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

[Mellon]

Hello everyone. I don't want to make this a book, so I will be brief.

My penis was 100% clean and healthy prior to Jan 2024. I haven't had a lot of partners, and the last time I had sex with a girl was 2016. I had a long term from 2012 to 2014 that I rawdogged at least once a week. Never had issues.

Well, a guy I know who's an acquaintance started asking me about my sex life. He was basically like "Mellon, you look so stressed out, you should come when I go to get a rub and tug". I wasn't thinking about it, but in the moment, the temptation to try it got the best of me, and we went.

A girl who looked clean started stroking me with no rubber. Then I went home and took a shower (roughly a 45min drive). I didn't even enjoy the experience that much, it was so forced, but 3 days later, BAM I have a infection. My glans is red and has red dots all over. Oh great, I got infected by something. So angry with this guy, I have blocked him, but now trying to figure out what to do about the infection. I waited two weeks and noticed the inflammation went down a bit (like 30%?), but not getting bettter.

So I go to the doctor: Get Clotrimazole 1%. I use it twice a day for a week, did not make a difference. I go again. This time I get Lamisil. Use it twice a day for a week, and it brought the inflammation down by about 50%. 2nd week of use gave no further change.

I then tried some home remedies: Tried plain yogurt, and infused it with some vaginal probiotic capsules, then used this for about 1 week, no change. I then read about Boric Acid, and tried it on my glans for 3 days, no change, and it was actually aggravating it.

So I give up and go back to doc: I get Itraconazole 400mg a day. I take it for 5 days, and zero change. I go back to doc to report, and he referred me to a dermatologist.

I just got the appointment today, it's until end of April. Thru my work we have some health benefits. I'm trying to reach a dermatologist thru there. In the meantime I am stuck here, no idea if I have a drug resistant Candida infection (based on everything I've read and what my penis looks like, it "appears" to be fungal), OR if I have a bacterial infection. The GP did not want to give me anything else, and if I get lucky, I will be able to talk to a dermatologist in a few days, and if not, until end of April.

My last recourse: expose the glans as long as I can, and see if that helps. From what I understand, Candida is anaerobic, so the microflora changes with an exposed glans will help get rid of any fungal infections. Since I literally have no other options for the moment, I plan to start tonight by going to beg with my foreskin peeled back, and exposing it thru the day as much as I can.

Questions:

1. My biggest fear here is to have my glans rubbing against clothing, and risking an even worse infection.
2. To be able to do this properly, I have to make sure my hands are always clean when handling my penis, how do you guys normally do it?
3. Has anyone else done this for this reason? I'm trying it because it looks like the final solution given to men with this problem is a circumcision. I am not against the idea, but if I can get the benefits without taking that drastic step, I rather try that first.

So that's it. I am really hoping this is the solution that will get me back to my normal self, when I was happy with a 100% fully functional penis that wasn't in pain. Any advice and comments are welcomed!

[Vhh]

Hi, i have read ur story and maybe the exposure will help because it won't be moist all the time.
Don't try to be all day exposed, switch between exposed and covered from time to time until ur glans gets used to it if you feel really unconfortable, but if u don't try to keep it always retracted.
You should start by just pulling back but if that doesn't work or the infection is also on the inner foreskin use the taping method to keep everything exposed and dry it out.
Keep trying going to doctors until u find the ultimatre solution.

That is my recomendation and if u want to ask anything just reply to this thread.

[Mellon]

Appreciate the replies.

My balanitis is not that bad compared to some of the horror stories I'm seeing on Reddit and on the internet in general. I was terrified for a bit there because I've now been on 3 medications, and the 2 azole based ones did nothing (which means I must have an azole resistant bug).

I can post pics if people want to see them.

As for pulling back, well, I'm on the 2nd night of pulling back. Thankfully my foreskin stays pulled back with no extra effort, so that's roughly about 7hr times 2 times, + I work from home 3 days a week (I had to go to the office today and also tomorrow), but yesterday I pulled back an extra 5hr during the day. Total time so far = 19hr.

I'm already seeing a minor difference. The tip is starting to get just a little bit less red, and the meatus (the worst red patch) was really shrunk and dry, and just a tad bit less red.

The biggest change: The pain is MUCH less now. For the past 3 weeks, that burning sensation, let's say a 2 out of 10 in the pain scale, but feeling like that 24/7 and especially when I'm trying to concentrate for my job was HORRIBLE. But just in that time, I've reduced it from 2 to 1. My pain is now juuusst barely noticeable.

As long as I can keep the pain low (or even be pain free) during my healing, I can make it thru this. I was so excited today, I feel for the first day in 3 months I might actually get my life back!

I never knew there was this whole other side to sexual diseases that aren't considered "STI's". I've been reading about the crazy suffering both men and women go thru with these infections, but because they are not "STI's", the establishment does not seem to give too much of an eff.

