HS is not contagious to my knowledge, in all the research I've read it is not. My mother handles my wounds weekly and she never wears gloves and she's never had a problem. That is really weird. Please let me know what the HS doctor says when you go.

No, HS isn't contageous..however it is possible to develop an infection that can present with cysts that look remarkably like our HS cysts. He should have a culture done of the drainage and I would bet money that they find an infection.. maybe even a systemic infection. All it takes to get an infection from us is any type of opening in the skin and poof, they can have a very serious infection that we would hardly notice because our bodies have dealt with this type of thing for so many years. Good luck with the doctor, I hope he can offer you more sound advice and a culture of your hubby's drainage as well.

from the research ive done also, i havent seen that it is in any way contagious. its just one very weird coincidence. ill keep you all informed, but like you said rebecca, it may just be a form of infection.

if it were contagious i would have it :)
i had 3 babies with my ex hubby and we were not shy!!!
the closest contact you can get never gave me hs. i had bad acne several times due to stress durning my marriage so there was entry points for infection (too graphic?sorry).
i stopped smoking 40 cigs a day shortly before leaving my ex-hub and life was so much improved after leaving that my stress levels plummeted to nearly zero and my acne cleared up.
i never thought the acne was related to his hs, i always thought it stress related. i have no acne and no hs.
i am on hs sites due to concern for my children as one seems to be showing early hs signs. i am hoping the information here will keep hs at bay.
i have worried about infection due to the leakage on his clothes, he is not hygiene aware and leaves his towels in the bathroom.
when visiting i have asked the children to use the towels i give them.
he leaves his dirty clothes in the bathroom and i have seen the children pick them up to get to a towel to dry their hands. yes, a towel that he has used everywhere.
if hs were contagious believe me my children would have it.
i do not visit his house anymore and have to trust the children are using only the towels i give them.
seriously he is a one man infection control experiment..........i would be interested to know what your doc says on this matter.
wishing you both well.

oh dear, the,' i promise to be nice comment,' is glaring at me i could swear soooo much..............

IMPORTANT PLEASE READ:

i know all the research says its not contagous but it is...thats how it gets from one pore to another by spreading the infection...on clothes bed sheets and towels..(and for some of us you can actually see where an infection spreads from your armpits straight down your side for no reason expect maybe the infection spread while i/we where in the shower)..i have unwillingly given a few friends abcessess that they had NEVER had and not known what they where and then when im not around them or we brake up they dont get them anymore...infact since i figured out it is contagous i have cut down alot of my infections!!! by constantly washing with antibacterial soaps---NEVER a DEODORANT soap!!! very important!!!**** and constantly changing sheets and yes throwing away infected shirts.....even my favs.!! and bras forget about it!! as soon as they get funky dont even wash them just throw them away...i know it sounds like a waste but it has helped me out tremendously....im sorry guys...it is contagous...thats how little research has been done on this disease...we really need some help.!!

o yeah and there is a difference between people who get abscesses and us who get HS....HS is a recurrant for people who are suseptable to this specific disease....and some people never get it --not even one--like they are immune, and some people get them once in a while but it never gets serious or bad . just something i learned....thats why people like us.....get it so bad....cuz we have the suseptable skin type....research really needs to be done....i will sign any petition!!!

I sincerely disagree with you. It is most definately not contagious. I have been married to my husband for over 12 years and he has never developed even one cyst and we too have at least tried every position in the book!.. I also breast fed my children.. surely that would have given them ALL HS if it were contagious. I have more than 50 cysts and scars on EACH breast, as well as between my breasts.. there was no way to prohibit contact with them while breast feeding, and more often than not they were continuously draining...although I did wash frequently and use antibacterial soap.. and was careful to wash the baby afterward.
I have had HS for 28 years, and Lord knows I have had more than 2 sexual partners.. while single and between my ex husband and current husband none of which developed HS. I also shared a bed with my sister all my growing years until my first marriage..she is 30 years old now and has NEVER developed HS.
The infection we sometimes get and OR carry IS contageous.. but not the HS itself. Nope.. no way I would ever believe that it is.. too many people from my past would also have it if it were, and I am the only one in my immediate family with HS and other than a 2nd cousin I am the only person in this rural area that I know with HS... no others.

