My surgeon told me to stop waxing and shaving in that area, just to trim the hair. It helped some. I would suggest using a maxi pad. Not the kind with dry weave, but the cotton ones. The adhesive will stick to your clothes and not irritate your skin. I have even used maxi pads and panty liners under my arms. I have never gotten any near my belly button. But I have a friend that breaks out there if she wears her pants up that high or if they are to snug. And she said that she is allergic to some of the types of metals that the button/snap is made out of. She suggests putting clear nail polish on the part of the button that touches your skin. I hope some of this was helpful.

I too had cysts inside my bellybutton and formed some horrible tracts that were painful and oozy, yuck! Luckily I found a great plastic surgeon to remove my bellybutton and as much tract and scar tissue as possible, that was about 4 years ago and I have been free of cysts in that area every since! I used to get the huge bandaid type bandages and place them over my bellybutton to catch the drainage, and this helped tremendously! I also use maxi and mini pads in my groin area and they work wonderfully! My doctor even gave me some super long maxi pads that he typically gives women after childbirth, they do not have any sticky stuff on them (tape) they hooked with some type of garter, but I never used a garter, I would just lay them along my pubic mound/leg fold and catch the drainage when I had tehm in the crease of my leg, they are awesome! I went to walmart and bought some maternity panties (more like bloomers!) that were extremely stretchy and soft and would wear them to hold the pads in place, I typically do NOT wear any underwear at all, not just because of the HS cysts and pain, but I am allergic to elastic and nearly all panties have elastic in the leg area, but these maternity panties did not! yay! I also do NOT shave, OR use any type of powder or deodorant. I do use the crystal for deodorant, and it works well for me. Just remember that whatever clogs your pores or sweat glands (deodorant, powder) will cause a flare up!

I have to put tape on the metal part of my button. Yesterday I bought some Silver in gel form and hoping it works. The itch is aweful and sometimes I forget and scratch until I look down and see blood everywhere. Ewwww. I do wear pads and panty lines but they don't seem to come up high enough nor span wide enough to catch the ones in the crease of my hips. Who sells cotton pads? I always get the dry weave. Thanks for responding!

Hi again. What I have found works the best for me are the OB post delivery pads the hospital gives you when you have a baby. They are cotton and do not have any tape on them OR Dri-weave covering, they are huge and span the entire length of my peri area from front to back with no problems. They also fit nicely in the crease of my leg and that helps! I purchase mine through my doctor from the hospital and get a great deal because they buy in bulk and can sell me some at a nice price. I did some internet searches for where you could get them and the cheapest thing I found was this http://www.emsstuff.com/ob-pads-ind-wrap-12-pkg.html?source=googleps

However if you desire to do a search I would highly reccomend doing a home child birth supply store search or an OB Pad search. I also had some luck with Belted Sanitary Napkin, but they were quite pricey and I do not know how often you would need to use them and if it is daily, that could cost you a pretty penny! However if you only use them sporadically for flare ups then I highly reccomend the Belted Sanitary Napkins, because most all of them are cotton and do NOT have that plastic like dri-weave crap that sticks to my cysts and hurts like hell when I take it off! If I find out anything else I will gladly post it here for you. Hope you are feeling well! :-)
Rebecca

Almost forgot! My neice is allergic to nickel and gets huge sores on her belly where her pants button touches her skin, we have eliminated this by putting nail polish (RED so you can SEE when it is wearing off and replace it ASAP) on the inside portion of the button that touches her skin. This has worked wonders for her, and I thought you might want to try this as well because it might be irritating that area if you have an allergy to nickel as well.

Ebonydiva06,
Kotex brand makes some pads that dont have any dry weave. Dry weave is plastic and will make you sweat more. There are a few more companies that have some pads that dont have dry weave. Just read the package closely and it will say if it has dry weave. After I gave birth I had a flare up in my panty area. I got rid of my regular brief undies and bought the boy shorts panties. Fruit of the loom were cut to short. It was like wearing daisy dukes. (wedgie's all day long!)I tried Just my size boy shorts and they have a longer leg to them. I think Hanes makes just my size. But I noticed it stopped me from getting them on my inner leg. And you dont get all the friction that you get with regular briefs.

RebeccaV,
I find it interesting that you said that you are allergic to elastic. Years ago when my HS had started making its self known I thought I was allergic to elastic. I had to start buying panties that had the fuzzy stuff on the inside of the waist of the panty. It helped me a lot. Back then the only place I could find panties like that were at Victorias Secret. About 6 yrs later I tried regular panties again and started getting bumps on my hips. It makes sense, elastic is rubber and it will make you sweat more.