Permanently inflamed foreskin/glans

Hey guys,

I wanted to ask you about a long term problem I’m having, in case some of you have had any experience with it, or simply know a lot about this sort of thing. Sorry if it’s a long read, but I wanted to include a lot of details from the get-go. I really doubt it has anything to with PE, since I hadn’t done any in a long time when it happened. Neither is it something I got from sex, since not much is going on there, either.

For at least 9 months now the inner part of my foreskin has been more red than it used to. When I pull the foreskin all the way back, I’d say the affected area covers almost 2 inches below the glans and goes all around the shaft. It also seems to affect the glans, but it’s harder to say how much, because it’s not quite ‘skin colored’ to begin with. It started with me suddenly noticing changes going on, like patchy redness, the skin being very slightly swollen and bumpy (I think), some areas becoming darker, some lighter etc. At this time it seemed to change all the time. Of course I went online, and what seemed to come up all the time was balanitis. It seemed like a very common (and vague) diagnosis, and not hard to treat, although some of the tips were kind of confusing; Wash a lot / don’t wash a lot, Wash with soap / don’t wash with soap, keep dry / don’t keep dry etc.

After a little while of upping the use of soap (mild soap designed especially for genitals) and applying a clotrimazole cream for about a week, it seemed to settle into this almost constant redness, but otherwise it looked and felt pretty normal. I also noticed smaller veins or capillaries I had never seen before, and it seems like the bigger veins have become more blue. To my non-medically trained mind, all of this makes it seem as if the skin has become thinner, and the redness/capillaries is a result of blood showing through the skin in a way it didn’t before. I also noticed that if I washed it with soap at night, it would sometimes instantly become seriously light, as if the skin reacted instantly. (Weird.) However, this would only work at night, and the next morning it would be as red as ever again.

When I went to see my doctor, he didn’t even look at it, but since I had already tried clotrimazole, he said I should try this other cream for at least 10 days that also had some steroid in it. Nothing happened other than my glans started to look a bit wrinkly, and the skin seemed to become even more irritated/sore from it, so it wasn’t too tempting to continue with it past 10 days. Then he got me an appointment with a guy who was a dermatologist and also seemed to specialize in std’s. He didn’t think it looked that bad (it was probably at its very mildest that day). He thought I could have used that cream for a little longer than 10 days, but that in its present state there was no point in doing anything special about it. He said I had balanitis, (or that I had had balanitis, not sure, to be honest.) and thought the redness was just part of the skin slowly healing. This was months ago, and there have been no sign of any slow but steady improvement. One ‘interesting’ thing is that if I get sloppy with the hygiene for a couple days for whatever reason, the redness gets more patchy and noticeable (also on the glans), and it can get a little sore and uncomfortable. Just washing well with soap again, and maybe applying that steroid cream once seems to take care of this very quickly. Clearly there’s still something there just waiting to ‘break out’ if left alone for a couple of days. Basically, it seems like I’m just holding something ‘in check’, which doesn’t make me very optimistic that this general redness thing is going away by itself if I give it enough time.

It’s mostly annoying for two reasons, one is just ‘cosmetical’, I want my dick to look like it used to, not like it’s always angry, irritated, sore etc. The other is, after a long break I really wanted to get back into PE, but things like jelqing seems like exactly the thing I shouldn’t be doing when I’m trying to get this upper shaft redness to go away. Maybe it’s harmless, but pushing a lot of blood up there on a regular basis doesn’t seem like the smartest thing to do.

Before going back to my doctor, I wanted to hear if anyone here had some thoughts on what’s going on, and what to do about it.

Well, I went back to my doctor and he sent me back to the dermatologist/std guy. I wasn’t really expecting much, but this time he leaned towards eczema instead and gave me a prescription for a cortisone-free cream called protopic, which I’m supposed to apply twice a day for 6 weeks, and then keep using more sporadically. So I guess I’ll try that.

