*sigh*, infection on my penis. Plans to pull back in hopes of resolving.

[Kylar]

Guys, for some reason I can no longer look at any posts. After I attached the pics, any post on the board just give me "Wrong value type sent to the database. Array of integers expected. (preview_attachments)"

I was able to go to my profile and look at my own posts and reply to one of my posts (how I was able to post this). Could it be because I need to get picture access? How do I get that access?

I'll look at the logs sometime and see if I can make head or tails of it.

You already have picture access so that's not the problem.

[PossibleMagician130]

Thank you for sharing your photos. I've updated this visual information to my memory banks.

I'm not a doctor, so sadly, I am not qualified to diagnose what I'm looking at. There is some redness, but it does not look severe. The redness looks like something I sometimes have when I have completely zero issues - but on the other hand, when I do have issues, I become hypersensitive to how my penis looks, and I definitely do remember having symptoms while having redness less than this.

You mentioned pain after ejaculation/orgasm and I think this is important - everything can look okay but discomfort, pain or itching after orgasm/ejaculation is definitely a sign that you have something and it's not normal.

I also note that you mentioned pain and a burning sensation. If I am not mistaken, fungi/yeast infection is more commonly associated with itching and a crawling sensation. I do not know if fungi can cause pain, but from everything I've read on the internet I've not heard pain mentioned once.

I think you can't rule out some kind of bacterial infection. Not being a doctor, I don't know what could have been transmitted via a hand job, but on the other hand this would not be impossible. Hands are very rough surfaces compared to pussy or ass. You could have suffered a lot of micro-tears in the skin and subsequently this allowed bacteria or fungi to penetrate deeper than they would have.

Oral terbinafine tends to have worse side effects than Itraconazole, and is usually used to treat nail fungus. If I'm not mistaken, terbinafine works really well on the dendrophytes, but not so much on the yeasts that cause balanitis.

Did the doctor give you instructions on how to use the Fucidic acid? If my memory is correct, you should not use it for longer than 7 days, because if it would have worked, it should have worked by then, and if it doesn't, you might contribute to antibiotic resistance on your own biome. I've used fucidic acid to clear up some really stubborn, follicular spots before, and it worked with just two applications. In general fucidic acid prevents bacterial replication, and only for gram positive bacteria, not gram negative ones. At low doses found in topical creams it may not help against the more serious or stubborn bacterial infections.

P.S: By the way make sure the fucidic acid cream does not also include a steroid in it

I got Itraconazole for 7 days, but at the 5th day, started to get side effects (burning in my legs) so I stopped it. I wanted to try Oral Terbinafine, but the GP's said "best for a dermatologist to look at you at this point".

Here it takes forever to get to see one. I have an appointment with dermatologist at the end of this month. I went to a 2nd GP for a 2nd opinion because I got scared about the issue possibly being bacterial and not fungal? I have the Fucidin cream here, but have not used it yet.

Here's some pics, see attachments. Ignore the white patches on the tip, that's just dried up urine.

I slept with glans exposed last night, and what's interesting is that it looks better when the glans is dry, and I think the past 7 days of exposure have actually improved it. Originally the rash was twice as bad as what you are seeing there. The Lamisil cream improved it by maybe 20%, and so far, the pulling back seems to have improved it another 10%.

At least it's not getting any worse. As I understand it, a bacterial infection would create blisters, or "canker" looking sores, and possibly different secretions. Other than the redness and the burning sensation, I have no other symptoms. If I leave it alone for a few days, the pain is almost gone. I've had days where I completely forget it's there. But when I jerk it, that's the worst. It doesn't hurt at all while doing it, but the next day I am in 3 out of 10 pain, and the rash is flared up.

I haven't taken any pics after masturbation, and I plan on not touching myself this whole week, while pulling back as much as I can (only because it seems to be helping at least a little bit)

Pulling back has definitely reduced the pain at least. Based on all this, what do you think?

[Mellon]

Thank you for sharing your photos. I've updated this visual information to my memory banks.

You have no idea how much I appreciate your reply.

I'm not a doctor, so sadly, I am not qualified to diagnose what I'm looking at

I'm not sure you're at any real disadvantage compared to "real" doctors. Two GP's have looked at it in person. First GP assumed Candida and he's the one that's given me what I've used so far (Clotrimazole/Terbinafine cream, and Itraconazole oral). 2nd GP said he didn't see anything wrong, but listened to my story, and suggested to wait for dermatologist. I asked him if I could try an antibiotic cream, and he gave me Fucidin (I ensured it was the one without the steroid). I have not used this cream yet.

