Is Hidradenitis Suppurativa Contagious? No, Here Is Why

No. Hidradenitis suppurativa is not contagious. You cannot catch it from touching someone, hugging them, having sex with them, sharing a towel or swimming in the same pool, and you cannot give it to anyone else either. The FDA's patient page on HS says it plainly: HS is not contagious, and it is not the result of poor hygiene. I have lived with this condition since I was 17, and I know the one-line answer is not really what you are asking. You are asking because there is pus, because the lesions sit in intimate places, because it runs in some families, and because someone may have flinched when they saw your skin. So here is the whole answer, piece by piece.

Why is hidradenitis suppurativa not contagious?

Because it is not an infection. A 2024 comprehensive review describes HS as a chronic inflammatory skin condition that starts with the blockage of a hair follicle: the follicle clogs, its contents spill into the deeper skin, and the immune system responds with inflammation that can turn into the nodules, abscesses and tunnels people with HS know too well. There is no virus, bacterium or fungus that causes HS, which means there is nothing to pass from one person to another. A disease without a transmissible agent cannot be transmitted.

This is not a fringe opinion but the settled position of every major body that writes about the disease. The Hidradenitis Suppurativa Foundation lists "HS spreads from person to person" among the six most common myths about the condition, right next to the hygiene myth, and states that HS is not contagious and not related to poor hygiene.

Part of the confusion is baked into the name. "Hidradenitis" sounds like an infected gland, and for more than a century doctors did believe the disease came from the sweat glands, a story I tell in my book. Today the follicle, not the gland, is considered the starting point. If you want the fuller picture of what this disease actually is, I wrote a plain-language guide in what is hidradenitis suppurativa.

If it is not an infection, why is there pus?

This is where most of the doubt comes from, and it deserves an honest answer rather than a dismissal. Pus looks infectious. But the pus in an HS lesion is mostly the debris of an immune battle: immune cells, broken-down tissue and fluid produced by inflammation, not by an invading germ. Bacteria do show up in HS lesions, but as residents of an environment the disease created, not as its cause. The American Academy of Dermatology describes bacteria breeding inside the clogged follicle after the blockage has happened, and does not list any microbe among the causes of HS. The same 2024 review notes that antibiotics are thought to help HS mainly through their anti-inflammatory properties rather than by killing bacteria, which tells you a lot about what is actually driving the disease.

One honest caveat, because I would rather you hear it from me than wonder about it. An open, draining wound of any kind, HS or not, can host ordinary skin bacteria such as staph, and those bacteria, unlike HS, can move between people. The CDC notes that staph infections like MRSA spread through contact with infected wounds or with items that have touched infected skin. That is a fact about wounds in general, not about HS, and the response is ordinary wound care, not isolation: in my worst years, after surgery on several of my abscesses, I lived with packed wounds that were redressed every day, and clean dressings, clean towels and clean clothes around anything open were simply the rule of the house. Nobody around me was ever in danger of catching HS, because that is impossible. The dressing routine was about protecting my own healing skin, and it is just as true for a scraped knee.

Can you pass HS to a partner during sex?

No. HS is not a sexually transmitted infection and cannot become one, because there is no infectious agent to transmit. The reason this fear is so common is location: HS has a cruel preference for the groin, the genital area, the buttocks and the inner thighs, exactly the places that make people think of STDs. The confusion is so predictable that the HS Foundation notes HS is sometimes misdiagnosed as a sexually transmitted disease. Misdiagnosed, not reclassified: a knowledgeable dermatologist can tell them apart.

What this means in practice is simple. Your partner cannot catch HS from your skin, during sex or at any other moment, and you did not catch it from anyone. If the harder conversation is how to bring HS up with someone new, or how to stay intimate during a flare, I wrote about both sides of that in dating with hidradenitis suppurativa.

Why does HS run in families if nobody catches it?

Because inheritance is not transmission. A family cluster looks suspicious until you remember that families share genes, not just bathrooms. According to MedlinePlus Genetics, studies have found that 30 to 40 percent of people with HS have at least one family member with the disorder, and in some families the condition follows an autosomal dominant pattern linked to variants in the NCSTN, PSEN1 or PSENEN genes, which build a protein complex called gamma-secretase involved in how hair follicles behave. One altered copy of such a gene can be enough to raise the risk.

