Information for healthcare professionals
While our LS guide is primarily aimed at people with vulval lichen sclerosus (LS) and their carers and partners, it’s also a useful resource for healthcare professionals who want to improve, consolidate or refresh their understanding of vulval LS. This guide is about adult vulval LS, it doesn’t currently contain specific information about penile LS, or children’s LS (also known as juvenile or paediatric LS).
It’s estimated that 1 in 100 women or people assigned female at birth have vulval LS (likely an underestimate), so there’s every chance that you have patients with the condition, whether diagnosed or undiagnosed. We hope you’ll use this guide to support those patients, and point them to it so they can understand and manage their condition.
A key message to healthcare professionals is that when someone presents with vulval symptoms, or is struggling with their LS, it is so important that they are taken seriously. People describe it as ‘excruciating’ to talk about it, so if they are willing to ask for help, they really need it. We know that LS is often diagnosed late, with many opportunities missed.
We haven’t created specific, separate information for healthcare professionals, but we recommend you read through the site, which is broken down into short, digestible sections, including video content. We’ve also included academic sources (PDF, 216kB) if you’d like to take a deeper dive into any area.
If you’re a formal carer, you can learn more about looking after your clients within our information for carers and partners.
Treatment plan template
We’ve created a template treatment plan for you to use in your consultations with women with vulval LS. It is an aide memoire, designed to ensure your patients leave feeling confident in their treatment and their ability to self-manage. It includes diagrams which can be used to show the patient exactly how much topical steroid to use, and where to apply it.
Recommended resources
If you’d like to learn more, we strongly recommend familiarising yourself with the following sources.
Note: links open in new tab.
- The ISSVD’s Practical Guide to Diagnosis and Management of vulval LS (PDF, 6.6MB)
- The British Association of Dermatologists (BAD) clinical guidelines for LS (PDF, 1.2MB) (accredited by NICE)
- BJGP Clinical Practice article
We’d also encourage you to watch this short film about LS, based on interviews with patients. It’s under four minutes long and gives hugely valuable insights into this common chronic condition.
Living with lichen sclerousus – a resource for healthcare professionals
Tell us what you think
We would really like to hear how you have used the LS Guide, and if it’s making a difference in people’s consultations or general understanding. We want the LS guide to be a genuinely valuable resource for people with LS, their families, carers and healthcare providers.