Pulled back — living with a bare head

Quote from: PossibleMagician130 on 2024-04-05 06:09:23Experiences like these are often what the circumcision-fetish advocates try to bury or deny

Listening to their bullshit, naked propaganda and brainwashing and gaslighting for years and years has left me quite sick of them as people

Here's the thing: I have gotten in the habit of visiting the circumcision subreddit every 48 hours, because every day, there are about a dozen guys who come there having no idea of what to do post-op, because:

1:  They were all told they were undergoing a "Minor operation"
2:  Thus, any problems they experienced afterwards were equally minor.

There is virtually NO aftercare offered in any practical sense - They were not even sent home with a few alcohol wipes, and a roll of gauze, to cushion the surgical site.  Most guys come out of the other side apparently completely unaware that wanking is off the table for almost two months.

Consequently, these guys have no idea what to do with tearing, swelling, pain, etc - thinking something is wrong with THEM.

Usually, they just need to be told that the crap they are experiencing is okay, they need to buy some basic stuff, and treat the operation as the serious matter that it was.

I try to offer what practical advice I can, because that place is flooded with fetishists.

Here's mine.

My foreskin was pulled back for the first time by my mother when I was 9. I was coming out of bath when my mother asked if I have cleaned my pee pee. I said no. So she examined my penis and tried to pulled my skin back. It hurted for the first time. She tried again and this time glans popped out of the skin. Then my mom told to do it everyday while bathing.

@alex07 You look cut mate. Do you have any flacid photos?

Quote from: stephen.reilly79 on 2024-04-13 12:10:57Fungal infections are commonly secondary to bacterial infections, so it's entirely possible you have both. My infection keeps recurring so I'm starting to suspect there's a bacterial component to it as well.

Well, a mixed blessing. I have no pain now. Rash is so light now, that I don't think the Dermatologist will bother swabbing, nor doing any tests. If I show them pics, they will just say "well looks like you're a lot better, just keep on keeping it dry and use a steroid once in a while".

I doubt I have a bacterial infection, or if it is, it's going away. I took a pic and it wasn't worth posting up because it looks like a normal dick now. I even jerked it yesterday and barely had any pain. I'm going to the appointment anyway, but I don't think anything will come of it.

Fungal infections are commonly secondary to bacterial infections, so it's entirely possible you have both. My infection keeps recurring so I'm starting to suspect there's a bacterial component to it as well.

My birth certificate is still from the post victorian age. A father would go to the town hall to report a child was born. The fact that he was married was pre printed (!!!) on the certificate.

In those days and ages it was more simple. Before marriage you were supposed to keep your hands above the sheets at night. Or you'd get blind. So you could not possibly be interested in retracting because you were not allowed to touch it in the first place.

After marriage, if any question would arise about your penis, retraction included, doctors or priests would simply say, don't worry, just get married and your wife will know and explain everything.    

I have been permanently pulled back sine 1996-97 or so. I have had i friend with whom i have had many same interest (football, skiing, biking and so on from somewhere that era.
We occasionally go to sauna together and i have noticed that everytime he has his glans hidden when we take our clothes off but at the end he has pulled back. We have never talked about our dicks or foreskins. I believe he sometimes keeps it pulled back and when he notices my situation, he relieves and lets it show.
I remember one middle summer trip we took around 17 years ago. He had his former girlfriend at that time. Girls had taken some alcohol and this girl suddenly game into sauna-area and saw me and my retracted penis outside sauna (cooling area). She kinda like froze to watch it and said, wow are you circumsized, it looks really really nice. I said no. My foreskin is so short that glans is always exposed. She continued to ask, has it become bigger that way, it looks tempting. I continued, maybe so, i dont really know. My male friend was still in sauna but may have heard this conversation.
Things didnt went that further with this girl but i will always remember this small chat with her and her staring eyes. Maybe my friend heard us and learned what to do 😀

I throughly checked myself right now, and the irony is it seems to be better all on its own. Like I'd say a good 20-30% better. Redness is still there, but looks more superficial.

I have been going bananas with the hygiene. Once a day washing, blowdrying it off and making sure it's bone dry before rolling my foreskin back, and pulling back at night twice a week.

I think I'm reducing this thing's ability to latch on, and my immune system is fighting back. I'm tempted to go full war on it now (I have so many antifungals on hand, Itraconazole, Oral Terbinafine, Topical Terbinafine, Topical probiotics, Boric Acid wash, Silver gel, etc etc). But this is inspiring. It means I'm getting better, and I may yet go back to normal.

And I found being exposed feels really cooling, which was a nice bonus that has come out of all this knowledge. Also I am never touching anyone, or letting them touch me without knowing them. What an effin' nightmare this has been. Literally 4 months wasted for one tug that wasn't even that good.

Quote from: Stealth on 2024-04-11 17:53:44Symptons started abating after about 36 hours of topical application, but I had to keep applying for a minumum of 10 days. I haven't been able to properly view close-up images of your issue to advise if what you have looks like a standard yeast infection (I can only see your thumbnails, I can't open the actual images - sorry)

Hmm, that's weird, don't know why you can't see images. I used Clotrimazole for over a month with zero change.

QuoteThe fact that you state that your issue seems to get worse after masturbation might be indicative of that the problem could lay deeper in the dermal layers. The friction/motion bringing more blood supply to the area 'feeding' that area, bringing infection back to the surface. Also, I'm guessing that you're of course masturbating to completion - your ejaculate is protein rich which again could feed the infection (especially bacterial infection) and cause it to 'flare up worse'.

