Blotchy red rash/irritated skin on penile head (lasted for over 3 moths now)?

I've been applying vaseline every day now for one week and it is visibly better. No more dry, scaly skin when flaccid. Meatus is still sensitive but this is probably due to the seam in my boxers rubbing during the day and it is struggling to heal that top layer of skin on the meatus. Pain after urination has subsided dramatically.

As others said, I was also getting a the pain after urinating (lasts about 15 - 30 mins) and also sometimes a bit of a dribble. I am just putting this down to a slightly inflamed meatus. Sometimes my urine stream was maybe slightly slower, or a bit wobbly. My meatus also sticks together slightly during the day from time to time with a very minimal amount of clear fluid - again, all swabs were negative.

I had all these symptoms before my circumcision, which cured my problems within three days! The last thing I will try before pursuing the dermatology route is wrapping my penis up like they did after my circumcision, but for the moment vaseline and no sex/masturbation is working very well. They definitely used iodine to clean the surgery site (which would have killed any bacteria or fungus), and then wrapped it in paraffin impregnated gauze and then the top bandage dressing. No friction for two days! Perhaps it was that which started to allow it to heal. Not sure how you uncut guys would wrap yours up though.

The first time I had these symptoms years ago, I had not had sex with my partner for two weeks (been together for years before that). So I do not believe any of this is sex related, however i'm not ruling out a prostate issue because it started immediately after masturbation.

 [color=#212121]Hello everyone I'm brazilian I've had the same problems mentioned by Jason, it's been more than a year, I ended up having unprotected sex and I got gonorrhea, I took ciprofloxacin treatment, after that my penis got this redness and burning sensation, I've been to several urologists, discovered, I already did several blood tests, scraping of the glans and test of fungi all gave negative I have already taken all kinds of antifungal. I'll try to do what my friend said here, ricin oil, if I get results I'll post it here.[/color]

Same here. But I have that issue on the the foreskin (pictures). Began with a pain on the glans, upper right. After using povidone, the red marks showed up. Burning like hell (and stinging pain) for about 6 month now. Irritation and water seems to make it worse. Dexpanthenol 5%-cremes helps against the burning stinging pain but it is not a cure. Tried almost everything out (fungal cremes, combo-creames against bacteries and fungal), that seems to make it only worse. In addition, i miss the body-own moisture like some of you guys. Uncut. No other issues (no swollen lymph nodes, other dermatoses etc., no HIV; over all at good health).

I had a confirmed exposition with HVP (high risk, girlfriend was tested positive with a PCR-Test, pre-carcinoma). My docs say that HPV in men "usually" does not cause pain or red marks. My HPV test was negative (tests are expensive and have a lot false-negative-rate). There a some scientific studies saying HPV can cause long-termed and resistent balanites. So i can't rule out that i got HPV with unusual symptoms and i seem to have no other choice then to kick the can down the road, hoping some day it will just go away. Maybe i will try oral antibiotics, highly dosed cortisone or HPV-treatment (Imiquimod) just for the case it is something different (like a harbinger of lichen sclerosus). If someone has suggestions or ideas - they are welcome.

This may affect some of you, too. HPV can slumber in your skin for month and even for years, so it is not easy to trace it back. Some of our symptoms seems to be quite semiliar. What do you think?

@bret99:

I'm quite sure your pictures show a classical well-advanced lichen sclerosus. You may want to google that, it required highly dosed cortison and you may tell that your docs.

'Sup, guys?

I'm new to this and I'm gonna try to keep it short. I've created this account just so I could reply to this discussion. I read the great majority of the posts in here, initially looking for a potential solution for this problem that also poses as an ailment to me.

Since everyone of us is pretty much in the dark still, I'm gonna try and go on a different route.

From the looks of things, many if not all of the people that have reported their statuses and their stories with this condition have been ruled negatives as far as sexual transmitted diseases. Those who have been diagnosed with a positive have been or are currently under treatment for their conditions, which in most if not all cases have nothing to do with the symptoms we present. Professionals have either diagnosed it as a simple skin inflammation or have dismissed the condition as a whole. Could it not be that this thing is all psychological?

I have struggled with psychosomatic disorders for quite some time now -- my whole adult life. I've had all kinds of pains and aches and weird feelings. Usually, I get something that I think is strange, I google it, I attach it to some type of rare degenerative disease or cancer, I compulse over it for weeks and months on end and then I get some other "symptom" that I focus on. Rinse and repeat.

Think about it. The mere fact that we actually have accounts on this website kinda gives away that we may not have the healthiest mental habits as far as our health goes. We may be mentally obsessed with our health situation a little bit over the safe amount and I even saw some posts over here of people not only self-diagnosing but either dismissing professional diagnosis or going as far as basically creating (although barely) possible diseases that could explain this condition.