Two things keep this from being as scary as it sounds. First, genes load the dice, they do not roll them: the AAD points out that many people with HS have no affected blood relative at all, and plenty of relatives of people with HS never develop it. Second, what can be passed on is a predisposition, never the disease itself. Your children cannot catch HS from you, not from your towels, not from your hugs, not from helping you change a dressing. They may inherit a higher likelihood, the way height or migraines travel through families, and that is a conversation about awareness and early diagnosis, not about distance.

What about towels, razors, gym benches and swimming pools?

You cannot give anyone HS through any object or any shared space, because there is nothing to give. Not a towel, not a razor, not a yoga mat, not the water of a swimming pool. No health authority recommends that people with HS avoid pools, gyms or shared household items to protect others, and the myth-busting pages of the HS Foundation exist precisely because none of that is necessary.

The sensible habits that do exist point the other way: they protect you. A personal razor and a clean towel are good practice for anyone, because ordinary bacteria travel on shared items and broken skin is an easy door, as the CDC's guidance on staph infections describes. Shaving over inflamed skin can also simply hurt. Those are reasons to own your own razor; they are not reasons for anyone to fear your armchair.

What I say when people ask

My HS started when I was 17 with a cyst in the pubic area that the doctors mistook for an ingrown hair, and it took me about a year of going from one doctor to another before anyone gave the disease its name. I consider myself lucky: HS is still widely under-recognized, and many people in the community wait far longer than I did for a correct diagnosis. In all that time, and in the years of flares that followed, the looks and the assumptions were often heavier than the lesions. One member of my community, whom I quote in my book, described living with the fear of being judged, poorly cared for or dismissed. That fear is the real subject hiding under the word "contagious".

So when someone asks, I keep it short and warm: "It is a chronic inflammatory skin condition. In that sense it is like psoriasis or eczema: you cannot catch it, and I did not do anything to cause it. It is partly genetic." Most people only need those three sentences. The ones who need more usually care about you, and they can be pointed to a page like this one.

There is no cure for HS, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. In my case, the flares that once ruled my calendar faded as I rebuilt my overall health, through an elimination and reintroduction approach in the AIP tradition that eventually brought me to remission. That journey, including the parts that did not work, is the story I tell in my book. Whatever your own path looks like, it starts with a dermatologist who knows HS: this article is my experience plus the published evidence, not medical advice for your case.

FAQ

Is hidradenitis suppurativa an STD?

No. HS is a chronic inflammatory skin disease, not a sexually transmitted infection, and it cannot be passed on during sex. Because it often appears in the groin and genital area, the HS Foundation notes it is sometimes misdiagnosed as an STD, which is a diagnostic mix-up, not a hidden truth.

Can my children catch HS from me?

No, they cannot catch it, through any kind of contact. What they can inherit is a predisposition: per MedlinePlus Genetics, 30 to 40 percent of people with HS have an affected family member, and some families carry gene variants that raise the risk. Inheriting the tendency is not a guarantee of developing the disease.

My lesion is draining. Can I infect the people around me?

Not with HS, ever: the drainage does not contain an "HS germ", because none exists. Like any open wound, a draining lesion can host common skin bacteria, so the same wound care you would use for any cut, a covered lesion, clean dressings and a towel that is yours alone, is all the caution the situation calls for.

Is HS caused by poor hygiene?

No. The FDA and the HS Foundation state it directly: HS is not the result of poor hygiene. Scrubbing harder does not help and can irritate skin that is already inflamed. The disease begins inside the hair follicle, not on its surface.

Can I swim in a public pool with HS?

As far as other swimmers are concerned, yes: you cannot transmit HS through water or anything else, and no health authority asks people with HS to stay out of pools. Whether swimming feels comfortable during a flare, or whether you want an actively draining lesion in chlorinated water, is a separate, personal question worth raising with your dermatologist.

Is Hidradenitis Suppurativa Contagious? An Honest Answer