Is this Balanitis? I'm 21, had it most of my whole life, no treatment has worked
Posted , 190 users are following.
Hello, I've seen a doctor many times about a mild condition I have on my penis glans, have been prescribed 3 different creams including Betnovate and a Hydrocortisone, a course of antibiotics and a swab which said I was clear and still the condition remains. I used to have a tight foreskin up until last year which is now sorted from stretching, and I think the condition began during my teenage years when I wasn't able to wash the glans. It often feels dry and can sometmes feel slightly painful when the foreskin retracts, almost like its rubbing and the sensitivity everywhere is quite high still, not sure if this is due to the condition. The urethra opening is always red and inflamed and red areas appear frequently around the glans itself. Any advise on what I should do would be much appreciated, have attached a photo too. Many thanks!
12 likes, 703 replies
TR1NITY Verstarix
Edited
Hi All,
Having same problem, very similar or exactly same as photos in this thread. having this now for 4th year. Very uncomfortable. Basically no sex life, as it gives me pain after 3-4 minutes. So, I said it's enough and start looking for the cure. No, I'm sorry, I didn't find any, yet. But maybe I can share my knowledge, so maybe someone in future can use this and save some time doing unnecessary things, not wasting time, or will point us to some better direction.
1st of all there is Balanitis of several kinds:
These four are typical balanitis that are easily curable by corticosteroids, antifungal cremes, anti-yeast cremes, and so on... Usually u get cured within 7 days or so. But if you are browsing this forum, obviously you don't have any of these as any 3rd grade urologist can heal this.
We have Balanitis of the 5th kind which is not -typical- known or any cure officialy found for it. First of all your irritation, dry skin of glans (thats your penis head), microscopic tears, inflammation, these are all effects of dry condition on glans. We don't have any natural bacteria under our foreskin, between foreskin and glans. You remember this white 'skin' you could peel of before this all started? That was normal state, with proper bacteria environment. We don't have it anymore and therefore we get all those symptoms.
I went through Urologist (several of them), Dermatologist, and now I ended up at Allergologist. I always had hay-fever allergy, and also allergy caused by high grass (not sure how its called in english, but not important), some eczema when i was kid. There is theory this can be caused by some kind of allergy or eczema. Unfortunately, my allergologist can identify the things I have allergy to, but can't find the proper treatment. Now I'm trying various food-supplements along with anti-allergic pills, but not any effect.
I've seen several recommendations in this thread as Cicaplast, Flukonazol, antibiotics, etc. Nothing works, I've been through all of this... save your time and skip this. I recommend you to do allergologic tests, even if you have no problem with allergy what so ever. Hopefully one of you will get the adequate treatment and you will come back and post here.
Allergologist told me also this is quite common problem but people don't talk about this. Funnily enough, those doctors nowadays, they do only what we do right now. They browse internetz and use google to find the cause. I will check back here occasionally to see/write updates and hopefully one day we will find some help.
andrew07798 TR1NITY
Posted
Tr1nity or others. I am having almost identical issues. Did your issues come on acutely (all of the sudden)? My just started all of the sudden and have been persistent since that date 1.5years ago. Is anyone else having swelling in other areas? My epidydidims has also been swollen during this time. Also urologist noted that my urine flow was slow(swollen urethra) and prostate slightly enlarged. Its kind of like everything in that area has inflamation. All testings came back pretty normal. Bacterial culture no growth, normal white and red blood cell counts in urine. One test i did have was microscopic examination of urine and this revealed some bacteria in the urine that was unidentifyiable and very very low colonization count. Different antibiotic treatments innaffective: amoxicillin, doxycycline and ciprofloxicin. Every GP or urologist says everything looks normal. i have chronic dull pain right at tip of penis and dull pain in right testicle. Same kind of wrinkly glans as others with reddish discolouration seeming to eminate from urethral opening. At times the urethral opening has the fish lips thing going on as others described, and sometimes seems normal.
Similar to Tr1nity i have allergies to hay fever and several types of grasses, ragweed and trees.
I kind of thought in my head maybe i got some strange bacterial infection from hot tub and sexual activity in hot tub with water that maybe wasnt sanitized properly. Just wondering if anyone could draw any parrallels to that.
Take care all.
simon81468 andrew07798
Posted
its been nearly two years for me with this problem and I have finally got it under control (not cured) by making sure the head is dried after peeing and using Cetraben twice a day, I have seen big improvements the redness has faded and soreness has gone.
Try and keep masturbation to a minimum and if you really have to look up frenulum masturbation or male clitoris it's all easier on the old chap, really hope this helps in some way.