I've so far tried going without touching my penis at all for 10 days in a row, except to wash with just water once a day before bedtime. I made sure to get 8hr sleep every single night. Did not pull back to reduce irritation. I made sure to eat as good as I could. I stopped doing keto. I am eating more carbs now, but still clean, a lot of greens, veggies, and lean proteins. It seems to not have made a difference at all.

So I started masturbating again. I am using coconut oil as a lube. I am very careful, and what I have noticed is when I finish, yes, the red areas are more red and more raw, but if I shower immediately and clean up, in 15 min it goes back to the normal status, as if I hadn't touched myself at all. I think part of it is how careful I am doing it.

QuoteThings that you would probably be wise to look into, outside of a 'simple' fungal infection would potentially be Herpes - this is something that spreads on contact and once infected, lays dormant in your system and reoccurs with 'intermittent flare ups' - You're more likely to get a recurrence when your immunity is low, or in times of stress. Some women who have Herpes get recurrent flare-ups around the time of their cycles, so there is a potentially suggested hormonal component to this but I don't think that's ever been proven.

You'd perhaps also be wise to get checked for HPV (human papillomavirus) again because this a broad, varied, contact based viral infection with a large STD/STI component.

It's a lot less likely that you'd get a more general STI/STD just from surface contact (i.e. fondling/hand jobs) but it's not completely unheard of, especially if you had any micro-tears/cuts on your genitalia when this happened. To that end, you may also be wise to have a broad STI panel workup for the regular/usual suspects, especially if you've had any other discharges.

STI panel was the first thing I did. Tested for the usual: Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, HIV, etc. Came back clean. I don't know if they tested for the herpes viruses. Usually does infections clear up on their own and go dormant. I've had my rash 24/7 for the past 3 months. The only things that helped were Lamisil, and pulling back.

QuoteIf you're getting burning sensations when you pee, this maybe indicative of something else at play here too i.e. more evidence of an STI such as  gonorrhea/chlamydia/Syphillis , or may be something more straightforward such as cystitis (yes men can get this too, not just women) An infection doesn't have to cause a fever, indeed some STIs may not really present with any external symptoms.

No burning sensations when I pee, thank God.

QuoteI'd personally check in with a Urologist/Sexual Health clinic in the first instance, rather than a dermatologist. They see Penises every day and are more likely to have viewed something "contact STI" related than a dermatologist who primarily looks at overall skin health. The skin being the biggest organ of the human body, but your foreskin, like your eyelids, is a minute amount of skin type in comparison to the rest of your body which is what a dermatologist is most likely seeing on a day-to-day basis.

I reached out to a Sexual Health Clinic. They interviewed me over the phone and I sent pics. They said I had already done what they would have done for me (Clotrimazole, Oral Itraconazole, etc), and at this point I was better off waiting for the Dermatologist. They did not recommend seeing me in person, it would have been a waste of time.

QuoteThat being said, scrapings and biopsy is of course a valid path forward, but if your issue isn't directly dermal but potentially subdermal/infection under the dermal layer that's being scraped then scraping mightn't provide conclusive result of the underlying issue.

I actually had an appointment with my GP yesterday. He's a very nice guy, and has listened to all my issues and ideas. We don't know if the infection is fungal or bacterial. We need to wait for the Dermatologist to do the test (he can't request it, it has to be Dermatologist).
It seems that mild bacterial infections can mimic fungal infections. If that's what I have, it would make sense that antifungals are doing nothing. Lamisil helped, so I think it's possible I had both fungal and bacterial, and the Lamisil nuked the fungal.

Things of note: I was hurting pretty bad last week, so I caved in and started using the weakest steroid I could get: Hydrocortizone 0.5%. I used it for 3 days, and it calmed down the burning, but interestingly enough, actually made the red patch even more red, and the spots became bubbly and visible right on the surface of my glans. I stopped using it and it stayed redder, but with less pain.

I also started using a Calendula soap, and washing with it every other day, and I'm noticing this has reduced the pain to almost zero. All I have right now is a very mild burning. And I think the red is basically right on top of the skin. I have noticed that some of the deeper red spots are no longer visible (could be my body fighting this off), so even though it's redder on top now (thanks steroids!) but deep seems to be better.

I am just patiently waiting for my Derm appointment (another 10 days). Thankfully I am in almost no pain. Once the lab reports what I have, I will act accordingly. I would not be shocked if it ends up being bacterial, which means I will probably have to go on antibiotics. If it ends up being fungal, then I have a ton of stuff right now that I will use to hammer it for my next attempt (pulling back, Oral Terbinafine, Itraconazole, etc).

I have another fungal rash (unrelated) in my thigh, and it was not responding to Clotrimazole, but I bought a Silver gel, and to my surprise, it's helping. The rash is less and less every day. If it wasn't for the fact that I want to get active cultures off my glans, I'd be slapping that stuff on right now, and monitoring to see if it would help.

If for some reason, the Dermatologist refuses to do a swab, then I have already spoken with a private Dermatology clinic, and they have openings in May (they told me they can swab/biopsy, whatever is needed). It took me a lot of searching to find a private clinic, and it's an 8hr drive from where I live (and of course, paid out of pocket), but had I known a month ago I would have just went there. For now, let's see if I make progress with the first one.

Again, appreciate your replies. You guys are awesome.