Redscrotumsyndrome

[lamb72]

Is there any answers to this? I have had this for a year and the Dermo hasn't been able to cure me.


This discussion is related to 'Red Bag' Syndrome.

[moo99]

I also have had this for about a year and it is making my life a misery. It started as a sweat rash which I didn't treat with the right creams. I was then put on differnt cortesoid creams which I reckon brought this on. I hav tried natural remedies to ease the discomfort (tea tree, witchazel, alovera) and talcs like Gold Bond. My dermatolist has put me on both doxycycline and gabapentin without success. You may want to give these a go as I have read that people have had some success with a course of these drugs.
Good Luck and you have my sympathy as it's a really depressing condition.

[lamb72]

Thank you for responding, I was begining to think nobody else had this.
My Dermo. has given me almost every RX that is available, he has said that it is nerve related and also put me on Grabapenten 100mg 3x a day. Last week I went to a spine Doc. This is the first time he has seen this, his assistant who checked me over first reported to him and before he came in to see me he checked their books and found nothing. He said that he would look into after hours on a medical on-line. He did increase my meds to 300mg 3x for a month. I will see him in a month. I showed him what a doctor said in a posting that was several years ago about the nerves in the spine this doc was very doubtful of the info. The posting was from a doc. at the VA.
Did you have any redness on any other area such as your legs and back side? My legs have gone back to almost the correct color but my backside feels like it is on fire as I sit here at he computer. The dermo has taken a biopsy and skin culture which came back as fungus.

[moo99]

No problem. No I had no redness on my backside but the inside of my thighs go red raw and feel like they are severely chapped. My dermo put me in on doxycline and I took them for about 6 weeks but they didn't really do any good. I then tried gabepentin but couldn't tolerate them as I got severe pain in my right shoulder blade (side effect). I intend to give them another go in a few weeks as my doctor has now given me pregapentin.
Please let me know how you go with your course of gabapentin. Have they done any good up to now?
My derm told me the condition could be either stress or nerve related but I am convinced it was brought on by my doctor who prescribed stronger and stronger creams for a bad case of jock itch that wouldn't go away.
I have had problem swith my back over the last 9 months were it has locked for no reason but this only lasts a few days.

[lamb72]

Hello moo99
As to your question on Gabapentin so far no relief since he upped it to 300mg tomorrow will be a week. My Dermo. has said I have 2 problems, the scrotum and the groin some meds work on the groin which I have a lot of improvement the redness is gone. The meds that he gave e are Mometasone which helped last summer to get the redness cleared away. He also gave me Ketoconazole which helped for a while now I am using Vusion which seems to help with the groin area. But none of these work onthe scrotum.
For the scrotum I use Pramosone during the day and Zonalon at night which works so you can get some sleep it does have something in it to help you sleep and calm things down, I can't use it during the day due to the side effects.
The doctors may be correct about about stress although the jury is still out.About 3 years ago my lady friend was stricken with a brain tumor and I was with her during the whole process until she passed which will be a year very soon. This is when I found the Dark red area on the front of my scrotum I didn't get to my family Doc until after she passed, my life hassettled down now but I still have trouble.-

[willy851]

Your situation sounds a little like mine. Two years ago I almost lost my wife. The anxiety and stress was destroying me. Then my scrotum started to get red and sting bad. The pain was intense at times. I went to many dermatologists, who prescribed one cream after another.
Two years later I still have the stinging feeling occasionally. The dermatologist attributes it to stress.  
My symptoms come and go within minutes. My scrotum will get real tight and turn beat red. Then ten minutes later it's gone.
I am currently taking something for anxiety which seems to help more then any cream.
There are allot of guys out there with the same problem. It definitely has something to do with stress.  

[moo99]

Sorry to hear about your lady friend and also willy851's wife. My mum passed away about 2 years a go and I had to sort out all the stuff afttwards. It was a few months after this that my trouble started. It doesn't bother me of a night and it seems to settle down and its only when I get up of a morning that it kicks off again. I did have a period a few weeks a go (over XMAS) where it had almost gone completely and it disappered when we went on holiday for a week at the end of september. Both times I was away from work. Is this a coincidence?
There dosen't appear to be any easy answers to this and as willy851 says it could be associated with anxiety as well. Though I don't feel anxiuous or stressed, my doctor says people cope with it in different ways.
The worst part for me is that I like to do a lot of training and its really uncomfortable whilst running. I have had to cut right back on this and beforehand cover the area in talc so it doesn't feel so sore and chapped.
I will take a look at the creams you have been using out of interest.