I reached out to specialists thru a work plan I have, but a week and a half later, no reply. I figured I'd try JustAnswer (paid for a membership and spoke with a dermatologist who claims to have 10 years of dermatology). He also listened to my story, and looked at the same pics I attached.
He admitted there was a rash, but told me without testing it, and considering I've tried 3 antifungals, he cannot give me an assessment based on just a visual. He recommended I wait until my in-person Dermatologist to look at it, and hopefully scrape and test the infection. I asked him what I should do with the creams I have now. He said "if you want to use the Fucidin for 1 week like your GP said, you can do that. If you want to keep using Terbinafine, you can do that". Basically a waste of time.

There is some redness, but it does not look severe. The redness looks like something I sometimes have when I have completely zero issues - but on the other hand, when I do have issues, I become hypersensitive to how my penis looks

I thought about this, but I remember when I have injured my penis (once, like a decade ago, I masturbated with soap, and that made it look similar to these pics, but that damage healed in 2 days, and was back to normal. This appears to be there even if I leave it alone for 4 days.

You mentioned pain after ejaculation/orgasm and I think this is important - everything can look okay but discomfort, pain or itching after orgasm/ejaculation is definitely a sign that you have something and it's not normal.

I have no pain while rubbing my erect penis, or glans. I have no pain when ejaculating. I have tried using coconut oil, and sensitive skin astroglide, and since my glans is very sensitive, I don't have to go hard to climax. Even soft rubbing, afterwards, leaves those red spots you see, twice as red, and my glans then burns at a 3 out of 10 for the next day, all day. It slowly calms down as long as I don't touch it (just wash with water at night).
I wish I could just leave it alone, but my libido is very strong after 4 days. I'm going to try for 2 weeks, if I can make it.

I also note that you mentioned pain and a burning sensation. If I am not mistaken, fungi/yeast infection is more commonly associated with itching and a crawling sensation. I do not know if fungi can cause pain, but from everything I've read on the internet I've not heard pain mentioned once.

What I've read suggests itching or burning (either one) could be fungal. There is next to zero information on the internet about bacterial infections on the glans, hence, I have no idea what it would look life (except for the extreme cases, which is what seems to pop up when you search any of this stuff).
Bacterial is supposed to have more secretions, and smell foul. Mine has zero smell and zero secretions. No itching either, just the constant mild burning.

Oral terbinafine tends to have worse side effects than Itraconazole, and is usually used to treat nail fungus. If I'm not mistaken, terbinafine works really well on the dendrophytes, but not so much on the yeasts that cause balanitis.

Ironic that you mention this. I have a mild jock itch that I am treating successfully right now. The sex worker started fondling my scrotum and right under. I told her to stop, but she was already touching my glans again. I suspect this transferred dermatophytes from my groin to my glans.
Not a single doctor has given me the opportunity to explain this theory. It would make sense that Terbinafine cream helped a little. I also bought a Miconazole cream but have not used it yet. I have about 1 month of not using any antifungals at all.

Did the doctor give you instructions on how to use the Fucidic acid?

Yes, twice a day for 7 days. If issue is bacterial, I would expect to start seeing results within 2-3 days of use. I asked the doctor if it could aggravate it if it was fungal. He said "there's a small possibility that if it's fungal, changing the flora by killing some good bacteria could aggravate it". So this is where I am stuck. I don't want to make things worse.

Anyway, yeah, that's pretty much it for the moment. I think I'm going to try and wait for dermatologist, and hopefully get a scraping done and find out what the hell it is. I'm betting 80% it's a dermatophyte transferred from my jock itch. Or it could be E. Coli transferred from the area of my anus...........or the girl just didn't wash her hands properly. Either way, I'm not really sure at this moment what to do.

[PossibleMagician130]

It's interesting you mentioned jock itch! How long have you had it, what have you used to treat it, and is it responding to treatment?

Did the oral itraconazole 400mg daily have any effect on it? May I ask, perchance, do you also have diabetes or problems with blood sugar? You don't have to answer this though, I'm just trying to form a personal picture of this very common problem we all have.