Many people here, just like me, have acknowledged this skin condition after sexual intercourse. Is it the case that this redness really appeared only after said episode or was it always there and only now we have noticed it?

The reason I ask this is because there are all kinds of colorations of the penis. One only needs to watch some fair amount of porn to notice how diverse penis glands can be. Hell, one only needs to take a look at the pictures some of the users have gently provided in this discussion. Maybe we always had somewhat reddish penis tips and because of the preoccupation triggered by unprotected sex we got to looking now too hard at it.

Another reason why I say this is because I got so overzealous about this thing that I actually looked for an old nude pic of mine that I had sent to my former girlfriend about four years ago. Upon finally finding the pic, I realized that my penis gland already had the same triangular red pattern back then, although not so pronounced.

Maybe we are looking at something much simpler than we make of it, like underwears too tight or something as banal as that. Many pics I've seen here do not seem worrisome, especially if they come from people with clean tests. Perhaps, all this self-diagnosing and self-medicating is only making the thing worse. Some months back I was diagnosed with varicocele. My mind is so unhealthy that automatically I started feeling pain in my testicles, because I was so focused on it. When I distracted myself, I wouldn't feel a thing.

Months before that, I had some weird redness on my testicles. After obsessing about it non-stop and using anti-fungal creams on it with no avail, I simply stopped (probaly to obsess over my red penis tip). As a result, my balls went back to normal.

Sorry for talking so much, but I hope you guys understand what I'm trying to say.

It's like that old adage: if there's a solution, then it is a problem. But if there's no solution to be found, then it was never a problem in the first place.

Anyways, I'll keep following this thread and I wish all of you all the best.

Hi Jason.

Stop glad I found this thread, have had exactly the same thing.

My story:

- Sexual contact caused some tingling. Assumed it was thrush, treated accordingly. It didn't go away.

- Visit to GUM clinic. Full blood, full urine, full swabs. Nothing, all negative for every STD.

- Develop groin rash, like a damn diaper rash, between leg folds. See GP. Baffled, try steroidal cream, some alleviation, comes and goes.

- Penis glans is what's got worse later down the line. It almost feels like I've dipped it in toothpaste. It's constantly tingly, often red - but never when I go to show a medical practitioner! So I've started taking pictures.

- Latest symptom was skin peeling. Literally the whole glans skin shed, piece by piece, like a snake. Looked red and felt sunburnt this past five days!

Some thoughts:

- All practitioners seem baffled, which is so frustrating, as I know something is deeply wrong in myself.

- I have other skin conditions: rosacea and seborrheic dermatitis and possibly psoriasis.

- It is possible to get genital psoriasis, which I think this may be. My glans is waxier, shinier than normal, sometimes red and patchy.

- This is NOT thrush. I've tried oral and topical treatments thrice now, it doesn't work.

- Another thought: diabetes. This I'm unsure about, but there may be a link.

- Other symptoms: swollen upper eyelids, initially would keep me awake at night, signifying it's likely am autoimmune response. To what, who knows.

I'd love to know if anyone has and relief/comment /theories/results.

I'm terrified to have to live with this forever. It's come out the blue and is killing my sexual confidence - which is an important part of my life!

Thanks

Sorry for my bad english (i´m leaving in Europe), but i would say that i am in excatly the same situation since one year and no doctor seems to know what it is. Sometimes the redness is almost gone, using fat cream for dry skin, but it never totally gone. I have remark that going to swimming pool have an imediate impact: last time after 20 minutes swimming the part cover bu the skin become really red like burn and it start etching and peeling but after 3 days with fat cream it became better as for sun burn skin. One suposition is that chlorine in the water create an immediate reaction. When i was under the shower at the swimming pul it was burning like having it i very hot water...It is a great moral support to have this contact....and perhaps if some doctor was involved in that chat may- be it would be easier to found a cause and perhaps a solution to that problem.

Must admit I've given some thought to the phycological side of this as it always seems to go away before a doctor visit etc and they always seem to describe it at mild when to me it's so obvious! Anyway I'm just going through more treatments from a new dermatologist and after some time she has concluded zoons balantitus which as far as I can see means a type of tough to beat irritation of the penis gland.. cause unknown! Great work docs! Anyway I'm being recommended to have a medical circumcision. Anyone else been down this route? I'm concerned I'll have it done and the problem will persist leaving me with an unprotected and still sore penis, escalating the problem! 

As for the guy who said this thread is a waste of time well I totally disagree it gives me hope and it's lifting to be able to openly discuss such an awkward and embarrassing issue, and if I do ever cure my problem I'll be telling everyone don't you worry about that mate!