TR1NITY andrew07798
Posted
Hi, from what I've learned so far, this disease is not coming from external factors. I mean it doesn't seem to be caused anything that came from outside of you, rather it's something that happens inside and all the symptoms we are reffering to is just effect of this disease. As I mentioned, I'm trying to figure out whether this is not some of allergy to something. You could try visit your allergologist and show him pictures on your phone (so you dont need to show yourself) and actually look into this from allergologist perspective. This is what Im doing right now.
HeadTrauma andrew07798
Posted
I have all the same symptoms (came on fast and have never left) its been months now. I do visit a public hot tub, sauna, and steam room on occasion no sex in them of course however, the trauma I experience during sex with micro tear might have let something in. I don't know.It just bothers me even as I sit here typing this. I want to reach down and reposition it but I know it wont help. I just hope to ultimately forget about it at times so I can function.
daniel95328 Verstarix
Edited
well guys Proffessor Bunker is on holiday for February, my appointment is therefore the 3rd of March
aint cheap fellas, £100 deposit and £380 for the appointment.... hopefully it will be worth it
alex2741 daniel95328
Edited
Hi Daniel, I have a very similar problem as well, 1 day after having oral sex my penis started to swallow and have most balanitis symptoms but no pain when urinate. I went to gp to get diagnosed and threaded with anti-fungal creams and they worked to remove swallow but redness and wrinkled skin persist very similar as the first picture. I also went to Urologist but he said it looked normal to him, even though I said it was a little swallowed sometimes he only prescribed 25% zinc oxide paste to apply in the head twice a day but it doesn't seem to help at all.
I've had this problem for 3 months now and as I found this thread I think it's some type of balanitis or bacteria that hasn't been really treated before to cure.
I really hope the dermatologist founds something about this that can help us all, I think it's important to give him this thread so he can read all our cases and research about it, maybe a bacteria culture can find the solution.
Thanks for sharing and I will be following this thread and try some recommendations given before to see if something helps and obviously share it here.
alex2741
Posted
I also been tested for VDRL but returned negative twice and antibiotics like erythromycin doesn't get rid of wrinkles and redness.
Also it itches a little my penis head and the foreskin that covers the glande swallows a little when I masturbate sometimes.
I hope that information helps too.
Timmyboy daniel95328
Posted
Good luck man... keep us in the loop!
w.66419 daniel95328
Posted
$612?! and he probably has no idea wth it is or how to resolve it.
john54641 Verstarix
Posted
hey all, just throwing my 2 cents in for my case : red blotchy glans , extremely dry wrinkled glans all over , red urethrea, ever so slight burn when pee (sometimes not all), red glans after lubed play , ZERO itching or tingling ,or soreness ,
for me what helps the appearance at least, is washing just warm water, drying with kitchen towel, putting few drops of low acid olive oil on , rubbing in, putting foreskin back ....I know a lot of people say not to keep moist. but for me (maybe is not fungal based or something ), doing this helps , as long as not let it dry totally (3 mins after washing etc ), as it dries out and looks terrible then . doing this method at least means it looks pretty normal, other than the redness thing . interestingly i tried coconut oil and this seemed to make matters worse. allergen type ? who knows . tried a fair few creams and steroids, just working my way through all the suggestions of "cured" people on various threads . will keep eye on this thread and post any changes for me, but its getting me down a lot and is not getting better, but admittedly has not got any worse in months
charles66161 Verstarix
Posted
Hey, i have the exact same problem and it started in april 2019 after intense masturbation. I'm happy to finally found other people with the same problem. No STIs, no balanits or yeast infection. No help from any doctors and urologists but i'm hopeful now that we are all hunting for a cure.
glenn54030 Verstarix
Edited
Your prepuce (foreskin) provided a favorable environment for fungus.It is highly probably as long as you have foreskin you will be subjecting yourself to this issue.I suggest an antifungal cream. Apply twice a day and keep the area as dry as possible. I have noticed nearly all of the men writing are uncircumcised.I know about those issues. I was uncut most of my life and dealt with nearly all of them.Guys, it 'ain't' worth it
If you lose your foreskin most of these problems will disappear and you will never look back.
daniel95328 glenn54030
Posted
Thats what they told me, It made it worse
charles66161 glenn54030
Edited
You definitely didnt read the whole tread... did you?
TR1NITY glenn54030
Posted
Im sorry, but completely rubbish answer. Our problem is caused due to absence of natural environment under the foreskin. Instead of natural environment there we have absolute dryness which allows our natural bacteria(s) to get in and cause inflamation and allergy-like symptoms. What bacteria you ask? usually that are naturally present on humans body, thats usually whole family of streptococcus (aurus, fecalis, etc). Please don't confuse the others, I mean no bad, thanks.