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Hi Aunt Vadge,
Just turned 31, four pregnancies, four natural births. Engaged in a bit of wild fun yesterday and had a fingernail slip on entry. Now I have a large slice in the skin just under and to the side of the clitoris and urethral opening. My concern is the large skin flap the cut left – it’s roughly triangular, about a centimetre wide at the attached end and tapering to a point, loose along the edges, about an inch long. Do I remove the loose skin, or try to keep it in place hoping it reattaches? Less than 24 hours later it hasn’t reattached and it’s gone blue/purple.
Sincerely, Flappy
Hi there Flappy,
Please get this seen by a clinician today – an emergency department, GP or sexual-health clinic. An inch-long flap of loose skin that has gone blue or purple is beyond home first aid, and this is not one to wait out or manage yourself. Don’t cut the flap off, and don’t try to reattach it yourself either.
The reason for the urgency is timing: skin can sometimes be stitched back into place if it’s still a fresh wound, but scar tissue starts forming quickly, and the blue/purple colour suggests the blood supply to that flap is already struggling. A clinician can decide whether it can be saved with a stitch or two, or whether it’s better tidied up – and either way, they’ll make sure it heals cleanly rather than badly. That’s well worth a trip in.
While you arrange that, keep the area clean with plain water, don’t pick at or pull the flap, and avoid anything that irritates it. There’s general aftercare (for once it’s been assessed) in how to deal with cuts and tears from fingering and vulvar, vaginal and perineal injuries, but the flap and the colour change are exactly the sort of thing that should be looked at in person first.
Warmest regards,
Aunt Vadge
This is general information, not a substitute for personalised medical advice.