I’m still thinking about the PE thing, though. On the one hand I want to get back to it, but on the other hand I feel like I should leave my unit alone until this (hopefully) gets better. I’m not sure if I’m being overly cautious or just wise, but maybe it’s best to play it safe.

I can understand your frustration, Norsey.

I, too have had chronic recurrent balanitis and I have to say I’ve just learned to live with it. Steroid creams I’ve also tried but I’m not keen on steroids in any form, no matter how ‘mild’ they are.

I lived in Australia for 2 years and I have to say it was at its worst when the weather was most humid. I recommend not over-washing, avoiding biological washing powder/liquid for clothing and ensuring the glans is completely dry after bathing and urinating. I have also had problems with my frenulum in the past - frenulum breve is the name of the condition; it resolved itself when I ripped it (drunk, very horny and girlfriend a bit too dry!) and it has not caused significant problems since.

Of course, circumcision is almost guaranteed to remedy the issues I have had and no doubt yours, however having had consultation with several doctors and a surgeon, it’s not a choice I’ll make easily.

I believe PE does have an exacerbating effect as with the forced increase in blood flow and minor damage to tissues results in ‘pooling’ of lymph fluid (oedema)… I’m not giving up though!

Would be good to hear other members’ experiences. Good luck!

Thank you for sharing, and sorry about the late response. So do you just have some sort of permanent redness, or do you manage to keep it in check most of the time?

Well, I’m done with the 6 weeks of the Protopic treatment (which seems to be meant specifically as an alternative to steroids for people who doesn’t get anything out of it) and unsurpringly it seem to have done nothing. It did keep those more patchy and worse looking/feeling flare ups away for that time, but so has anything else I’ve tried, and once I was done with the six weeks they were right back. Since it didn’t seem to do anything, I fell of the “two times a week” follow up pretty quickly..

If I understood the dermatologist correctly, skin takes months to heal, and in my case it’s like something’s keeping it from healing, as if whatever’s causing the redness comes back all the time. The ointment was supposed to keep that from happening, and not cure the redness itself directly, I think. However, in the info that came with it, it says that whatever you’re using it for should clear up in a week or two, and if it doesn’t you should go back to your doctor. Maybe this particular skin heals much slower than skin elsewhere? I haven’t thought of skin in general as very slow healing, so when he’s talking about this loooong process of getting rid of some inflammation, it’s little surprising.

Not sure what to do now. I guess I should try the guy again and say “That didn’t work either, what’s next?”, but I’m really starting to doubt wether there’s any help to get. The last few days I’ve been trying to keep the foreskin retracted for more time when home, and applying some peanut oil, especially before going to sleep. The peanut oil was something the dermatologist mentioned, I think it’s meant to be a little soothing, and to help keep ‘other kinds of moisture’ away. Sometimes it actually looks like the peanut oil thing is helping a little bit.

I also found an exchange between a doctor and someone with a similar problem on the site answers.com. The pictures he posted was the closest to my condition I had seen, most ‘penis problem pics’ on the web looking much worse. The doctor ruled out some form of balanitis and said it was “sensitive genital skin’ or something like that. It was harmless, but ironically there was no clear treatment for it. He recommended some creams and pills, but now the page is gone, so that sucks (I had bookmarked it.)

Any thoughts are welcome, guys..

You might look at what you wash clothes with .
Do you use fabric softener or dryer sheets ?
Do you go commando , or underwear .
Has to be something in your environment causing this reaction .
What kind of lube are you using ?
I use coconut oil myself . Great for the skin .

Dooks out !!!

Thanks for chiming in.

I only wash clothes etc with a mild/sensitive washing powder that’s meant to be good for people with allergies. Always have.
I wear fairly loose boxers,
If you’re asking about what kind of lube I use for PE, I haven’t done any in a long while so I don’t think it’s relevant, but when I have done PE, I’ve used baby oil.

