Pubic Lice
0 Treatments
4 FAQs
Pubic Lice or Crabs, are little insects that reside on your pubic hair, close to the genitalia. Through close contact, such as intercourse, you can contract genital crabs. Although they are curable and don't pose a severe health risk, crabs can cause acute itching. In order to eradicate the lice, specific shampoos or lotions are typically used in pubic lice treatments.
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Treatments (0)
Advice for Pubic Lice
Typically, 5 days after getting pubic lice, you start experiencing symptoms. Some people never have symptoms, or they believe that other factors are to blame for their problems (like a rash). Intense itching in your pubic area is the most typical sign of pubic lice. Your body's response to the crab bites is what causes the itching and irritation.
Symptoms of pubic lice include:
- You're itching a lot in the genital area.
- Little insects in your pubic hair. By peering attentively or using a magnifying lens, you can generally see pubic lice. The colour of pubic lice is brown or whitish-gray, and they resemble small crabs. When they are covered in blood, they get darker.
- Nits, or crab eggs, on the base of your pubic hairs. Since they are so little, nits can be challenging to see. They are oval-shaped, pearly, white, or yellow. Typically, nits form clusters.
- Pubic lice live in the dark or bluish areas on the skin. These blotches are the result of crab bites.
- Feverish, exhausted, or irritated.
Crabs are typically found in your pubic hair, close to your genitalia, which makes sex an ideal way to get them. Crabs, however, occasionally find their way into other coarse hair types, such as your eyelashes, eyebrows, chest hair, armpit hair, beard, or moustache. Pubic lice in the hair on top of your head are extremely uncommon.
You could still have pubic lice symptoms even if you can't see the lice. Consult your clinician for a diagnosis if you're unsure. To find the lice, your clinician can use a magnifying glass. The clinician will probably advise testing for sexually transmitted infections if you have pubic lice.
The most frequently advised course of therapy involves applying Permethrin containing topical creams or lotions such as Lyclear cream all over the body, from the neck to the tips of the toes.
Reminder: Avoid using Permethrin on your eyelashes. If your eyelashes are impacted, talk to your clinician about alternate therapies.
Guidelines for treating pubic lice
In order to treat pubic lice more successfully, you should:
- Carefully read and adhere to the medication's directions.
- When applying the cream, make sure your skin is cool, clean, and dry.
- Treat the entire body, including the anal region and the perineum (the skin between the vagina and the anus). The cream doesn't have to be applied to your head's hair.
- Repeat the treatment after one to two weeks because it is ineffective against unhatched eggs.
- Leave the cream on overnight and wash it off the next morning.
- Wash clothing, towels, and bedding while you are applying the treatment (hot machine washing and drying is sufficient).
- Avoid close personal contact until you and your sexual partners or contacts have received treatment.
The symptoms might not go away for a few days. One week following treatment, if your symptoms are still present, consult your clinician.
Avoid sexual contact, sharing of bedding or clothing, and other activities that could spread a pubic lice infection. Every sexual partner who is involved in your treatment for pubic lice must also receive it.
Pubic Lice FAQs (4)
No infections are carried by or transferred by pubic lice. Thus, you cannot become ill from them. However, they itch and are irritating. Scratching could lead to a bacterial illness. The skin can break when you scrape it. An infection can be brought on by bacteria entering the skin.
It's unlikely that sharing a toilet seat with someone who has crabs will cause you to contract them. The lice can't survive for very long outside of a human body. Moreover, their legs are incapable of gripping a flat surface like a toilet seat.
Every race and cultural group, all across the world, has a high prevalence of pubic lice. Adults are the ones who get pubic lice the most. In the US, 3 million people are infected with pubic lice each year.
If children share a bed with a person who has pubic lice, they may become infected. Pubic lice in a young child is frequently a symptom of sexual abuse.
