3 Sep 2012

I did a consultation for a woman who has a Christina piercing that is experiencing some trouble:

Christina PiercingI had a christina piercing done about 7-8 months ago. The piercing itself was pretty sharp, but afterwards I had no pain, and the next 2 weeks were painless and healing was going well. I noticed after having sex on night that my piercing was extremely sore and somewhat red and puffy. After this, despite cleaning and good after care, the piercing was not recovering. I had a bump (looked almost like an ingrown hair) develop on the skin between the two balls, and went to my piercer. He said it was a "friction blister" and drained puss/fluid and blood out of it. This hurt like hell, but alot of the tenderness and pressure I was having had been relieved. That was about a month ago, and I have not gotten the bump back but you can still see where the bump was at, and at times, it almost looks like another white head is starting to come to the surface, but it never does. Although I do not have the bump anymore, my piercing still becomes tender and builds up a feeling of pressure. When I slightly push the barbell upward by the bottom ball and GENTLY push on the area of skin on top of and surrounding the barbell, a small amount of fluid (I think it's puss but I am not 100% sure. Sometimes its very greyish white in color, other times it has more of a yellowish green tint to it)comes out of the top hole, always on the left backside of the ball/hole. After this TINY amount of fluid is released, the piercing feels much better for a few hours until the same pressure builds up and I drain it again. I end up releasing fluid from the piercing about 3-6 times a day, but when I say tiny amount, I mean tiny. The amount of fluid released is only about half the size of small rhinestone, but it's thick, not watery. Also, the skin covering the barbell inbetween the 2 balls is noticeably darker and redder than before being pierced, and the top ball seems rest pretty tightly on the top hole, and becomes crusted easily and constantly. The bottom ball and portion of the barbell never has any crusting or issues whatsoever. I am absolutly IN LOVE with this piercing, and I'm hoping I can get this resolved. The piercing is only very mildly tender when it hasn't been drained, or if bumped abruptly. I have several other piercings that all have healed fine with no issues. The only other time I had a problem was with a surface piercing on my tailbone, right at the start of my buttcrack. That piercing became very irritated, became embedded, and I'm certain was on its way to expelling itself. Any advice or thoughts on my troublesome christina piercing would be GREATLY appreciated! Thank you so much!

My reply:

Was that a straight bar that your piercer bent a bit? If so, I don't think it is terribly well suited to your anatomy or that type of surface piercing in general. The extra length on your bar can't be helpful at this point either.

Do you know if you are wearing high quality jewelry? It should be implant-certified material with a mirror finish, and it should be internally threaded. If not, I would say a jewelry change is necessary.

Have you considered trying a flexible inert plastic instead of metal? Many women find that to be much more comfortable and successful for healing. Some never find metal jewelry works in that area!

I'd suggest you try warm compresses. That will be a safer and more effective way to deal with drainage. 

Since it is a surface piercing, it takes a long time to heal (6-9 months or so) and can be prohibitive to frontal sex during that time--and even after healing. If it always gets irritated in that position, you will need to opt for a different one to get through your healing successfully. Trauma is not good for healing wounds….

For care and troubleshooting, I suggest the use of Briotech spray. I have had many clients with irritated piercings who found that this was the one thing that helped. 

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