My rash won’t go after 4 months, PLEASE HELP

how will i know when to stop using it tho? i have used it before for 2 weeks and it basically cleared it up then as soon as i stopped it came back. the doctor told me to only use for 2 weeks as its a steroid cream and i cant see a dermatologist until august 2021!!! any advice?

If it is a family doctor / GP you have seen then they do not seem to appreciate the principles of clearing genital skin problems and the use of steroid based topical applications to clear skin issues.

In very simplistic terms skin problems have two sources: a health problem within the body; something the skin is in regular contact with that is causing irritation.

What you need to consider for the second is basically everything that is in contact with the skin of your penis. So you need to play 'detective' - are you using anything new / what, if anything changed immediately before you got this?

The most common things are soaps, shower gels, washing powder / treatments your clothes are washed in, fabric conditioners and so on.

Are you currently sexually active: do you use condoms, any kind of Lube for sex or masturbation? Do you apply anything as a moisturiser or skin cream to your penis?

If, and I do say if, the cause is a contact source then I would suggest it is an ongoing source - it would NOT be something your skin was in contact with 4+ months ago and is still causing the problem now, even though no contact has existed since. Problems are not caused like this - there has to be a regular source, AND if it was a health issue I do not think it would present like this.

Do you have an itch with this - or anywhere else on the body have a persistent itch?

In what country do you live?

absolutely nothing has changed in my day to day what so ever, i literally woke up randomly one morning 4 months ago and i was itching my genitals like mad, completely out of the blue. My GP has no clue what it is and i have been on daktarin for 2 weeks, then daktacort, then tablets, then just some ointment and then canestan and nothing makes it go. i havent changed washing powder, i use non bio shower gel and i take extra care to keep my hands away from that area. I am really out of ideas of what to do now 😦

Are you in the UK ..... ?

yes sir

Stop applying shower gel or soap or any other form of body wash to your penis as you are simply unable to choose which are safe one's to use and which are not yourself.

Never expose your penis to hot water! When you shower wash everywhere else on your body first, then use cooler water ONLY to fully-rinse and wash your entire genital region with.

You must be really careful when you dry your penis - use a clean dry towel that ONLY you use to carefully pat dry your penis with.

You need to switch to washing you underwear in Liquid Soap Flakes this replaces washing powder in the washing machine - DO NOT apply anything else to your wash such as fabric conditioner. Follow the instructions to use the right amount.

If you wear other close contact clothing such as any sports shorts, or even if you wear tight jeans these also need to be washed in the Liquid Soap Flakes. All large supermarkets - look for the fairy brand or supermarket own-brand liquid soap flakes is also okay to use.

If you masturbate or are sexually active you need to abstain form these until this issue is resolved.

As you are in the UK you can go to a GUM Clinic and have this assessed - find out which is the largest General Hospital in the area in which you live and can travel to.

Often these are the locations of specialist treatment centres and have a greater number of specialists that are available in other departments across the hospital.

Once you know the name of the hospital, either check their own website or check online "GUM Clinic near me" to make sure they have GUM Clinic as sometimes these are based in the city centre rather than being at the hospital site.

Get the phone number and phone to make sure you can currently visit - they may ask you to briefly explain what you have going on, say you have tried a number of things and even CANNOT help you with this .....

Ok amazing, I will give all these a try, is it worth using steroid cream anymore for a longer period of time or not much point?

Thank you

Just out of interest, why has this rash suddenly happened now? I have never had sensitive skin previously and I have used all sorts of shower gels and washing chemicals throughout my life. Also, nothing had changed within my day to day to even bring this on, I literally woke up one morning scratching like crazy and its been like this ever since, is this common at all? Another thing is that if it was to do with what I was washing my clothes with and what shower gel i was using why do i not have a rash anywhere else on my body?

I see online that stress can play a big factor and I am extremely stressed at the moment, could that be something that makes it worse?

Sorry for all the questions but after being to the doctors over 5 times they are still no real help so trying to get some answers from yourself, hope you dont mind.

Thank you

The simple explanation is that you can get an accumulation effect: what the skin was seemingly quite happy dealing with reaches a point where it can no longer deal with the impact of different chemicals and compounds placed on it.

Genital skin is quite unlike skin anywhere else on the body - and the other factors that are present do not exist elsewhere on the body. For example, most often the genitals are closely covered in underwear, there are issues of warmth and sweat - the mixture of factors that are present would make the impact of something like a shower gel, or washing powder all that more intense because of the location and the range of other things that are present in your groin and genital region.

So for example, while yeast and fungal spores are naturally present across the human body it is usually only in the groin, genital and between the toes that the spores get out of control - that is because of what else is naturally present in these locations, and most often this is to do with constant warmth, and / or the presence of moisture and sweat.

And yes, things like stress can impact - often when we are stressed and anxious our level of sweat production increases - this can, via our thought processes interfere with how we behave, directly. A simple example of this is our hygiene regime that we previously had may become disrupted, and can even be no longer a priority as our mind is elsewhere.

Essentially, there are a huge amount of things at play when skin problems are suddenly present at it is not always easy to tease out exactly what is going on.

I have dealt with this range of issues myself, and I basically had to change as many things that I could directly impact on, such as not using soap and shower gel directly on my genitals, fully rinsing at the end of a shower, changing the washing powder my clothes are washed in and so on ....