I’ve been thinking about irritants lately, too, and since I never used much soap (usually just rinsed well with water) before this happened, I’ve now stopped using the soap just in case it’s what keeps the irritation going, even though it’s a very mild soap designed for ‘male intimate washing’. It’s just a little experiment, and my guess is that not using the soap will make things worse not better. Still using the peanut oil at night though.

I might look into the coconut oil thing, it looks like it has some interesting properties, and I’ve seen it recommended directly in relation to the kinds of problem I’m having. Looks like you should take it both internally and topically.

Hey Norsey , Just wondered how you’re doing .
Have you found the cure for the redness ?

dooks out !!!

I had a very similar problem a few years ago, lasted for months and months. I bathed it in salt water every night for a few weeks and it finally disappeared. Have had nothing like it ever since.

Thanks, guys. It’s been a little while since I checked on the thread.

No real progress to report. It’s already a while since I went back to the doctor. He basically had the reaction I feared when the Protopic ointment didn’t do anything. He didn’t have anything new up his sleeve and said something like “Sorry, there’s no cure for eczema, yet..” He just told me to keep it clean, sporadically use the different ointments I had already tried, and hope for the best. I actually had one of those flare ups the day before going so at least he got to see it at its worst.

Now I’m just washing once or twice a day and often I’ll put on some peanut or coconut oil before going to bed (but more seldom lately). I also try to ‘air dry’ it pretty thouroughly after washing, and even try to have the foreskin retracted for a good while sometimes during the day. If this will have any effect or if I’m able do it often and long enough I don’t know. I do the oil and retracting thing because it seems like the more I leave alone, the more likely it is that I will get a flare up. The only other things I’ve tried is changing soaps and applying talc to try and keep it a little drier in general. It seemed to be fine for a couple of nights, but the third and fourth night there seemed to be a little bit of extra irritation when I woke up, so I’m not sure if the talc thing is a good idea. Maybe shorter periods during the day would be ok.

The lack of any real progress for so long almost makes me feel like the brain/body doesn’t consider it anything to be ‘healed’ in the first place, it’s simply the way it looks now. I just hope that the doctor is right that it does take a long time to heal, and that it will happen as long as I can keep the ‘setbacks’ (flare ups) away. There are some small signs that the skin looks ever so slightly ‘healthier’ the longer it’s been since the least flare up, but it’s extremely slow and usually seems pretty ‘random’ throughout the day, or from day to day, and it’s never enough for me to say with certainty that something significant has actually happened.

The salt thing is something I’ve seen here and there online (relation both the balanitis and eczema in general), but never actually tried. I think I’ve mostly seen in mentioned as ‘soothing’ when you have out breaks, I’m not sure if it will quicken the healing in my case, but it’s worth a try. I don’t have a bath tub, but maybe I can just fill a glass with warm salt water and stick in there for a while. Not sure about the amount of time, standing with my dick in a glass of water for 15 minutes or more is probably gonna be pretty tedious. :P I’m assuming regular table salt is ok and that the amount is about 4 teaspoons per liter, I think I read it somewhere. I’m unsure wether I’m supposed to rinse or wash away any salty residue after or if it’s ok (or better) to just dry off the salt water and leave any salt that may be left there..

I have the same problem as you.. Like about 4 months or so.. Red and inflamed foreskin. I’ve been trying Canesten (clotrimazole) and a cream my doctor advised for inflamed skin (Loco Base Repair), but nothing seems to be working. So I’ve have been wondering if you got something to work? And how about the salt baths? Was it helping? And what is your experince with sex/masturbation, is it a no-go? Cause it (not suprisingly) seems like its making it worse for me.