I have a small personal theory about the pain/itches after masturbation and orgasm. I think that when we get invaded and colonized by these bacteria or fungi, they weaken the skin layer where they settle in, so when we use lube and then jack off, the lube first dissolves the very thin and weak keratin layer over the colonised sites, and then the friction from our hands abrades them off, leaving very sore, and very raw spots. When we're healthy no such problems occur and I think it has to do with the health of our skin layers. The bacteria or fungi also prevents normal healing, and as long as they persist the condition may become a chronic problem.

A lot of yeasts and fungi have developed resistance to clotrimazole, so it's a normal thing to switch from one azole to another to see what works for the strain we have. This is a problem of diagnostics - the general population just does not have as much access to lab testing as we like. I think that even for doctors the diagnosis is about likely causes and a process of careful elimination.

Back to your glans: have you noticed any inflammation on your foreskin itself, inner and outer? Have you noticed any "dry" looking skin on your glans or any spot on your penis after pulling back and commencing treatment or at any point of time, or any "scaliness"?

With regards to the terbinafine and antifungal creams, if there is any improvement it might appear visually glacial. Treatment courses are a minimum of two weeks, and perhaps some more for a full cure. Improvement will be visually slow but gradual - but the oral anti-fungals should demonstrate remarkable changes after a single course.

With the antibiotic creams though, I think improvements should be seen within three days. Improvements should be drastic, or the antibiotic is not working. Apart from fucidic acid, you could also use povidone iodine solution, but you have to be careful not to apply it too often on your mucus membranes in case of excessive absorption into the blood stream. I'd say 3 days, twice a day applications max to see if there are any changes.

With regards to the fucidic acid changing your biome and allowing opportunistic fungal infection, the fucidic acid is not as radical as oral azithromycin or doxycycline, so I don't think you have to worry about it so much.

If the anti-bacterials are the ones you haven't tried yet, I'd suggest giving it a shot for a week, making note of any changes or improvements, and then only leaving a two week gap (or maybe 1 week is enough) before your appointment with the dermatologist, who hopefully will perform scrapings for microscope examinations, as well as swabs for various cultures fungal and bacterial. I think it is a good idea to leave enough "lead time" because either the anti-fungals or anti-bacterials could suppress the pathogen to low enough levels to present very light or mild symptoms or presence that it becomes difficult to identify and pinpoint through the lab tests.

I would also recommend taking photographs to note the changes, under similar lighting conditions, to serve as a visual record for the doctor as well as yourself - you do not have to post these here because few of us can help you even if we have that additional personal information. You definitely want to take a photo post orgasm/ejaculation because that would be extremely awkward to show a doctor in person, haha! And otherwise they can only guess how bad it looks like after lol

[burtonian]

Hi Mellon,  you ask us to ignore the white patches at the tip of your penis, visible in the first photograph, dismissing it as dried up urine.  I do not understand why any urine drips were not shaken or wiped off , given that you are retracting your foreskin.  However, if you are correct in attributing the patch to dried urine I strongly suggest testing for diabetes.  Men with untreated diabetes may often notice that inadvertent splashes around the toilet dry white due to the high sugar content in their urine. 

[Mellon]

It's interesting you mentioned jock itch! How long have you had it, what have you used to treat it, and is it responding to treatment?

Believe it or not, I've had it for over 20 years. Started in the 2000s when I started going to the gym. I would shower nightly and wash the area, and use fresh clothes every day, but it still hit me. It was very mild. I went to my GP back then, and he gave me clotrimazole with hydrocortisone cream. I used it and it didn't do anything, so I just decided to ignore. It wasn't bothering me as long as I cleaned it nightly.

Fast forward to 2020: Lockdown. I started not being as careful about my personal hygiene: reusing clothes for days, still showering, but skipping a day. It got worse, to the point now it looked red (intertrigo). I thought about an idea: Use Clotrimazole only, and point a fan at my crotch area at night to keep it dry and cool. And increase hygiene. I have reduced the infection by half this way. The redness is gone, and the brown patches are maybe at 50% of what they were. I then switched to a miconazole talcum powder to keep it dry. This helps with itch, but I'm not really seeing any changes, so I am currently trying something called "Mensbiotics" spray, with Bacillum Coagulans, which is supposed to be a very good probiotic to fight fungal infections. Have about 1 week of use so far.

The Itraconazole for 5 days did not make any difference to Jock Itch.

