Possible Link Between Lichen Sclerosus Being A TMS Equivalent

Hello everyone! I am not sure if this is the correct place to post this but I wanted to share some things I have discovered along the way of my own pelvic pain healing journey. Now, I want to preface this by saying I do not personally have LS and I am also not a doctor, I am simply a curious bee who had vulvodynia and fell down the rabbit hole of unexplained pelvic health issues. Although, there was a moment when I thought that I might have LS and like anyone who has health anxiety and fear would, I did a lot of research on it.

For those who don't know what Lichen Sclerosus is, it’s an inflammatory autoimmune disease of unknown etiology that typically manifests in the genital area. It can cause red patches,, genital fissures, itching, burning, skin discoloration and fusing of the genital skin. It can be quite debilitating. There is also the “no known cause, no known cure” label tied to this condition which always sends the ‘this might be TMS’ alert to go off in my head. Typically when you hear that doctors are stumped after doing extensive testing, it’s usually a nervous system/brain issue. HOWEVER!

Along my research, I questioned this condition because if skin issues like eczema, psoriasis, hives, things of this nature could be caused by TMS, why couldn’t LS also be a TMS manifestation? I started digging into anecdotal testimonies on Reddit, the LS Support Forum and The LS Support Network on YouTube and found some interesting links:

- many of the women suffering from LS had a prior experience with sexual abuse/childhood sexual abuse/ACES.
- many had prior anxiety about their sexual health and felt it was a coincidence that they’d develop a chronic autoimmune disease in their genital area.
- a lot of them had the typical personality traits that most TMSers have.
- major issues with anxiety and depression.
- some had other tms symptoms that, when using mind body healing methods, helped put their LS into “remission” (I put this in quotes because I don’t believe in remission, I think in some cases that can be a harmful term in the way of oh, yeah you’re healed for now but it could come back. That’s not helpful, in my opinion) or cured their LS altogether.
- Doctors have no idea what causes LS or how to fix it. The only method for managing it is to use steroids.
- Doctors have correlated that stress can make LS symptoms worse so they do recommend reducing stress as much as possible.

I’ll post two links below that touch on the idea and hint to LS as a TMS equivalent:

https://patient.info/forums/discuss/lichen-sclerosus-cured-but-it-took-work--36244?order=oldest&page=4#topic-replies (Lichen Sclerosus cured - but it took work.)

(Timestamp: 16 minutes).

And here are some Mind body videos that touch on autoimmune diseases possibly being TMS:





I’d love to go into this further but I am still collecting knowledge and having a-ha! moments the more I read. Haha. I just wanted to give some hope for this diagnosis as I have seen a few people ask about the possibility of LS being tms and I implore you to look deeper into it. Whenever I read someone’s story about being diagnosed with this or having lived with it for many years, you can feel the fear and frustration coming through the posts, understandably. I believe this condition can be a TMS equivalent if there is no underlying condition causing it (I.e. hormonal imbalances, food allergies, genetic component, all of which I realize can also be TMS lol). If the doctors can’t figure out why or the treatments they try don’t work, I definitely believe it could be TMS just like other mystery autoimmune skin issues could be. This is simply my opinion! But I hope it can help someone or bring some kind of comfort and hope!

 

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