I feel for you; I suffered with those bacterial infections for years before I was circumcised. That took care of it, and as a bonus my wife ceased from having bladder infections. It will only get worse with age, I was 60 before I finally decided to get cut. Your sensitivity won't suffer if you insist on retaining a minimal amount of inner skin. Just do it, it will also improve your mental state--having a sore penis can really play on your mind.
Plain water works just fine. Soaps can irritate some people, and cause balanitis.
If you use soap, the milder the better...nothing like deodorant soap, or anything with pumice. Castille soap is plenty mild.
The latest instalment in this saga is that I paid to see a urologist privately. Did not really gain a lot from the appointment, though. On the day I saw him, I admit that things looked less red than usual, and his opinion was that despite some redness, the penis looked normal. He did not think the bacteria found on the swab were relevant, and said it sounded like thrush (despite no evidence of this on any of the swabs). He prescribed ketoconazole cream, which I've been using for about 5 days, and appears to be making no difference. He said that if this did not work, all he could recommend was a circumcision, which I do not favour.
Has anyone got any suggestions for where to go next with this? Should I try to be seen at an STD/GUM clinic instead? My penis is not sore or itchy at the moment, but if definately looks more red than normal, and definately did not look like this before last december. To put it in perspective, I very much doubt that a potential partner would let it near them as it is, so I would like to get it sorted for that reason if nothing else.
Just a suggestion/thought..try try some corn starch.. Apply it to the head/whole top of your penis. Don't worry about keeping the skin back! You've tried that and it didn't make a difference. When we were babies an had a diaper rash, our mother's often used corn starch on our red inflamed areas. Desitine, a diaper rash cream also was used. Just some food for thought...
Last edited by cleansweap; 06-16-2006 at 08:40 AM.
Thought I would provide some feedback on the corn starch. I could not find corn starch over here, and when I looked it up on the net, corn starch and corn flour appeared to be different terms for the same thing. So tried corn flour.
Whilst there is still some residual redness, applying corn flour for a few days has made more difference than 6 months of anti-bacterial and anti-fungial creams and ointments. I assume it works by absorbing the moisture from the area, thus preventing the growth of fungus and bacteria. Not entirely back to normal, but certainly the most effective remedy I've tried.
What happened? Did you solve your problem? Unfortunately, I have what you have (hopefully 'had') and will be damned if I'll be circumcised to solve it. Please let me know!!
I had a cystectomy about 4 months ago (internal examination of the bladder to check for cancer). Four days after the cystectomy, I came down with something like you all are describing.
I have also tried about everything with no positive results, and have an appointment with my urologist in the next couple of weeks. But from the descriptions on this thread, lichen planus sounds very probable.
So thanks. I may be able to beat the urologist to a diagnosis. But it sounds as if little can be done except wait patiently.
Just a suggestion/thought..try try some corn starch.. Apply it to the head/whole top of your penis. Don't worry about keeping the skin back! You've tried that and it didn't make a difference. When we were babies an had a diaper rash, our mother's often used corn starch on our red inflamed areas. Desitine, a diaper rash cream also was used. Just some food for thought...