[lamb72]

Thank you for your comments. You mentioned that you get tight then red- then settles down, my question is, does the redness go away when things calm down? I stay red.
Hopefully we can come with the answer that the Doctors

[lamb72]

Please forgive my grammer composition on the last post.
Hopefully we can come up with the answers that the Doctors can't

[moo99]

Sorry I haven't replied earlier but had a bit of bad news over weekend and haven't used my PC. Hard to really answer that one. I have had a period of about 4-6 weeks when the irritation settled and didn't bother me. However, I knew that deep down it hadn't gone and that it would come back. The scrotum was still tight and walnut like at times but at others it returned to normal. At present, it's bothering me like mad and the rednes on the inside of my thights hasn't really been as bad as this before.

I find that when I am like this it's best to wear no underwear as it just makes things worse. I also use talc (gold bond or johnsons baby) at this time to try and stay dry.

[willy851]

Nothing seems to work 100% of the time. My irritation extends down my thighs but there is no change in color. It just burns. Sometimes it hurts so bad It feels like a torch is burning a hole through my skin. The skin will get cold to the touch as this is happening. I had a test on my circulation and everything was normal. I also had a nerve test, which came back normal.
The one thing that proved to the doctors that this is real is. I took diflucan for a few days and everywhere that I have been experiencing pain turned into a rash. Finally they believe it has something to do with sugar and yeast. They don't believe in systemic yeast infections but, that's what I believe.
My grammar is just as bad. Public education! College didn't help much, at 44 I just deal with it.

[willy851]

Nothing seems to work 100% of the time. My irritation extends down my thighs but there is no change in color. It just burns. Sometimes it hurts so bad It feels like a torch is burning a hole through my skin. The skin will get cold to the touch as this is happening. I had a test on my circulation and everything was normal. I also had a nerve test, which came back normal.
The one thing that proved to the doctors that this is real is. I took diflucan for a few days and everywhere that I have been experiencing pain turned into a rash. Finally they believe it has something to do with sugar and yeast. They don't believe in systemic yeast infections but, that's what I believe.
My grammar is just as bad. Public education! College didn't help much, at 44 I just deal with it.

[Paperchaser222]

Three years of the same symtoms.....red scrotum..irritation...no where else.....Tried lamasil, loprox, canestan, ketoderm, lanacane, gold bond, talcum, and moisturizing lotion. Seen dermatogologist, urologist, etc....they say "you have a rash" "get over it". Had ultrasound on scrotum, bladder, renal, nothing to report.
Sorry but I'm tired of trying all this stuff with no results....
Any more cortisone products and my scrotum skin will be so thin, my testicles will fall out on floor.
Unfortunately, with no useage the irritation "feels like" burst blisters in the crease between thigh and scrotum..Moisturizing cream created the same effect...severe irritation.....
I know the cortisone "masks" the pain and that's all, and these products are all antifungal, but they sure haven't worked for me in the 3+ years I have had this problem. I'm 55 and jokingly thinking I should get castrated, then the doc's can take scrotum with them when operation is complete. It might cure the problem. Have looked into yeast infection possibilities and have cut down on sugar intake, with more probiotics added, still no positive results, but still working on this self helf treatment.

[rssvictim]

Red Scrotum Syndrome (RSS)

Hello everyone… I am new to this board, but I have been monitoring it for months as well as other similar boards on the subject.  For I am a fellow sufferer of the bright red scourge.

I have been comparing and contrasting my observations of my own condition to those of you who post and I believe that I can help a lot of you by bringing together fragments to piece together the problem as to cause and solution.  By the way, mine is gone now 

Initial cause:

In reading these various posts, it seems apparent that no one doctor or victim agrees as to the initial cause.  Most dermatologists (mine included), had never heard of RSS.  The various causes listed are:

*guilt from an affair
*bacterial infection
*viral infection
*fungal infection
*exsema
*psoriasis
*corticosteroid use

Most of these are indicated by the doctors because they have no clue what it is, what causes it or how to successfully treat it.  Once in a while I saw a thread that said that the dermatologist knew it was RSS, but that there was no cure.

Obviously, some of you will be suffering from the obscure end of this list, but I believe that the cause of 98% or so of RSS is a combination of fungal and corticosteroid reaction.

Firstly, fungal infections are very common in men, but they rarely involved the scrotum.  Usually, jock itch stays on the inner thigh, near the groin;  that’s why the doctors rarely or never see it, but once in a while it attacks the scrotum.  

