Why HS pain is unusually hard to describe
Pain is not a side effect of HS but one of its defining symptoms. The European treatment guideline names pain relief explicitly as one of the aims of treatment.
Yet in an appointment the question is often over in one sentence: “how bad is it, from 0 to 10?”. The answer is a number — and the number carries almost nothing of what made the appointment necessary.
“Pain 8/10, groin” can mean very different things: the throbbing pressure of a nodule that is inflaming; burning at an old, scarred area; sharp pain only when walking; an ache that stayed after the inflammation settled; tenderness that makes sitting impossible. Those descriptions are not clinically interchangeable.
European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, via PubMed Central
What the words do — and what they do not do
The clinical literature describes several kinds of pain in HS: pain arising from inflamed or damaged tissue, pain with a nerve-related component, and forms in which pain processing itself is altered. They can exist alongside one another, and the same person can have both acute pain in a flare and longer-standing pain between flares.
So it is worth naming your own words — “throbbing”, “burning”, “shooting”, “tender” — and equally important not to draw a conclusion from them yourself. A single word does not establish a kind of pain. That assessment belongs in an examination, not on a website and not in a form.
For exactly that reason this tool does nothing with them. It collects your words, sets them beside location, timing and impact, and hands them back unchanged.
PubMed, US National Library of Medicine American Academy of Dermatology
Why a number on its own is not enough
A 0–10 scale is useful for comparing one point in time with another. It says nothing about what the pain prevents — and in daily life that is often the decisive thing.
A 4 that makes sitting through a working day impossible can weigh more than a 6 that changes little. Newer instruments for measuring HS therefore record symptoms and their impact together rather than separately.
This website attaches no grading to your number. On your sheet it appears exactly as you chose it — with no “mild”, “moderate” or “severe”, because that would be a website passing judgement on your symptoms.
PubMed, US National Library of Medicine PubMed, US National Library of Medicine
Pain in a flare and pain between flares are two topics
“A new nodule hurts a lot for three days” and “the area hurts most days, even without visible inflammation” are different descriptions. If only the first is told, the second is missing from the appointment.
So this tool starts by asking which pain problem this is about, and lets you describe them one at a time instead of blending both into an average.
Whether a description is called “acute” or “chronic” is a clinical judgement. This tool does not make it: it records how long you said it has been going on, and leaves the interpretation to the consultation.
Flares & Pain
What to bring to the appointment
Three things are enough. First the pattern: when the pain happens and for how long. Second the impact: what it has made harder or impossible. Third your question: the one thing you want answered.
You do not need weeks of records for that. One concrete example often carries more weight in the conversation than a general statement: “I woke with pain on six of the last ten nights and struggle to get through the next working day.”
If you want to record the course over a longer period, use this site's symptom tracker. It answers the other question: how things have been over weeks. This tool answers what the pain is now.
Symptom trackerMy HS care teamPrepare a treatment consultation
Why no pain treatment is recommended here
The obvious expectation of a page about pain would be a list of things to take. This page deliberately does not have one.
What helps against pain in HS depends on how active the disease is, what kind of pain is involved, what other conditions exist and what medicines are already being taken. The evidence specific to pain treatment in HS is also limited: the European guideline highlights pain relief as an aim of treatment without being able to offer one simple scheme that fits everyone.
A website deriving a recommendation from that would be claiming something it cannot know. This page improves the part it actually can improve instead: the conversation in which that decision is made.
Treatment optionsWhen to get medical help
European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology, via PubMed Central PubMed, US National Library of Medicine