May I ask, perchance, do you also have diabetes or problems with blood sugar? You don't have to answer this though, I'm just trying to form a personal picture of this very common problem we all have.

I did a blood panel 5 years ago, and no diabetes. Also right now I am on the keto diet, and have been on it for 5 months now, since November of last year. I weighed 290lbs and I am currently at 247lbs. I used to body build, so a lot of that is muscle. I was borderline obese at 287, now I am just slightly overweight at 247. My 42 size pants are starting to fit again.

I have a small personal theory about the pain/itches after masturbation and orgasm. I think that when we get invaded and colonized by these bacteria or fungi, they weaken the skin layer where they settle in, so when we use lube and then jack off, the lube first dissolves the very thin and weak keratin layer over the colonised sites, and then the friction from our hands abrades them off, leaving very sore, and very raw spots. When we're healthy no such problems occur and I think it has to do with the health of our skin layers. The bacteria or fungi also prevents normal healing, and as long as they persist the condition may become a chronic problem.

Sounds very feasable.

A lot of yeasts and fungi have developed resistance to clotrimazole, so it's a normal thing to switch from one azole to another to see what works for the strain we have. This is a problem of diagnostics - the general population just does not have as much access to lab testing as we like. I think that even for doctors the diagnosis is about likely causes and a process of careful elimination.

I worry that resistance to clotrimazole means all azoles.

Back to your glans: have you noticed any inflammation on your foreskin itself, inner and outer? Have you noticed any "dry" looking skin on your glans or any spot on your penis after pulling back and commencing treatment or at any point of time, or any "scaliness"?

No inflammation on foreskin. It's hard to tell what's normal in my glans. I wish I had paid attention to what it looked like when it was healthy. The only abnormalities I remember were not there before, are the red patches right at the tip, near the urethra, and the main red sore at the meatus. There's random red spots noticeable when erect, basically as you can see in the pic. They were more noticeable 2-3 months ago, but they are almost invisible now as long as I am flaccid.

[quoteWith regards to the terbinafine and antifungal creams, if there is any improvement it might appear visually glacial. Treatment courses are a minimum of two weeks, and perhaps some more for a full cure. Improvement will be visually slow but gradual - but the oral anti-fungals should demonstrate remarkable changes after a single course.

With the antibiotic creams though, I think improvements should be seen within three days. Improvements should be drastic, or the antibiotic is not working. Apart from fucidic acid, you could also use povidone iodine solution, but you have to be careful not to apply it too often on your mucus membranes in case of excessive absorption into the blood stream. I'd say 3 days, twice a day applications max to see if there are any changes.

With regards to the fucidic acid changing your biome and allowing opportunistic fungal infection, the fucidic acid is not as radical as oral azithromycin or doxycycline, so I don't think you have to worry about it so much.

If the anti-bacterials are the ones you haven't tried yet, I'd suggest giving it a shot for a week, making note of any changes or improvements, and then only leaving a two week gap (or maybe 1 week is enough) before your appointment with the dermatologist, who hopefully will perform scrapings for microscope examinations, as well as swabs for various cultures fungal and bacterial. I think it is a good idea to leave enough "lead time" because either the anti-fungals or anti-bacterials could suppress the pathogen to low enough levels to present very light or mild symptoms or presence that it becomes difficult to identify and pinpoint through the lab tests. [/quote]

I might try Fucidin for a week, and then Miconazole for the 2nd week, and leave a 7-10 day gap where I use nothing before my appointment.

I would also recommend taking photographs to note the changes, under similar lighting conditions, to serve as a visual record for the doctor as well as yourself - you do not have to post these here because few of us can help you even if we have that additional personal information. You definitely want to take a photo post orgasm/ejaculation because that would be extremely awkward to show a doctor in person, haha! And otherwise they can only guess how bad it looks like after lol

Depending on status, I think my plan was to masturbate the day prior, so I walk in to the appointment with strong visible symptoms. I'll take a picture of it also. I probably won't suggest it was due to masturbation though, lol. TBH, I looked up this dermatologist, and this lady has some really bad reviews, but if I try to get somewhere else, it will be another 1-2 months. I'm hoping out of all things, she does a scraping and sends it to the lab. As soon as I know what I have, then I can deal with my GP to give me the treatment I need.

you ask us to ignore the white patches at the tip of your penis, visible in the first photograph, dismissing it as dried up urine.  I do not understand why any urine drips were not shaken or wiped off , given that you are retracting your foreskin.

