Unwanted genital enlargement!

[davemeister]

I'm a 26 year old male, 5 ft 11 in., 260 pounds, pretty muscular but could definitely stand to lose some weight.  About a week ago my girlfriend and I had unprotected sex.  We have been together about 6 years, and have unprotected sex very often.  I've only been with one other girl and that was about 8 years ago.  I'm the only guy my girlfriend has been with.  My ex-girlfriend got tested for STDs before we had sex and the test came back clean.  Neither me or my girlfriend have been tested, but we have had no std symptoms of any kind and are 100% monogamous.

Within a day or so of our most recent intercourse, I noticed a small itchy bump on the underside of my penis that I initially thought was an insect bite(a mosquito perhaps?).  The itchiness became pretty severe, almost like having poison oak or something.  The bump soon got bigger and the itch spread.  So then I thought to myself  "Well, I haven't been around any poison oak.  So... great, I must have caught herpes or warts or something.  I knew I shouldn't use public toilets!"

The itching persisted, and I ended up scratching the hell out of it in my sleep.  Ever since then, the entire shaft of my penis and the top part of my scrotum has been swollen.  Everything looks huge now.

My girlfriend said she felt like she might have been fighting off a bladder infection around the time that we had sex, and then through some researching we thought maybe it was a yeast infection that she was fighting off.  So we went to the store and bought some Monostat 1 and some vagisil to address the itching.  I gotta say, I never dreamed I would ever use those two products in my life!

I applied about 1/4 of the tube of Monostat onto the area in the morning, then when I was about to go to bed I put the rest on.  I woke up about a half hour later scratching the hell out of it.  It's one of those things where once you start scratching it's reaaaaallly hard to stop.  I asked my gf to hand me the vagisil so I could stop the itch.  I applied the vagisil and it burned like hell and was still itchy.  I couldn't take it so I hopped in the shower and washed everything off.

I was hoping the yeast-infection stuff did it's job even though the full dose wasn't applied for very long.  The symptoms seemed to be going away slowly, but then, AGAIN, I woke up scratching and everything swelled up like an x-rated balloon animal.

There is some pain in a few spots, but it's not unbearable.  I just assume it's just from the swelling.

Another symptom that I think might be related:  around the same time my lips felt a little chapped, then I developed cracks at the corners of my mouth.  My lips no longer feel chapped, but the cracks at the corners are still there.  The seem to be a little itchy as well.

Of course I would love to go see a doctor, but I'm nearly broke, unemployed, and uninsured.  I just bought Monostat 3 and am giving that another go(just applied it about 3 hours ago).  Do you think, given the information, that I'm pursuing the right course of action here by applying yeast infection treatment?

I have to admit, my girlfriend has done 90% of the online research since right now I tend get too uncomfortable sitting at the computer for any length of time looking up itch remedies while trying not to think about scratching the itch.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Dave

[davemeister]

I should also mention that when I had poison oak all over my entire body a couple years ago, I didn't experience this swelling.  I think it might be possible that I got a secondary infection from the scratching, but if that's the case I think the antibiotic is taking care of that.  In any event, I'm on the mend and very relieved to be improving so quickly.

Dave

[davemeister]

It turns out I'm allergic to mango, and I had been eating a bunch of it.  I've had bad reactions to poison oak in the past, and now I seem to be very sensitive to urushiol(which is present in poison oak, mango, and some other plants).  Using cortizon cream, Benadryl, and Tecnu has helped immensely.  I'm almost back to normal now.  Thanks for the help.  -Dave

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
From the symptoms that you have mentioned, it looks like fungal infection to me. Use minimum water and keep the area dry and wear cotton underwears and change them twice a day. Also do not share other people’s towels. Application of local antifungal cream(terbinafine, clotrimazole, econazole, ketoconazole, miconazole) and oral antifungal drugs are the mainstay of treatment.

If the symptoms persist then get an examination done from 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.

[davemeister]

UPDATE:  Ok, so the swelling got out of hand today.  The skin on my penis and entire scrotum is now taught and bulging.  To be honest, I'm getting pretty damn nervous.  Fearing my skin is going to tear or damage to my testicles from pressure, I decided to go to the hospital.  I went to the ER and had an absolutely horrible experience.

I've had some additional symptoms develop since last night when I posted my original message.  I have developed some itchy, burning sores around my eyes, and the ones around my mouth spread.  I also have the beginnings of what looks and feels like a poison oak rash on my forearm.  Again, I have not been anywhere near poison oak in years, and even if it were poison oak, it wouldn't account for the incredible swelling occurring on my genitals.

Basically, I waited 4 hours in the waiting room, then when I finally got in the ER doctor was dismissive of the sores developing on my face and arms and said they didn't have the same cause as the swelling in my scrotum otherwise I would have extreme swelling all over.  Could be right, but the itch feels the same and it wasn't like the genitals swelled to their current size overnight.  It took several days.

He said theres a possibility that it's yeast related, or it may be a "bacterial super-infection," a staph infection, blah blah, it boiled down to he didn't know and I might need to see a dermatologist.  He prescribed a broad spectrum antibiotic to take over 10 days, so I'll wait and see how that turns out.  I'm really worried about this swelling though.  Every time I think there's no way it could get bigger, it does.  I think it's about at it's breaking point.

Also, the skin on my penis has changed texture.  It's now waxy and cracked/flaky looking and is slightly sticky in some areas.

I did recently switch to a different brand soap.  On the off chance that this is all an allergic reaction to that soap or my laundry detergent, I picked up a couple hypoallergenic products on the way home from the pharmacy.

Any thoughts?

Dave