The research revealed that 53% of survey respondents – all living with HS – said they had a strong fear of sex or intimacy. And those respondents were more likely than other respondents to say it’s difficult to find treatment options that work for their HS. They were also more likely to experience lower self-esteem due to their HS, feel like a burden when sharing about their HS with family and friends and to say people mistake their HS symptoms for poor hygiene.
A poster presentation of this research, titled “Fear of sex/intimacy, lower quality of life and treatment challenges among HS patients,” was presented at the 6th Annual Symposium on Hidradenitis Suppurativa Advances, which took place online Sept. 24-26. The research was authored by Health Union’s Rachel DiStefano, Amylyn Verrone, Cady Vishniac and Evan Krieg.
About Health Union
Health Union, with the recent acquisition of WEGO Health, maintains the largest team of experts, patient advocates and healthcare leaders dedicated to social health. The company encourages social interactions that evolve into valuable online health conversations, helping people with chronic conditions find the information, connection, and validation they seek. Health Union does this by creating condition-specific online communities – publishing original, daily content and continuously cultivating social conversation – to support, educate and connect millions of people with challenging, chronic health concerns. Health Union’s growing portfolio of condition-specific communities includes 36 online health communities, including LungCancer.net, ParkinsonsDisease.net, MultipleSclerosis.net and Migraine.com.