Even if I take a leak retracted, a tiny bit of urine stays on the tip. I forgot to dry it off with a towel. Even if I did have diabetes, my blood sugar right now is extremely low. I am only eating meat and leafy greens, and have been like this for the past 5 months.

[stephen.reilly79]

It might be worth getting some urine glucose dipsticks: glucose can get into the urine by other means than just diabetes. Yeasts don't care how the glucose gets into your urine, only that it's there as a source of food for them to live on.

I've certainly never had urine leave a white patch like that for me. It's worth looking into.

[Mellon]

Glucose strips are a good idea. I will pick some up today. I have no other symptoms of diabetes, but it can't hurt to test with a strip.

I have never had any issues with my penis until that stupid encounter. So there's definitely a start point for my condition, that at least to me, suggest introduction of a pathogen to my penis, that I on my own have never introduced.

But who knows. I will ask for a blood panel next time I see my GP.

[Mellon]

OP: You caught a bad infection from your encounter which can be serious (as serious as Syphilis or even HIV, or as simple as e-coli). Don't be scared. See a "real" doctor as soon as you can. Your GP can help. Or, you can go to a public health clinic, or an urgent care clinic, or even to accident and emergency room of a hospital. They will run a series of blood tests, urine culture, urethra swab, etc. I would NOT delay. Your chances of cure or getting better depends how fast you start accurate "real" treatment. If you postpone, things may become very complex to life threatening. You may get prostate infection (prostatitis) from very simple bacterial infection (e-coli etc.), which is often incurable. Retraction or anti-fungal creams will not help at all and may make it worse. Please see a REAL doctor soon. Wish you all the best. Good luck.

I thought I would follow up on this. On the 2nd, It was stinging more than usual, like a 2 out of 10, so I figured I'd use some Miconazole on it, at this point it couldn't hurt I though. Wow did that cream sting like a mofo! I was in 4 out of 10 pain for the next 2-3 hours.
I then felt sick the whole day yesterday, and then today. So I went to the hospital to get checked out.

I waited 4hr to see someone, and the doctor comes in and says "Sorry I am an emergency doctor, I have no idea what to do with this, but I'll take a look". So I showed him my penis, and I showed him the photos you guys saw.

He was like "yeah I have no idea what to do for this, go talk to your GP". So I asked him "is there any way of doing a test? a urine test? or a swab?" - "yeah we would normally do things like that if you had a big abscess or it looked really infected. This does not look that serious to me. We won't do anything here, go home and talk to your GP". And that was it, 5 min of his precious time.

Do you see why I didn't bother? I'll try some sexual health clinics next, but right now it looks like April 22nd with dermatologist is my only chance for now to actually make progress.

[stephen.reilly79]

The NHS used to be the world leader in healthcare, but that's pretty much exactly what it's like in the UK as well nowadays: overworked doctors who aren't allowed enough time to actually help anyone. My previous GP was excellent, but she worked fewer and fewer hours and then changed careers. I suspect it was due to occupational stress.

[Mellon]

The NHS used to be the world leader in healthcare, but that's pretty much exactly what it's like in the UK as well nowadays: overworked doctors who aren't allowed enough time to actually help anyone. My previous GP was excellent, but she worked fewer and fewer hours and then changed careers. I suspect it was due to occupational stress.

Appreciate the reply. Yeah, I am basically stuck until the 22nd. I'm only exposing my glans at night, and only because the cooling effect reduces the burning.

Issue I have is when I show the doctors, in a shrunk flaccid state, they can't see the infection. In the pics it shows up better. Let's hope the dermatologist is in a good mood and sends me for a swab/scrape test.

[PossibleMagician130]

Apologies for the late reply. I got swamped by a lot of work and chores, and kept wanting to reply but then putting it off when I could get a break.

Regarding the emergency rooms, doctors there have to triage you based on the possibility of life-threatening or serious harm. If you go there presenting with a chronic, perhaps very distressing but nonetheless non-life-threatening medical condition, they have to turn you away because that's not what the emergency section is for. Never be shy to seek emergency medical help when you have to, and it's better to ask for it than to demur, but it helps to have a better expectation of what the doctors there are meant to do. Just an example, if you had to be brought in with pain 9 out of 10, the doctors would look at you and will at least put you under observation in emergency care. If you have something stuck in some orifices you can't get out... sinuses, ear canal maybe, rectum lol, they will help you to get it out (you may have to wait). If you are delirious and in confusion, comatose, or slipping in and out of consciousness, they will attend to you. But these are the types of cases they have to prioritize and reserve their capacity for.

