Saddle Sores

[bluebug32]

The DH and I use Asmaster chamois cream. It has a pleasant tingle and seems to serve it's purpose. The one longish ride I skipped using it on this season was the one where I came home with two saddle sores. They also have free trial packets of the cream, which we stick in our jersey pockets to reapply during really long rides. I second the tea tree oil as a good treatment option. Also keeping the area as hair free as possible has proven beneficial.

[channlluv]

Okay, keeping the area hair-free...that's a good topic, too. How do you ladies manage? Razor? Laser? Some kind of depilatory cream?


Roxy

[OakLeaf]

Okay, keeping the area hair-free...that's a good topic, too. How do you ladies manage? Razor? Laser? Some kind of depilatory cream?


Roxy

I just trim it very short. Any time I actually try to remove the hair, I wind up with ingrown hairs and infected hair follicles.

Could be that's part of why I'm not much on swimming, either... my "natural" hair seems like it grows halfway down my thighs...

[bluebug32]

An electric razor

[Norse]

+1 on the electric razor. Every single time I have tried a non-electric razor I break out in bumps worse than any saddle sores.

[bluebug32]

Agreed. Anything other than an electric razor turns my skin into braille!

[Tri Girl]

Ok, so I have a really, really, really dumb question. I feel so much more comfortable asking you ladies than going to the quick clinic and dropping trouser to show a strange doctor.

I think I've developed a saddle sore. Been riding for 4 years and never had one. I also have never lubed up before rides, but certainly will now.
Like LPH said; it feels like an olive is trapped under my skin. It's not open, it's just big and sore. It's gotten bigger in the last couple days since it appeared. I've taken everyone's advice and have bought some prep H (hasn't worked so I'm off to buy acne cream today). Here's my really, really dumb question: can the saddle sore be on your lower labia (near the sit bones)? Soooo sorry if that's TMI. I just read a ton of stuff online and most sites indicated that saddle sores are on the buttocks or sit bones. Mine is not. It's close, but not.
Also- at what point do you go to the doctor, show him all your glory and get medical help? When it's been there and hurting for a week? Two?

Thanks for any help. I will try all the remedies listed here one at a time until I find relief or until I don't and break down and go to the doctor. It's not an open sore, so that's good I suppose.