Pubic Lice Symptoms, Pubic Lice Causes and Treatment

Pubic lice infestation is a condition that can be passed through sexual contact. You can infect others through both unprotected and safe sexual practices. This is because the lice can move out quickly between people through skin-to-skin contact.

Online treatment is possible with Mobidoctor’s video consultations. You can have a doctor assess your condition and provide treatment and advice to manage pubic lice infestation successfully. Confidential, discreet, and convenient – our caring doctors are here to help you while upholding professionalism and your privacy.

Getting treatment is easy.

It’s easy to treat pubic lice infection. Your Mobidoctor physician can quickly and discreetly provide you medications and advice to rapidly heal your pubic lice and prevent a future reoccurrence.

Pubic lice are tiny wingless insects. They are parasites that usually infest human hair, including pubic hair. Pubic lice exclusively feed on human blood all their lives. Pubic lice are also known as crabs because of their physical appearance. They have rounder bodies compared to head lice’s leaner bodies.

Pubic lice are mostly found in the hairs in your genital area. However, they can also live in other areas of your body with coarse hair, including the face, stomach, chest, underarms, and legs. It is also possible for them to settle down on eyebrows and eyelashes.

These tiny parasites spread through close skin-to-skin contact, most notably during sexual contact. They can infect your sexual partner even if you use condoms, as they can move out from there and transfer to your partner’s skin.

Itching is the main symptom of pubic lice infestation. The itchiness is due to the lice bites and the body’s reaction towards it. Itching is often worse at night when the lice are awake.

It’s hard to tell if you have pubic lice just by visually looking at your pubic hair. It’s because of the lice’s tiny size. But some symptoms will alert you to the presence of a pubic lice infestation:

• Yellow, brown, grey, or red spots on your pubic hair
• Red or blue spots on pubic skin where the lice might have bitten you
• Irritated skin, the severity of which depends on how often and vigorous you scratch your skin
• Black powder left on your underwear

Additional skin problems could arise if pubic lice infestation is left untreated. Conjunctivitis is a significant problem if the lice infest your eyelashes or eyebrows.

Medicated shampoos, lotions, and creams are the usual treatment choice for removing pubic lice. Your doctor will prescribe the best one for you depending on the severity of your infestation.

Follow the instructions of your doctor regarding the application of these medicated treatments.

Treatment applications are usually repeated after three days. It’s because the eggs laid by pubic lice on the hair hatch after a few days. You need to kill off both the pubic lice and its eggs to become cleared entirely of the infestation.

Specialized medications may be prescribed if your lice infestation is in the eyebrows or eyelashes.

Note that you must abstain from sexual activity while getting treatment. Doing so prevents you from infecting others with pubic lice.

Your recent sexual partners need to be treated as well to ensure that they can be diagnosed and treated correctly. You may arrange for your doctor to contact them discreetly without revealing your identity.

Pubic lice can only be passed on via direct and close skin-to-skin contact. They can’t jump or fly, so they need to be in close contact with a person’s skin to effectively transfer to that person.

Condoms and most contraceptive forms do not cover your entire pubic area. Using these cannot stop pubic lice from moving from your pubic area to your partner’s. Other forms of intimate contact, such as hugging can also facilitate the transmission of the lice.

Sharing towels, bedding, and clothes may help transfer the lice to others as well. However, lice need human blood to live, so they cannot survive long enough in these places and there’s a slightly lower chance that they can successfully transfer to others through linen and clothing.