Healing Process
Can you heal BXO?
Western Medicine
There is no permanent cure for lichen sclerosus. However, treatment with a topical steroid usually controls the symptoms of itch and soreness, and often prevents the condition from getting worse.
This grim response implies LS/BXO is something you cannot reverse. The only concession it gives is that you won't have itching or soreness, as long as you keep using medication. For someone with an unsightly condition but no itching or discomfort, this prognosis doesn't offer any solace.
I've read some papers discussing trials with VLS (Vaginal Lichen Sclerosus) that say that, after several months of topical steroid use, the skin often returns to its normal texture and colour. This adds to the confusion, because it contradicts the above statement.
After years of online research into BXO, I'm still unclear what kind of prognosis is expected in western medicine. This is one of the reasons why I chose to focus on treatments I could administer myself at home.
Home Medicine
Using mostly natural, and some over-the-counter products, it's easily possible to achieve very good results when treating BXO. Simply removing the irritant (urine) is often enough to start reversing the symptoms. Other natural treatments will help accelerate the healing process.
Men have a huge advantage over women, when it comes to this disease, in that it's very easy for us to remove the irritant. If simply removing the irritant can promote recovery for us, you start to realise that we are in a different league from those who need prescription medication on an ongoing basis. In which case, our prognosis is uncharted territory.
I have been able to regain 100% of my full function, zero itch, zero pain, and about 85-90% of my natural look. I am continuing to invest effort into moving through that final 10-15%, and hope to look entirely normal again. Doctors call what I have 'scarring'. I just think I'm not fully healed yet. It still responds to treatments by peeling and shows improvement.
I believe it's reasonable to expect a full recovery from BXO. Some may argue that this isn't a recovery, but is simply remission. If you are fully functional, symptom-free and drug free, then I suppose you can call it whatever you like. In any case, the result is still the same.
The Process
Healing BXO requires that the white skin be shed, then the underlying skin heal back to normal. The skin does not heal evenly, so you end up with patches of skin at different stages.
If you take one thing from this site, let it be this point: healing from BXO takes time. The disease is slow to progress, and as such, slow to retreat. You need to trust that where there is peeling, you are on the way to healing.
Peeling
BXO skin heals through an unusual process. Skin damaged by sunburn usually peels off in one layer, leaving behind a slightly sensitive but otherwise normal layer of skin. BXO peels off in small fragments, requires multiple layers, and cannot be forced. When seeing edges of skin, it can be tempting to peel these off manually, but don't be fooled. This is an almost certain path toward injury and a hightened risk of infection - neither of which you need at any stage, let alone when you have your hands full dealing with BXO.
White skin is BXO skin. When healing, it peels away at the edges. You can observe this by looking under a magnifying glass while the skin is bone dry or by coating the skin in talcum powder. However, sometimes the peeling is too small to observe easily even under magnification. You may see very minute fragments of skin sticking up beyond the surface, or perhaps if you gently move your finger against the surface of skin after a day, you might notice some dead cells being lifted. Rest assured, any peeling you see is a sign that you are making progress.
Healing Stages
1. When you first discover BXO skin on your genital area, it will likely be white and inelastic. It may have also formed plaques, which protrude from the surface. At the top of the image above you will see an example of this. Because of its inelasticity, it lacks the cracked or ridged appearance that most healthy skin has. If you have a well-developed case of BXO, you will also find that the skin has contracted somewhat. The most common manner in which this is observied is as a phimotic ring, that can prevent retraction of the foreskin.
2. Once the skin starts to peel off, the white skin will give way to skin of a more pink hue. Look at the edges of the 'V' shape for a good example of this. Pink skin will also take on more of a normal 'cracked' texture. If your skin had contracted, you will find that as the skin turns pink, it starts to revert back to its normal size. Note how the ridges are 'creeping' up from the brown skin onto the pink skin.
3. Eventually, the pink skin will heal back to your regular skin colour. Recovered skin looks somewhat like the skin at the very bottom of the image. However, you may find that it heals slightly darker than it was originally. This colour may balance out over time.
Western Medicine
There is no permanent cure for lichen sclerosus. However, treatment with a topical steroid usually controls the symptoms of itch and soreness, and often prevents the condition from getting worse.
This grim response implies LS/BXO is something you cannot reverse. The only concession it gives is that you won't have itching or soreness, as long as you keep using medication. For someone with an unsightly condition but no itching or discomfort, this prognosis doesn't offer any solace.
I've read some papers discussing trials with VLS (Vaginal Lichen Sclerosus) that say that, after several months of topical steroid use, the skin often returns to its normal texture and colour. This adds to the confusion, because it contradicts the above statement.
After years of online research into BXO, I'm still unclear what kind of prognosis is expected in western medicine. This is one of the reasons why I chose to focus on treatments I could administer myself at home.
Home Medicine
Using mostly natural, and some over-the-counter products, it's easily possible to achieve very good results when treating BXO. Simply removing the irritant (urine) is often enough to start reversing the symptoms. Other natural treatments will help accelerate the healing process.
I have been able to regain 100% of my full function, zero itch, zero pain, and about 85-90% of my natural look. I am continuing to invest effort into moving through that final 10-15%, and hope to look entirely normal again. Doctors call what I have 'scarring'. I just think I'm not fully healed yet. It still responds to treatments by peeling and shows improvement.
I believe it's reasonable to expect a full recovery from BXO. Some may argue that this isn't a recovery, but is simply remission. If you are fully functional, symptom-free and drug free, then I suppose you can call it whatever you like. In any case, the result is still the same.
The Process
Healing BXO requires that the white skin be shed, then the underlying skin heal back to normal. The skin does not heal evenly, so you end up with patches of skin at different stages.
If you take one thing from this site, let it be this point: healing from BXO takes time. The disease is slow to progress, and as such, slow to retreat. You need to trust that where there is peeling, you are on the way to healing.
Peeling
BXO skin heals through an unusual process. Skin damaged by sunburn usually peels off in one layer, leaving behind a slightly sensitive but otherwise normal layer of skin. BXO peels off in small fragments, requires multiple layers, and cannot be forced. When seeing edges of skin, it can be tempting to peel these off manually, but don't be fooled. This is an almost certain path toward injury and a hightened risk of infection - neither of which you need at any stage, let alone when you have your hands full dealing with BXO.
White skin is BXO skin. When healing, it peels away at the edges. You can observe this by looking under a magnifying glass while the skin is bone dry or by coating the skin in talcum powder. However, sometimes the peeling is too small to observe easily even under magnification. You may see very minute fragments of skin sticking up beyond the surface, or perhaps if you gently move your finger against the surface of skin after a day, you might notice some dead cells being lifted. Rest assured, any peeling you see is a sign that you are making progress.
Healing Stages
2. Once the skin starts to peel off, the white skin will give way to skin of a more pink hue. Look at the edges of the 'V' shape for a good example of this. Pink skin will also take on more of a normal 'cracked' texture. If your skin had contracted, you will find that as the skin turns pink, it starts to revert back to its normal size. Note how the ridges are 'creeping' up from the brown skin onto the pink skin.
3. Eventually, the pink skin will heal back to your regular skin colour. Recovered skin looks somewhat like the skin at the very bottom of the image. However, you may find that it heals slightly darker than it was originally. This colour may balance out over time.