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Pubic lice can be known as crabs.

Pubic lice can be found in pubic hair, underarm and leg hair, hair on the abdomen and chest, beards and occasionally in the eyebrows and eyelashes.
Pubic lice have nothing to do with poor hygiene.
They can be passed on by close sexual contact with someone who has the lice.
Lice can live up to 24 hours off the body. However they need human blood for survival and therefore rarely leave the body without close contact with another person.
Lice cannot fly or jump, they move by crawling from hair to hair.

Please explore the following sections for more information:

Signs and symptoms

Some people may not have any symptoms, or notice the pubic lice or eggs and therefore pass them on without knowing.

It can take several weeks after coming into contact with the lice before you get signs and symptoms.

Signs and symptoms are the same for men and women

Itching in the affected area
Black powder droppings from the lice in your underwear
Brown eggs on pubic or other body hair
Irritation and inflammation in the affected area which can be due to the person scratching

Tests

If you think you have pubic lice you can attend the sexual health clinic for a check-up and the nurse or doctor can take a look and confirm if you have lice or not.

If it is difficult to see any visible signs you may need to re attend later on. It is advisable to have a full sexual health screen if you feel you may have been in contact with a sexually transmitted infection.

Tests taken within a sexual health clinic are treated confidentially, a unique clinic number being issued and used in place of a name for each person attending. Results can be accessed in whichever way is most convenient, whether this is via text, email, telephone, mail, phoning into clinic or via another person (e.g. school nurse, friend)

Treatment

Pubic lice treatment involves using a special cream, lotion or shampoo. The doctor, nurse or pharmacist will explain how to use the treatment and for how long.

You do not need to shave off pubic or other body hair.
The treatment may need to be applied to the whole body, and treatment will need to be repeated after seven days.
You should wash your clothing, bedding and towels on a very hot wash to kill the lice and avoid reinfection.
Do tell the nurse or doctor if you might be or are pregnant, as this can affect the type of treatment you are given.
After successful treatment you may still have itching for a few days and you could notice dead nits in your body hair. These can be removed with a special nit comb that you can buy from the pharmacy.
Avoid sexual contact until you and your partner have both finished treatment, otherwise you could be re-infected.

Pubic lice will not go away without treatment, so it is important that you don’t delay seeking treatment as you increase the chance of passing it on to someone else.

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