I am SOOO glad I found out about pulling back, and this forum. I'm actually quite enjoying being pulled back on its own, it feels cooling and refreshing. I sleep face side up, and sometimes on the side, so I just sleep with no underwear and no blanket and it doesn't bother me at all, and during the day when I am sitting doing my work, I just let it hang out pulled back.

I've had to be very mindful of my tip NOT contacting surfaces that may be dirty, like my chair or desk, and cleaning my hands throughly before touching my penis.

I still have a bit of worry about trying to be peeled back with underwear on. Not so worried about the discomfort, but rather the chance to infect it with something worse. How do you guys handle that?

I will keep updated with progress for sure.

[Vhh]

If u are woried that the contact may hurt u can pun a cotton pad so i doesn't hurt, just make sure it is clean

[Mellon]

I'll see if I can do a weekly update, mostly for me to keep progress on my own, but interested in other opinions, especially if you've been thru the same.

Usually when I get erect, I would see a ton of red spots all over the glans. Last night I slept with it pulled back all night (7hr maybe?), for a total of 26hr. But today was too busy and could not pull any daytime exposure. Even so, got an erection to monitor, and it looks like the red spots are reducing. I'd eyeball it maybe 20% what it was 2 weeks ago. I felt no pain today at all (could have been just my busy day, forgetting about it). Tonight I got that 1 out of 10 pain, but surprisingly not in the major red where I usually get it, but rather on the sides. Could be just from all the unusual exposure (the glans is not used to it). But that's a good sign. Plan to expose every night, and as much day time as I can. 

[bareuncut]

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.

[Mellon]

I live in Canada. Health care here is a joke.

I went to to the GP. He's the one that looked at it originally and prescribed me Clotrimazole (even though I told him I had already used it for a week prior to seeing him). I played along and used his prescription for a week. Went back, reported no change. He was going to prescribe me a steroid cream, but I begged him "if you think this is fungal, can I have a stronger antifungal?"

So he gave me Lamisil. I used that for a week and it did help, maybe 30%? 2nd week did nothing. I tried a bunch of home remedies for the next 2 weeks, no change. I went back to the doc. He prescribed me oral antifungals (Itraconazole). I was on it for 5 days, and it did nothing. So I went back, and he referred me to a Dermatologist. I asked him specifically "do you think this might be bacterial?", and he said "the Dermatologist will make the call".

That appointment is for April 22nd. I've read reviews of that dermatologist online, and apparently she's got a LOT of complaints from patients. So I am not too hopeful for progress on that front. I have a health care service from my company, and I decided to seek a 2nd opinion. I logged my request to the virtual doctors a week ago. I have not had a response as of yet.

I guess I could go to another GP and ask them to send me for a swab. I might do it this coming week. With that said, the condition is improving with pulling back. I'd say it's 30% less than it was a week ago. I've had this for over 2 and a half months now, and it has not gotten worse (with the bare head it's actually getting better), so I am hopeful whatever it is, that it might resolve on its own. I'm waiting for the virtual docs to get back to me and I will submit photos and ask them for their professional opinion.

I personally think it's fungal. If it's bacterial, it's very mild. We'll see how much progress I make this week. I forgot to mention the first thing I got was an STI panel. No STI's (syphillis, hiv, clamydia, gonorrhea, etc). If it's E.Coli, or some other bacteria, it might have gotten worse already. Again, I am moving at the speed of our stupid health care. Don't get sick in Canada if you can help it.

[stephen.reilly79]

If it helps, I'm going through the same thing right now: started with a slight scratching sensation on what remains of my frenulum (I tied it about 5 years ago) which slowly turned into soreness and then, eventually, a hot burning sensation. I thought it was balanitis and so put some germolene on to try and clean it up. The next morning I wiped the cream away to find some of it wouldn't wipe away — no matter how much I rubbed it the skin stayed white. It wasn't cream, it turned out to just be the colour of the skin in that location. Some Googling of images later I came to the conclusion I had Lichen Sclerosus (which is very bad) and made an appointment with the GP. The GP took one look and politely told me I am an idiot: it was a yeast infection, and she prescribed Clotrimazole 2%. She also sent me for a diabetes blood test to see if that could be the root cause (but I've not heard back on that yet so I assume it's negative). She said to apply the cream for 1 week: as someone who's quite susceptible to fungal infections — I've been fighting athelete's foot for nearly 30 years — I decided to do 2 weeks instead, to be safe. 2 weeks after I stopped, which was yesterday, I found it had returned. Apparently there's a ~10% chance of recurrence, but I reckon the risk is higher for me as I appear to be very much predisposed.