The sexual health clinics are a good idea, but don't be too invested in the idea that it could only be a fungal infection. I think it could be anything. Have you heard of ureaplasma? Granted the symptoms are different, I just brought that up to highlight that every year, we get more and more info about pathogens that affect our genitals that we never knew about before, just because insufficient information was collected.

Have you tried using the fucidic acid? An alternative is povidone iodine solution, but you shouldn't use it for too long or too much in case of absorption into the bloodstream affecting your thyroid.

Twenty years is quite a long time to have the jock itch! I hope you'll be able to clear it out and achieve a full cure this time, you don't want to let any fungi adapt to your body's immune system.

I'm also impressed you're doing keto. I couldn't stick with that more than a week because I became cranky and almost insane, nearly dysfunctional with all sorts of cravings.

Overall though, I think your health is in a positive trajectory, just keep on with what you're doing, take care of your mental health and stressors as well, and don't give up.

P.S: I wonder if ketonuria could be contributing to your penis condition? I've heard that the urine from a keto diet is extremely irritating

[Mellon]

Apologies for the late reply. I got swamped by a lot of work and chores, and kept wanting to reply but then putting it off when I could get a break.......P.S: I wonder if ketonuria could be contributing to your penis condition? I've heard that the urine from a keto diet is extremely irritating

Thank you for your reply. You guys have been nothing short of awesome, that's rare nowadays.

I went to ER because after the Miconazole thing, I started getting shivers. I suspected it was just due to how much it irritated my glans, but at this point it was worth a shot just to get it noted on the system. If I get a blood infection, I can't say I didn't go to ER to prevent it.

It annoys me that I have to wait for a doctor to tell me they can't do anything. I have been thru this before with a different illness (now cured thankfully). Wait 5-6hr just to be told "we don't do anything here for that". They might as well tell me in triage and send me home with only 30min of my time wasted.

All I need is someone to scrape off some material, and have it analyzed. I can't believe what a mountain of red tape it is to get that done. When I came back from the hospital, I was hurting pretty bad, so I started using the only thing that originally helped: The Terbinafine cream, and as of this morning, I am a lot better. I'm basically back to the "pre-Miconazole" moment. No more shivers or chills.

I suspect it's fungal because, why is the Terbinafine helping? I am scared to use the Fucidin, and instead I'm going to try to wait for the April 22nd appointment, and in the meantime, I'm reaching out to some sexual health clinics to see if they have the ability to have a scraping analyzed faster.

I've also contacted a clinic in the USA that helps Canadian patients. If it cost me $10k to get this resolved in the States, I will do it. Let's see what they recommend.

[PossibleMagician130]

Holy moly, 10k is a lot! Hopefully you can get it settled for much, much less cheaper.

If the Miconazole or any cream is causing great discomfort, you shouldn't try to suffer through it. You can just wash it off with soap. I think it only takes half an hour for the cream to be absorbed through the skin anyway. Sure, maybe it's better to be on for longer, but you'd reduce your suffering time from 4 hours to maybe just 1.5

I hope you get some good leads you can act on! All the best buddy

[Mellon]

Holy moly, 10k is a lot! Hopefully you can get it settled for much, much less cheaper.

If the Miconazole or any cream is causing great discomfort, you shouldn't try to suffer through it. You can just wash it off with soap. I think it only takes half an hour for the cream to be absorbed through the skin anyway. Sure, maybe it's better to be on for longer, but you'd reduce your suffering time from 4 hours to maybe just 1.5

I hope you get some good leads you can act on! All the best buddy

Thanks man, I appreciate it.

US clinic got back to me. Good and bad news. Good news is that I can get an appointment with a Dermatologist for $350, and if a swab/biopsy is needed, could be another $350 to $1000 depending how complex.........but earliest appointment they can get me is until July.

Canadian STD clinic got back to me, saying they will ask the docs what, if anything, can be done for me. I expect the answer to be "We can't do anything, wait for your dermatologist appointment".  But we'll see.

I might cave and use the Fucidin for a week, and see how that goes. If it makes it worse, at least I have one more week to get to the dermatologist appointment.