Lima Memorial Health System Logo
Approximate ER WAIT TIME WAIT TIME MACRO

Health Library

Chafing
     
Print-Friendly
Bookmarks

Chafing

Skin irritation from rubbing

 

Chafing is skin irritation that occurs where skin rubs against skin, clothing, or other material.

Information

 

When rubbing causes skin irritation, these tips may help:

  • Avoid coarse clothing. Wearing 100% cotton fabric against your skin may help.
  • Reduce friction against your skin by wearing the right kind of clothing for the activity you are doing (for example, athletic tights for running or cycling shorts for biking).
  • Avoid activities that cause chafing unless they are part of your typical lifestyle, exercise, or sports routine.
  • Wear clean and dry clothing. Dried sweat, chemicals, dirt, and other debris may cause irritation.
  • Use petroleum jelly or baby powder on chafed areas until the skin heals. You can also use these before activities to prevent chafing in easily irritated areas, for example, on your inner thighs or upper arms before running.

 

 

References

Franks RR. Skin problems in the athlete. In: Madden CC, Putukian M, McCarty EC, Young CC, eds. Netter's Sports Medicine. 3rd ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2023:chap 40.

Hannam S, Smith ML. Environmental and sports-related skin diseases. In: Bolognia JL, Schaffer JV, Cerroni L, eds. Dermatology. 5th ed. Philadelphia, PA: Elsevier; 2025:chap 88.

BACK TO TOPText only

 
  • Chafing of the skin

    Chafing of the skin

    illustration

    • Chafing of the skin

      Chafing of the skin

      illustration

     

    Review Date: 7/3/2025

    Reviewed By: Linda J. Vorvick, MD, Clinical Professor Emeritus, Department of Family Medicine, UW Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA. Also reviewed by David C. Dugdale, MD, Medical Director, Brenda Conaway, Editorial Director, and the A.D.A.M. Editorial team.

    The information provided herein should not be used during any medical emergency or for the diagnosis or treatment of any medical condition. A licensed medical professional should be consulted for diagnosis and treatment of any and all medical conditions. Links to other sites are provided for information only -- they do not constitute endorsements of those other sites. No warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied, is made as to the accuracy, reliability, timeliness, or correctness of any translations made by a third-party service of the information provided herein into any other language.

    © 1997- A.D.A.M., a business unit of Ebix, Inc. Any duplication or distribution of the information contained herein is strictly prohibited.

    All content on this site including text, images, graphics, audio, video, data, metadata, and compilations is protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may view the content for personal, noncommercial use. Any other use requires prior written consent from Ebix. You may not copy, reproduce, distribute, transmit, display, publish, reverse-engineer, adapt, modify, store beyond ordinary browser caching, index, mine, scrape, or create derivative works from this content. You may not use automated tools to access or extract content, including to create embeddings, vectors, datasets, or indexes for retrieval systems. Use of any content for training, fine-tuning, calibrating, testing, evaluating, or improving AI systems of any kind is prohibited without express written consent. This includes large language models, machine learning models, neural networks, generative systems, retrieval-augmented systems, and any software that ingests content to produce outputs. Any unauthorized use of the content including AI-related use is a violation of our rights and may result in legal action, damages, and statutory penalties to the fullest extent permitted by law. Ebix reserves the right to enforce its rights through legal, technological, and contractual measures.
    © 1997- adam.comAll rights reserved.