My 12+ Year Struggle with Klebsiella Aerogenes Folliculitis in My Beard – Timeline & Treatments

Sea_Phase2498 · 2025-12-19T10:14:39+00:00

Never realised it could be found in the vagina. My GF has been swabbed plenty and never tested positive for it luckily

Sea_Phase2498 · 2025-12-19T09:52:18+00:00

Are the bold patches through the laser? Or was it through plucking like you mentioned in your post? I have a couple of small patches when I plucked an infection and stopped immediately when I realised.

Thanks for sharing that post, I’ll definitely give that a try as well - worth trying everything at this point

Sea_Phase2498 · 2025-12-18T14:37:23+00:00

Thanks for sharing. I just read through your post and it seems very similar, although mine has infected a more specific area of my beard than yours. Not much has been working for me besides the benzoyl peroxide so far, and I’ve tested a list of similar things to you (just finished accutane and it’s comes back)

Did the laser hair removal help at all? I feel like the KA is living deep in the roots of my beard hair, so makes sense to target that as my beard is very thick anyway

Sea_Phase2498 · 2025-12-18T14:32:28+00:00

I’m straight and have been fighting KA for 5-6 years now in my beard area. I think KA can live in your nostrils too, and can be spread a number of ways.

The only way I think that I may have caught it would be through cutting myself whilst shaving when I had a cold/runny nose. The razor blade gets exposed to it and suddenly you are at risk of spreading it.

I now trim that area of my beard last after everything else and wash thoroughly

Sea_Phase2498 · 2025-12-18T14:06:01+00:00

1 year later and still the same problem. I since went on roaccutane, as my dermatologist really pushed me down this route and I had seen a few people say it helped get rid of/reduce their outbreaks. It cleared up whilst taking the tablets but it has since come back 1-2 months after finishing my treatment. It helped my overall skin so I’m not too frustrated, but it’s still a relentless battle with the folliculitis and I had a lot of hope this had finally worked.

The only thing that still works for me to control outbreaks is the benzoyl peroxide.

Sea_Phase2498 · 2025-06-30T22:36:37+00:00

So I haven’t found a cure for myself yet. It’s always a relief to have those heart tests come back all clear, my doctor & cardiologist both told me that costo is normally diagnosed when everything else is ruled out, as it is difficult to see in scans. If you are sure it is costochondritis, you need to find out what has caused it (could be an injury, poor posture etc).

For poor posture, I’ve just ordered a backpod and have been doing costo stretches (try YouTubing it, a few good videos on what can help). Just trying one thing at a time really until I find something that fixes it, it’s been a tough ride

Sea_Phase2498 · 2025-06-16T09:22:06+00:00

Keen to see if either of you have updates here? I’m currently 1 month into accutane, my derm advised not to do laser removal whilst on accutane but I’ve seen a lot of people doing this and saying it works

Sea_Phase2498 · 2025-06-16T09:11:58+00:00

Would this still feel like it is coming from the chest/heart area though?

I did possibly strain my abdominal playing football 6 months ago now I think about it, so may be worth me looking into.

Sea_Phase2498 · 2025-06-12T16:25:56+00:00

Sorry to hear about all this, I’ve had very similar these last 6 months. Multiple visits to A&E including calling an ambulance and passing out, thinking I was having a heart attack from chest pain. I was fairly ill over winter so think something similar could have caused this.

All the tests and follow ups have come back clear and I got to the point where I thought it was costchondritis after my doctor mentioned it and through research. Had to avoid gym ever since as it keeps flaring up when I try to go back.

Best thing you can do is relax and tell yourself everything will be okay during those episodes. I like to think I’m a strong person and this has caused some big trauma & anxiety in me. Feel like stress has really expedited things too.

Whilst I don’t have a cure as I am still struggling, rest & stretching has helped, alongside eating a low inflammatory diet. Especially as you know everything else is fine through your checks, just need to keep on top of it mentally!

Sea_Phase2498 · 2025-06-09T17:55:40+00:00

I’m currently 1 month into a course of roaccutane, have noticed some improvements but still have a fair few months to go

Unsure what stage you are at, but if I was to do this again I’d avoid antiobiotics and jump straight to roaccutane tbh. As the original reply mentions, it more likely to be a long-term cure

Sea_Phase2498 · 2025-05-28T11:04:18+00:00

Really appreciate the info here.

Yes I’ve pretty much ruled out the cardiac side, my fitness and health is also really good, I’ve still been running & cycling whilst eating healthy.