So ... I'm back to applying the cream. Online sources say 1-3 weeks of treatment is normal for yeast infections. My plan is to do at LEAST 3 weeks of treatment with the Clotrimazole this time. I don't know about Canada but in the UK you can buy vaginal thrush cream off the shelf, it's twice the strength of athelete's foot cream and is safe for the penis. It's aimed at women 'cos men supposedly don't get yeast infections (which is total BS in case you hadn't already noticed).

One thing I can tell you, as a long-term sufferer of fungal infections, is that they are a bastard and you have to declare all out war on them for ten times longer than you would imagine is necessary. Apply the cream 3 times a day, keep your penis BONE DRY (pun only partially intended) and treat for AT LEAST one week after ALL symptoms are gone. Don't settle for a mild cream if you can get a stronger option. And don't believe the BS you read online that says that coconut oil, honey, etc can cure it. Nope. You need a tried and tested antifungal cure.

My regime at the moment is to completely dry my penis with toilet paper every single time I go for a pee, and then re-apply the Clotrimazole. I also plan to start pulling back again, something I've not done for a few years as I got out of the habit. BUT make sure, if you are skinning back, to AlSO treat any skin your penis touches, which will probably mean your scrotum.

Hope that helps, and good luck with getting rid of the infection.

[Mellon]

Thanks for the reply.

In my case, Clotrimazole did nothing, even for 2 weeks. Lamisil for 2 weeks reduced it by mayyyybe 20%? But I think it might be just my mind playing tricks.

Anyway, bareuncut's post scared the crap outta me, so I went to see a doc yesterday. He looked at it and said he couldn't see anything wrong. I explained to him the entire thing, and he said "well I can give you a steroid cream, or if you want to try an antibiotic, I can give you Fucidin cream".

So I took the Fucidin cream, but I haven't started using it yet. I think I will stop pulling back and waiting a a couple of days to see how it is. Appointment with dermatologist is about 3 weeks from now. I'm thinking of just waiting for that depending on how bad I am. I'm hoping the dermatologist does a scrape of my glans and finds out what exactly I have, if anything. It seems that pain reduces almost to zero.......until I masturbate 3-4 days later, then it flares up for the next 1-2 days.

I'm going to try and not jerk it for at least a week. I'm going to really try for 2 weeks, but after 4 days I am as horny as all eff. Just looking at a decent looking girl will get me fired up. I guess I will have to put up with the desire for a couple of weeks, see if it can heal.......or I may just use the Fucidin cream and see if it does anything. I don't know. The GP's have no idea what I have, and it's so hard to get an appointment with a dermatologist.

I'd go to ER like bareuncut suggested, except that, based on past experiences for other ailments I've had, if you're not literally at death's door, they will just give you a steroid cream and tell you to talk to your GP.

[PossibleMagician130]

Hello everyone. I don't want to make this a book, so I will be brief.

My penis was 100% clean and healthy prior to Jan 2024. I haven't had a lot of partners, and the last time I had sex with a girl was 2016. I had a long term from 2012 to 2014 that I rawdogged at least once a week. Never had issues.

Well, a guy I know who's an acquaintance started asking me about my sex life. He was basically like "Mellon, you look so stressed out, you should come when I go to get a rub and tug". I wasn't thinking about it, but in the moment, the temptation to try it got the best of me, and we went.

A girl who looked clean started stroking me with no rubber. Then I went home and took a shower (roughly a 45min drive). I didn't even enjoy the experience that much, it was so forced, but 3 days later, BAM I have a infection. My glans is red and has red dots all over. Oh great, I got infected by something. So angry with this guy, I have blocked him, but now trying to figure out what to do about the infection. I waited two weeks and noticed the inflammation went down a bit (like 30%?), but not getting bettter.

So I go to the doctor: Get Clotrimazole 1%. I use it twice a day for a week, did not make a difference. I go again. This time I get Lamisil. Use it twice a day for a week, and it brought the inflammation down by about 50%. 2nd week of use gave no further change.

I then tried some home remedies: Tried plain yogurt, and infused it with some vaginal probiotic capsules, then used this for about 1 week, no change. I then read about Boric Acid, and tried it on my glans for 3 days, no change, and it was actually aggravating it.

So I give up and go back to doc: I get Itraconazole 400mg a day. I take it for 5 days, and zero change. I go back to doc to report, and he referred me to a dermatologist.

I just got the appointment today, it's until end of April. Thru my work we have some health benefits. I'm trying to reach a dermatologist thru there. In the meantime I am stuck here, no idea if I have a drug resistant Candida infection (based on everything I've read and what my penis looks like, it "appears" to be fungal), OR if I have a bacterial infection. The GP did not want to give me anything else, and if I get lucky, I will be able to talk to a dermatologist in a few days, and if not, until end of April.