You are entitled to your own opinion! I have learned over the many years I have had to deal with this is that there are three types of people in this world...like I previously stated their is the person who never gets one no matter what. Then their are people who get them occasionally,perhaps by running acrsoss people like us. Who carry the infection. Then their are us who chronicalyy get them becouse we keep giving it back to ourselves.. Please understand I can only speak from experience as can ypu...but I KNOW for a fact that I have given them to others! And infection is infection....it is contagious...but believe what you want. Don't change your habbits and see what happens....I'm just telling you what I have learned! And believe me I have had lots of time to do my OWN bodily testing and research of my own life. If no one has got it from u thank ur lucky starts! I wouldn't wish this on anyone!

O yeah to add to that I have given it to children by sharing lotion bottles....but it is typically realted to puberty, and stress, and over weight issues....believe me I could say a whole lot more as well on this but I'm just tryin to make others aware people like who who are diagnosed with HS we are the third type of person....everytime our skin has an open follicle AND comes accross the infection we get more infections that's becouse we have an incurable disease.....lucky for your family they don't....well at least not yet...u may not know about your kids untill later in life...good luck! And some infections are bacterial they say and some are viral...I guess it depends on wich abcesses u guys keep getting....anymore there is so much to learn....I am willing to disscuss every embarrassing detail...and guess what I have been intimate with many people as well and some have gotten from me and some never knew I had it!

And I definetly believe the boils are contagous not the HS there is a difference....that's why I think there are three types of people.....we need more research done I am more than willing to be a ginnuea pig!!

By the research I have done. H/S It is infective folilcle with staff and turns into a boil can be all types at this point because we all carry staff in our bodies . You do half to change alot in your life I agree with sufferins. I have washed my towels threw away my own garments. Bleach constanly and have done this everyday sense 2007 what a chore but also what a relief I refuse to see my 10 yr daughter go through this Hell I know for a fact by documentation that it was by living with my mothernlaw who gave us a staff infection doctors ruled it to be mrsa. Then Hidranitis she was told she had. She had so much infection that they removed partial of her groin area. And we just found out tonight that her daughter has Mrsa in her brain, She had a brain operation and a boil got in the wound now she is fighting for hr life. This is a skin infectious disease that we must learn to take to preventive care so we do not half to get it in the first place. My mother law has all documentation and She started 38 yrs tomorrow My husbands birthday with a staff in fection she got from the nurse at the hospital when she was in her delivery of my husband. and it just has ate her alive sense . . Staff is treated with a bactin cream tha t goes in your nose and your nails. It keeps the infection from spreading and I know no one can tell me diffrent that all of this is related it is a staff infection that gets in the folicles causes the boils and then goes through the science channels. Its a tragedy. And we are so wore out from fighting it. That it becomes a vicious cyle and tears our immune systems down and the invaders come in. Any way I prayed over this disease today. I know God is healing my wounds. I am fighting the good fight. ANd please if you don't believe its not contagious. Set your kids in your bath water and watch how they to began to get skin infections. It is our resposabilty to do all we can to take precautions to everyone in our lives and ourselves. By changing our diets Why we must change our eating habits is to build our immune system back. Do you know what Antibiotic means.{ Take Life} It takes our bad bacteria but it also takes our good bacteria sometimes we have no choice it may be our last hope. But by my research everyone is becoming Resistant to antibiotics and yes that is the definition for Auto immune. Katie couric did a special on feb10 about how our meats pigs, cows chickens are being pumped with antibiotics for growth and profit and in the process allowing the antibiotics unable to fight for us. THey are supposly trying to regulate the use with farmers I believe that will be a long shot. We are killing our selves by accepting or not being aware of whats going into our foods. You can actualy buy non antibiotic meats now. YOu just half to look for the label. I'm new to this but i'm willing to try anything for preventive care. I also go to a chiropractor at least twice a month to inline my body correctly so that i can fight the good fight. It works for me.
.by useing new research By staying on this forum. By accepting other opions good are bad. We are all doing our part. For me its a great debate and in the end we are all the winners. Our bodies wil heal naturally and we can change our blue print through some miner changes to live our lives the best of our abllity. I pray for all of you and i will Utube my results soon. I have on video my results my friends results and now my motherlaw. And we together through the grace of God will find a cure. And i do agree on one other point. Some peaple just have a damn good immune system and can fight those invaders off. I will have a good one soon.