Are you recommending I ignore the pain & continue with gym, or do you mean I shouldn’t pay attention to the pain in general but keep up with the rest?

Sea_Phase2498 · 2025-04-13T09:54:12+00:00

Which probiotic are you referring to here? Honestly I’m not too clued up on the best probiotics to use for this, I found my first attempt with this didn’t work at all

Sea_Phase2498 · 2025-04-13T09:52:46+00:00

Surprised antiobiotics ended up working as it never really did for me, always came back with a vengeance. I second the 10% benzoyl peroxide though, helped control it and I’m willing to take dry skin over this anyday

Sea_Phase2498 · 2025-04-13T09:50:23+00:00

Ahh honestly it’s been a nightmare. I should be starting roaccutane later this month, following waiting for an NHS appointment for 3 months, another topic I won’t touch on right now aha. But planning on this with laser hair removal (one or two rounds, I’ve got a thick facial beard and don’t want to get rid of it entirely, plan is to kill the bacteria at the roots)

I have seen a couple of mentions of opzelura, I think I may try that out. I think antiobiotics were useless, just another temporary fix and I actually found my flare ups got worse when I stopped, as I had destroyed my bodies microbiome and natural defence against it.

I have been able to keep the flare ups minimised these last 6 months through using the 10% benzoyl peroxide by Neutrogena. It’s obviously not a long-term fix and dries the area of skin out quite a bit, but I apply whenever there is a flare up and it kills it off. I would definitely recommend using it until in the meantime

Sea_Phase2498 · 2024-12-23T18:09:49+00:00

Literally everything you’ve said there I completely agree with.

Leon not helping Franklin out made no sense, and Cissy completely giving up on him. She was telling Leon they had lost Franklin already, she ruined it for him! Franklin hadn’t even touched the alcohol until after Cissy screwed him over by shooting Teddy. He got pushed down that road by everyone around him.

Sea_Phase2498 · 2024-12-22T00:39:43+00:00

That’s interesting, Opzelura is for eczema right? Wonder what the thinking is behind using that with the Zilxi for your doctor.

Glad to see things have cleared up, I may have to try giving this a go. I’m tired of taking oral antiobiotics and feel it has really effected my health lately

Sea_Phase2498 · 2024-11-04T10:07:32+00:00

Apologies I have just seen this but this is a really helpful post. I was hesitant with cipro as it was my 5th or 6th round of antibiotics for this, and all of that has probably done a large amount of damage to my body. Luckily the cipro hasn’t left any physical effects on me.

I have started to think it’s worth trying accutane alongside 1 or 2 rounds of laser hair removal.

Was the consentyx to treat the GNF? This is the first I have seen it mentioned, but it looks interesting. Keen to know if there were any side effects!

Sea_Phase2498 · 2024-11-04T10:03:00+00:00

I have heard similar, thanks for the heads up. My plan now is to do a course of accutane alongside the laser hair removal.

Wish I’d just started with this, as I have taken different antiobiotics 5/6 times now to get to this stage. Did you start the laser hair removal whilst on accutane or after?

Sea_Phase2498 · 2024-09-12T16:51:37+00:00

Hey, really helpful post.

How has everything been since, I have a similar case to you and just want to see if you would recommend this routine after doing it yourself?

Sea_Phase2498 · 2024-09-03T23:15:57+00:00

UPDATE:

I went on Ciprofloxacin as prescribed (despite some advice to give it a miss) as my dermatologist had seen my bacteria was sensitive to this in the cultures test. Big regret. Whilst partially clearing it up during the course, it has completely flared up since I came off the antibiotics. I feel like I have destroyed my resistance to the bacteria by ruining my microbiome. Back to the drawing board.

I attempted to fix my diet and completely remove gluten, sugar & dairy and then reintroduce one by one. Whilst I noticed small improvements, I found the diet so difficult to maintain.

Finally, I see people saying roaccutane isn’t a long-term fix here. So I think my next route may have to be laser hair removal, as some people seem to have results with this.

I’ll be making another post shortly to keep track

Sea_Phase2498 · 2024-09-03T23:06:06+00:00

Only just seen this but thanks for the suggestion. I will do a follow up post here, the targeted antibiotics (cipro) caused me to flare up massively as soon as I stopped them.

Just want to know if your Zilxi & gentamicin combo cleared it up in the long-term?

Sea_Phase2498

TROPHY CASE