/Mikrd

Hi, sorry to hear that

Not much new to report here. I didn’t have any flare ups for almost 5 months, but there was no improvement of the regular thin looking red-ish skin during this period either. I’m a little scared the steroid (hydrocortisone) in one of the ointments I used could have worsened/prolonged the condition. I’ve seen forum threads with people who have used steroids on this area, with some serious long term (seemingly permanent) repercussions, and some of them didn’t use it for much longer than I did. They claim doctors in general are ignorant about the effects of steroids on skin that’s already so delicate and thin. It’s pure guesswork wether this is my problem, though, that ointment certainly didn’t start it.

I tried the salt thing every evening for a few weeks, it didn’t seem to do anything one way or the other. I guess you could try it anyway, though. I’ve tried few other things like high quality moisturizers, 98% aloe vera gel etc, (all stuff you see recommended if you search for this problem), no noticable change, but I tend to not try things consistently for a long period of time, so I won’t say I’ve definetely proven that they don’t do anything.

I recently posted about the problem on another forum, and a guy who seemed to know a lot about this sort of thing said it sounded like a persistent yeast problem or some other skin fungus. This is the sort of thing that I had basically excluded as a possibility because of what the dermatologist said, and after all the first couple of things that I tried was meant to target yeast/fungus. He was surprised at the dermatologist’s conclusion, and seemed to think I should start out with retrying some over-the-counter stuff. So I just started with Canesten again. Since I’ve done it before, I don’t have much faith in that, but why not give it another go, and maybe a little longer this time. Next, I think I might try a different dermatologist, possibly outside the public system. It’ll be more expensive, which will make a similar ‘just hope for the best’ response even worse. But at the end of the day, I think it’s worth a try. It’s not that it looks that bad most of the time, but I would really like it to just go back to normal.

The page that I mentioned above is back up again. The guy’s descriptions (and pictures) seemed pretty similar to mine, so that’s why it interested me. Although the doctor’s suggested diagnosis of "hypersensitive genital skin" gives only two results when googling; this page and another one, so it’s definetely not an expression that is used a lot..

http://www.just answer.com/derm … irous-help.html

As far as masturbation goes, I never felt that it was much of a problem. Things can get a little more dark red for a while after ‘prolonged erections’ etc, but that’s way it always was, as far as I can remember, and I don’t think of it as aggrevating whatever the problem is. I don’t have excessive or ‘brutal’ masturbation habits by any means. There also seems to be a difference between jerking off and coming and jerking off and not coming. If I don’t come the redness seems milder. Not sure if it’s always true, but it seems to be a pattern.

Wow, you have the same exact condition as me. I’ve been struggling with persistent balanitis for the past 3 years. For about 2 years, I used Clotrimazole 2-3x/day (I have to wash my penis and then apply Clotrimazole after I ejacluate or else I will become very itchy). I have had severe side-effects. I can’t get hard erections as easily, I think my penis lost girth, and I lost about 15 lbs in muscle mass.

Can you link me to some of these steroid side effect posts? I would like to see this.

I think that the best cure for this is circumcision.

Back again after some time..

I’m still struggling with the same problems, and have been examined at a hospital because the problem began affecting my urethra. But so far, still no answer/diagnosis. They just gave me some antibiotics and said nothing unusual to see.
I feel like coconut oil is one of the things helping!

Whats the status on your situation? I would like to hear from you, if you’ve had any improvements/worsening of your symptoms?

I have battled http://en.wikip … ichen_sclerosus and http://en.wikip edia.org/wiki/B … tica_obliterans for the past decade.It took 4 general practitioners,1 urologist,and finally a dermatologist to figure out what I had.Everyone except my dermatologist said I had thrush, aka a yeast infection.As soon as my dermatologist saw me,he knew what it was.He did a biopsy of my foreskin and it came back positive.He also diagnosed me with an autoimmune system disorder that causes this.Because I had gone misdiagnosed for so long,it took 2 years to get it under control where I could have sex once or twice a month without being in so much pain I was crying.It took it’s toll on my relationship and we still haven’t recovered from it.She barely will have sex with me.She feels that something is wrong with her and causing my problem.The doctor has even explained it to her but it didn’t help.