Bacterial/Fungal infection? At a loss here....

[toemano]

Dear Doctors,

I am at a loss of what might be my problem. Please let me explain my issue as detailed as possible:

I am a 32 year old male who got an infection on the inner thighs when I was quite young. Didn't bother me, it was just there.
At the age of 27 I decided to get rid of these small patches and used miconazole cream and it dissappeared.

However, it came back later on and I was not bothered by it at all.

I moved from Western Europe to the tropical Hong Kong a year ago and that is when the problem really started.

The patches on the inner thighs got slightly bigger, but not only that, when I carefully investigated the rest of the area (by shaving off the hair) I found out that the problem had progressed onto my scrotum and above my penis (where it's normally covered with pubic hair).
One can litteraly see a trail going from the inner-thighs onto the balls.

The interesting thing is that on the inner thighs the patches are sometimes pinkish, reddish. Sometimes brownish. Sometimes yellowish.
Same above my penis....Mostly dark brown with some pinkish patches here and there.
However on the balls it just mainly stays reddis/pinkish.

When I pull my inner thigh skin tight in the sun it is a shiny patch....As if there is a filter of some sort over my skin

It is hot and tropical in Hong Kong and the skin issue is exactly around the area where I wear my underpants.

Important detail: NO irritation or itching whatsoever. If I could not see it, I would not even know it's there.


Now, the difficult part:

I went to a dermatologist and he put me on Lamisil tablets and cream for 2 weeks. Did not work.

Then: Clarythromycin 500 mg tablets and T3 Mycin for 2 weeks. Did not work.

Then:  Itraconazol 100 mg and Decozol cream for 2 weeks. Did not work.


I am at a loss here, as you can imagine, I lose my trust in this doctor.

What can this be? Can any doctor help me?

[toemano]

thank you for your reply!

Yeah he took a sample last time and we will see what it is.

I plan to change to another doctor after this.

[mkh9]

I am not a doctor, rather a microbiologist just helping people on here. It is hard to know without seeing the infection.  Does it look the same as the one that was cured by the anti fungal cream when you were younger? They really need to take some skin scrapings or do some diagnostic tests in order to figure out what it is. Itraconazole is a strong antifungal though. But some fungi are resistant to it.  You really need to see another dermatologist. They may need to give you lamisil pills for 3 months not 2 weeks. It takes a long time to get rid of fungi.
mkh9

[toemano]

no one?