And, I had HS before I ever started smoking so...🤔 it seems like the easiest thing for doctors to do when it comes to HS is blame the patient! 😣

Yessss stress is a major trigger for me. I’m stage 3 AND BEYOND ….. lol 😆
My two cats help me with my stress & I volunteer when I can for my neighbors 9 year old grandson ….. I love kids & animals ….. doing a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle helps me to focus on the puzzle with the help of my cats , of course, Reading . Art . and sometimes it’s medicine that just helps to ease the stress

I think the causes for HS are still largely unknown and there is a genetic/environmental component that’s largely ignored. zNot all fat people get HS; not all slender are unaffected by it. I wouldn’t latch onto any one potential trigger for this reason. However, I have read sources that place most on the blame on chronic, severe stress with is compounded by comorbidities. Smoking is bad for HS just as it is for most other health issues such as hypertension, strokes, diabetes, etc.

Hormone imbalance is a known cause for some. Men and women have both male and female hormones. It isn’t estrogen or progesterone that causes it. It is androgens. My husband is on android and testosterone suppression medicine for cancer. But estrogen and progesterone controls androgen. Hormones control everything in the human body not just making babies and they work in synergy. Many different hormones control androgens even my thyroid medicine is involved in it. An imbalance causes many different types of diseases. In my husband’s case cancer cells use androgen and testosterone to manufacture cancer cells like a little factory. In HS excess androgens in some people can cause the HS. But different people have different root problems for their HS such as diabetes, or lupus. Excess blood sugar raises androgens. HS causes inflammation in hair follicles whenever a follicle gets blocked with secretions from hair follicle gland and the body overreacts to that inflammation by sending cells in the blood to fight it which makes pus and more inflammation. So if a person changes their hormones but had diabetes it isn’t likely to help. Or if a diabetic starts taking metforamin but has a real bad hormone imbalance also it still may not help. It has to be a process of evaluating each individual and ruling out different things through blood tests and such. There are articles on this website i think on some of these things.

Same here. Mine started at about age 11/12 when I started my period! 😣 I was diagnosed when I was 22. After having two babies and living in hell with my ex husband! The stress tore me up and my HS went crazy. That is when I was diagnosed. 😣