Painful Genital Irritation (Not STD)

[kyking502]

I've been into the occasional self-gratification for a while (always using lubrication). However, about four months ago, I began to develop a reddish, chafed area on the bottomside of my penis where the skin was much thinner than the surrounding area. The region is in the shaped of a vertical bar that extends from the tip of my penis down to the base (the area that rests upon the scrotum when non-erect). It's excruciating whenever I put pressure on it, lean forward, or run, and has prevented me from being intimate with anyone. A lot of the skin has basically sloughed off here and it's very thin. I don't know if masturbation was the cause, but when I continued to do it, it would make the region much more inflamed and painful, not to mention to chafe the region more. Needless to say, I quit when this started. However, since then, the painful region has not gone away. I've met two dermatologists about this. I've had a full STD screening and I'm clean. I was prescribed steroid cream (helped with the redness and a little of the pain, but the skin would never grow back fully, even after applying for two months), and now I was just prescribed an anti-fungal in the hopes that will fix it. However, I don't know if it will work. Should I tell the dermatologists about the past masturbation, or would that even help them? I've been too embarrassed to mention it in my appointments, hoping they could figure out a solution without me mentioning it.

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
From your symptoms it looks like chafing to me. Chafing occurs when the skin becomes irritated by the friction caused by rubbing – either against other skin or against a foreign material. Wash the areas several times with fresh water. Do not use any cosmetic products at the sites. You can apply some calamine lotion at the rash as it will help in soothing the skin. Also wear cotton undergarments.Application of mild corticosteroid cream and oral antiinflammatories like ibuprofen/acetaminophen are also helpful. If the symptoms are severe then it will be best to consult a dermatologist.

It is very difficult to precisely confirm a diagnosis without examination and investigations and the answer is based on the medical information provided. For exact diagnosis, you are requested to consult your doctor. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.

[kyking502]

Additionally, is there anything I could use to help promote the growth of new skin on this area? I think the reason it's so painful is partly because the skin is sooooo thin. It's grown back partly, but is still significantly more thin than the area to the both sides of it under my penis that aren't in direct contact with the scrotum while non-erect.