My last recourse: expose the glans as long as I can, and see if that helps. From what I understand, Candida is anaerobic, so the microflora changes with an exposed glans will help get rid of any fungal infections. Since I literally have no other options for the moment, I plan to start tonight by going to beg with my foreskin peeled back, and exposing it thru the day as much as I can.

Questions:

1. My biggest fear here is to have my glans rubbing against clothing, and risking an even worse infection.
2. To be able to do this properly, I have to make sure my hands are always clean when handling my penis, how do you guys normally do it?
3. Has anyone else done this for this reason? I'm trying it because it looks like the final solution given to men with this problem is a circumcision. I am not against the idea, but if I can get the benefits without taking that drastic step, I rather try that first.

So that's it. I am really hoping this is the solution that will get me back to my normal self, when I was happy with a 100% fully functional penis that wasn't in pain. Any advice and comments are welcomed!

I think it's important that the doctors do some kind of diagnostic, whether it's some kind of swab test or even a skin scraping to do a microscopic examination for evidence of fungi/yeast. Otherwise, how would they know what it is? I had an experience of a supposedly "good" doctor prescribing doxycycline with just a single look. When it didn't he couldn't own up to it, but another doctor prescribed fluconazole and that fixed the problem.

With regards to retracting helping, it is unlikely to help at all actually, judging by the numbers of circumcised men who still have balanitis.

You have the right idea that a steroid cream is the last thing you want to apply before what you have is diagnosed. It will make a yeast problem a lot worse.

5 days of Itraconazole seems a bit short, even though the dose is high and the drug very efficacous. However I've heard of folks with genital fungi who needed to take two courses at 200mg for fluco and itra before achieving a clinical cure.

Could you post a photo before and after inflammation post masturbation? I'm just curious to see what it looks like, but it could also be helpful to show the doctor.

I noted that in your recent post you managed to see a doctor, who prescribed you fucidic acid cream or offered a steroid. You may really need an appointment with a dermatologist rather than a GP, who doesn't have any tools to diagnose other than guesswork. It seems to me that GPs are only good at diagnosing and treating something they've seen often in the general population.

Lastly, if it does turn out to be fungi, treatment may take quite a long time if you're using only creams, and you probably don't want to be on oral antifungals for longer than necessary.

[PossibleMagician130]

"2. To be able to do this properly, I have to make sure my hands are always clean when handling my penis, how do you guys normally do it?"

Just wash hands with soap and dry it thoroughly before handling. Do make sure to clean under the fingernails, this is easier if yours is kept short. For applying medication, doing so after showers is convenient.

On broader general hygiene though, it will be important to do your laundry more often, especially the towel you use to dry yourself. Underwear should be changed daily and never re-used. You may want to launder your underwear separately on higher temperatures.

Sanitize your door handles and work spaces with an anti-microbial wipe, but you don't need to do this often, just once is enough.

Now this is the kicker: your keyboard, mouse and handphone is a likely source of fomite cross-contamination. You should sanitize them more often, like once every three days. (I do not think daily sanitisation offers more benefits than something semi-regular). For the keyboard, it may be quite difficult to adequately sanitize because there is a lot of stuff in between the edges and even under the keys that may be conducive to microbes breeding. If your keyboard is many years old you may want to throw it out completely, or perhaps just disassemble and soak all the plastic parts in boiling water, air dry at high temperature, wipe down the circuit board with 97% alcohol before re-assembly.

[stephen.reilly79]

With regards to retracting helping, it is unlikely to help at all actually, judging by the numbers of circumcised men who still have balanitis.

There's more than one way to get balanitis though. I'd say there's anecdotal evidence that it can be helpful in uncircumcised men, presumably as a result of drying the foreskin and glans out thus removing the ideal breeding conditions for bacteria/fungi. It won't be a silver bullet but may contribute to making life harder for the yeast, thereby improving your skin's chances of defeating the infection. It's certainly helped me in the past, and it's a small and safe lifestyle change that's very unlikely to be harmful or a hindrance for the average person.

[Mellon]

5 days of Itraconazole seems a bit short, even though the dose is high and the drug very efficacous. However I've heard of folks with genital fungi who needed to take two courses at 200mg for fluco and itra before achieving a clinical cure.

Could you post a photo before and after inflammation post masturbation? I'm just curious to see what it looks like, but it could also be helpful to show the doctor.

I noted that in your recent post you managed to see a doctor, who prescribed you fucidic acid cream or offered a steroid. You may really need an appointment with a dermatologist rather than a GP, who doesn't have any tools to diagnose other than guesswork. It seems to me that GPs are only good at diagnosing and treating something they've seen often in the general population.

Lastly, if it does turn out to be fungi, treatment may take quite a long time if you're using only creams, and you probably don't want to be on oral antifungals for longer than necessary.

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]

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?

[Mellon]

Ok looks like I can see posts again. Weird, but ok you have the pics, that's what it looks like right now.