In my case, my wife thoughtfully bought me a sex toy (silicon sleeve).  She washed it and let it air dry…mistake.  When she used it on me the next day, it was still wet and the water ran over my scrotum.  The very next day all the skin on the scrotum was dead and flaking.  I realized that the lack of drying of the toy essentially cultured the ambient fungal spores that are on practically everything and that concentrated culture infected what is usually not infected…my scrotum of course.

Note to anyone with these toys…I read after the fact that you’re supposed to rinse thoroughly the washed toys with rubbing alcohol so that it evaporates the water and no fungus can germinate.

So what did I do?  I did what most of you probably did..I self treated. I tried Lotrimin, then Lamasil, then tinactin.  Tinactin seemed to work the best, but the scrotum seemed to still be somewhat pink and wet, so I went to the dermatologist.  He in 30 years had never seen this so, he did what most dermatologists do, they prescribe prescription strength anti fungal creams.  I went trough 3 types of antifungal creams that were combined with corticosteroids (like cortisone).  Also, an oral anti fungal pill that was guaranteed to cure any fungal issue and super strength cortisone.  I had to discontinue each cream prematurely as it seemed that they were making it worse.  By the end of everything, it was beet red, itched and hurt.

Well, after that I tried the old Tinactin some more with a lot of powder, both seasorb antifungal OTC powder and Johnson’s baby powder.  It waxed and waned, but always pretty red.  

After reading more posts re some doctor’s views that this thing is caused by corticosteroid overuse, I  came to the realization that while cortisone and antifungals work great on the thicker, more keratinized skin, not so on the more sensitive and more permeable scrotum.  

It is my opinion that many of us actually cure the fungal infection, but that the cure causes the scrotum to be chemically traumatized and because we think that the fungus is still there we continue the chemical attack.  I have had it now for 8 months!

On a side note I was able to find a scientific study from Beirut that indicated a cure had been reached by treating the patient with oral docycycline (an antibiotic in the Tetracycline family).  I also found 1 person’s post who claimed he was cured with it out here in the U.S. I think it was 30 days 1gram per day and ½ gram for some unknown period thereafter with some cream for the vasodilatation in the scrotum.  I may be looking into this to finish me up but keep reading.

So, I decided to do the unthinkable.  I LEFT IT ALONE.  Put nothing on it.  After a couple of days, the red went to a dark pink and then a light pink with some dry skin look to it.  I found a homeopathic cure on one of the threads which was a combination anti inflammatory and anti fungal mixture.  I changed it a bit based upon a study of homeopathy and came up with a new formula that I am using.  While I was waiting to get the ingredients, I coated the scrotum with extra virgin olive oil, which had great results.  Even before the internet delivered my ingredients, my wife said the color was back to normal.  I am not sure, because it has been so long since I’ve seen it normal I have forgotten its true color.  But the itch was 99% gone, the pain 100% gone and it was a bit darker than the rest of the tissue, but just a bit.

I also, applied a couple of bouts of aloe vera (pure) and a seaweed and mud facial my wife had for nutrients (came from a company called Lush that originated in Canada and is out here in California, England and other countries).

So, here is what I advise:

If you have done nothing about the fungus, use tinactin cream (only) as instructed morning and evening for 2 weeks.  If you have already treated the fungus (ad nauseam most likely) then see next paragraph.

Then leave it alone for 5 days and see if it self improves.  If you need to put something on it do the olive oil.  Then go to ‘Vitamin Shoppe’ or internet or other homeopathic shoppe and get the following in order to guard against fungus and also to treat the inflamed scrotum:

Castor oil- anti fungal and anti inflammatory
Lavender oil- anti microbial
Tea Tree Oil- antimicrobial
Oregano oil- same
Black seed oil- aka black cumin- anti inflammatory
Mixing eye dropper bottle.
A small measuring cup- like that found in children’s Tylenol as a measuring cup.

30 ml Castor oil
20 drops lavender oil
20 drops Tea Tree oil
5 drops Oregano oil
10 drops black seed oil

shake to homogeneous solution and keep refrigerated.  Apply 2-3 times per day until you are satisfied that your scrotum is normal again.  If it doesn’t go perfectly normal, perhaps a trip to the doctor to try the doxycycline treatment or possibly it will have a bit of an off color as it may be a bit scarred as it was a traumatized tissue.  Time will tell.

Either way I can say 1 thing for sure…I am finally relieved.  Good luck