How is contact dermatitis diagnosed?
Diagnosis involves examination using magnification to exclude the possibility of other conditions that may cause the symptoms. Examples of such conditions include herpes infection and the various skin conditions including lichen sclerosis, lichen planus, severe vulvar atrophy, etc. When one of these conditions is suspected, the only way to be sure of the diagnosis of is to take a small piece of skin and send it to the laboratory for examination. This is called a biopsy. It can be done in the doctor's office. A local anesthetic is injected to numb the skin (similar to the dentist's office) and then a small piece of skin is removed and sent for analysis. | 
