, even with anti biotics, it continued to leak pus and hurt a lot.

Mine was about 3 inches long on the outside of my body and went another couple of inches inwards.

 

[marigold91]

Oh man, yours sounds painful too. I started the antibiotics tonight so we'll see... I'm not very optimistic, though. I just really need this thing healed and gone before I go into labor. I can only imagine how painful that would be! Even if I had an epidural, once the epidural wore off, i'm sure it would be hell on earth after sitting directly on it pushing a baby out for hours!

 

[heychrissie]

Yes, the tea tree oil approach won't help it permanently - I have heard only surgery may help and I'll be looking into that after pregnancy as mine's been recurring for years - I had mine surgically drained a couple of years ago but it's still recurring. Hope this doesn't happen for you, but I really hope you don't have it through labour - and that it shrinks on its own! I have in the past had antibiotics that have gotten rid of the infection so yours may not burst! Apparently something to do with the immune system dip in pregnancy makes you more susceptible to them x

ETA: sorry for the lack of coherency, well past my bed time - if the antibiotics don't help give the tea tree a go if you feel comfortable to.

 

[Jaxvipe]

I had one when I was 19, Im so sorry you are going through this! The first time I went to the emergency room and the kind of cleaned it out for me but it came back 2 months later. I then went to a specialist and he cauterized it open so it was able to drain and not be painful until I had the surgery to remove it.

I will say the surgery recovery is no fun at all and takes a very long time to heal but it's been 10 years and it has not returned. Good luck and I hope you can get some relief!