I completely agree that the infection is contagious.. but the HS is not.. its genetic. If this were contagious there would be no need for more research on this.. everyone on the planet would be infected and doctors and scientists would have long ago scrambled to find treatment and a cure. There are hundreds of thousands of us with HS in the USA alone and if each of us slept with only one person and that one person slept with another and so on, the whole world would have HS. I believe we can pass the infection, but the full blown HS? Nope. Not possible. While you might have given it to your children, that would have happened at conception because HS is genetic.
People who are stage one HS often have only an occasional flare up and some might even have one or a few and never have any ever again.. but while it is in remission they are still considered HS sufferers and can pass it on to their offspring.
Also we don't know why some people go into remission or stay a stage 1 or 2 while others essentially fly from stage one to stage 3 at lighning speed and have their entire lives totally disrupted by HS. Oh sure there are ideas that it has to do with weight, or smoking etc.. but these are merely a hypothesis on the doctors part, they have no clue why truthfully. And when you see a 120 lb grown woman who doesnt smoke have stage 3 HS, it really makes you go wtf? That can't be right! She HAS to be a fat smoker to have HS! Makes me believe they are just guessing! LOL!
Also I don't understand what you mean by "we keep giving it back to ourselves". I have never been rid of HS to give it back to myself, so I don't understand what you mean by this. I always have at least 10 areas either starting their build up to a flare, or in a flare, draining or healing.. never any day without at least one of those going on and usually all of them at once, lol. HS is "spread" through sinus tracs.. or "tunneling" to surrounding areas.. although you do not have to have tunneling to develop HS in another completely different area, such as having it regularly in the arm pit then developing it in the groin.. surely there aren't any tunnels connecting those sites.. but they do often connect several cysts together in one area.
We DO need more research on HS and hopefully someone will step up and take on our cause.

That IS weird! My husband doesn't wear gloves either when he dresses my Groin in the morning, sometimes at night...I hate to think that he would get it too! He's got enough problems, and I would feel guilty! I truly hope this condition isn't contagious and that your husband just happens to be affected as well. How horrible for both of you.

HS is not contagious- how do u explain the sterile lesions? I read somewhere that (I think it was) 80% of HS lesions are sterile.

HS in me is triggered by a few different things. Everyone is different. Mine is caffine and stress. My sweating condition- Hyperhydrosis also sparks my HS.

My husband got an absess in his armpit about year ago. He didn't get anymore. It went away in about a week. At the time we were really stressed together(personal and family issues). Sometimes we feel so much stress and then the people closest to us feel our stress and literally start to sweat! So extra sweat could = clogged pores and a cyst in a sweat gland.

Maybe your husband feels your stress (problems u share with him and what he sees u go thru with the fam) in addition to his own (everything from family to children to work) and that is whats causing his cyst. I don't know for sure but it may also be he is using more of his vices (which can be a trigger): smoking or drinking or even more caffine and for some its weight gain- and this may be causing his cysts. Hope it gets better soon!

Hope you both find a way to destress! (I have found meditation to be the best way to destress)

I also completely disagree that its contagious. I have also breastfed 2 children with terrible HS under my breasts and I am also very intimate with my husband who has never had any skin problems at all. I have also had my ooze tested and its sterile as well so it is not infectious. I don't believe that making better lifestyle choices will stop you getting this disease. I have always showered twice a day, am within my healthy weight range, don't smoke and I have a very healthy immune system- I almost never get sick and I have had terrible flares that have healed and disappeared completely. I have also shared bath water with my children and husband and they have never had even a small infection. Maybe we can all agree that this disease affects us all so differently so what is a contributing factor or cause for one of us is not the same for another.