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Why has my foreskin been irritated for over 2 months?
The head of my penis has felt irritated for nearly two months to varying degrees. No other symptoms beyond irritation, redness under the foreskin, and occasional burning during urination. I had unprotected sex in early July and have since had an STI screening for everything except herpes, which my doctor tells me would have become obvious long ago. A second doctor told me it looked like I had balanitis, to which I was given some over the counter cream that alleviated the feelings.
Ever since then, which was about a month ago, I have still had persistent feeling of on and off irritation. It often feels like the veins in my penis itself are irritated or even swollen, especially one that loops around the top of my foreskin, goes down the right side of my penis shaft and down at little to my leg, which often feels triggered when I wear certain clothes. I have sebopsiorasis as well, which leads my regular doctor to tell me to avoid anything with yeast (which I have been lazy about for a long time), but I have no idea if it is related.
As of only today one area under the foreskin seems especially irritated which is on the right side, which seems also connected to that slightly swollen vein.
It is honestly not debilitating, nor does it come with any other symptoms (say, fever or whatever) nor stop me from being able to have sex or masturbate. But it is persistent and annoying and makes me wonder if balanitis can even exist for this long or is it a sign of something worse.
Ever since then, which was about a month ago, I have still had persistent feeling of on and off irritation. It often feels like the veins in my penis itself are irritated or even swollen, especially one that loops around the top of my foreskin, goes down the right side of my penis shaft and down at little to my leg, which often feels triggered when I wear certain clothes. I have sebopsiorasis as well, which leads my regular doctor to tell me to avoid anything with yeast (which I have been lazy about for a long time), but I have no idea if it is related.
As of only today one area under the foreskin seems especially irritated which is on the right side, which seems also connected to that slightly swollen vein.
It is honestly not debilitating, nor does it come with any other symptoms (say, fever or whatever) nor stop me from being able to have sex or masturbate. But it is persistent and annoying and makes me wonder if balanitis can even exist for this long or is it a sign of something worse.
The inside of the foreskin is covered with mucosa, not skin. Excessive washing dries the oils out of the mucosa and causes non-specific dermatitis. Stop using soap, if you are, and restrict your washing inside your foreskin to once a week.
Balanitis has many possible causes. It is important to accurately diagnose the cause before prescribing a treatment.
If you are washing it a lot, then I suspect that you have non-specific dermatitis, which is caused by washing excessively and using soap.
Cut back to washing your penis once a week and don't use soap.
What happens is that the oil in the mucosa gets washed out by the soap and frequent washing, which is not good.
Cut back to washing your penis once a week and don't use soap.
What happens is that the oil in the mucosa gets washed out by the soap and frequent washing, which is not good.
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So I'll try that but do you think that will also stop the irritation in the vein as well? Because sometimes it feels like it is going all the way into my right leg. And none of this is an indication of anything else?
That vein going into your right leg is worrisome.
Perhaps you should ask your GP to refer you to a specialist such as a urologist.
Perhaps you should ask your GP to refer you to a specialist such as a urologist.
I think I may have to- I went to the GP and they once again decided it was balanitis so they gave me Canesten cream to apply 3 times a day for 2 weeks and I've come to the end of the 2 weeks and found things got better but not by much. So I don't know if that excludes any diagonses or not.
It is important to avoid excessive washing of the penis because it is covered with mucosa that can get dried out, which causes non-specific dermatitis. If you are using soap on your penis, stop using soap.
1 Comments
I never use soap- truth be told whenever I would wash the forehead of my penis I would simply pull the foreskin back and wash it while i was in the shower. For whatever reason, I can't seem to get back to that. The inside of the foreskin is red and irritated, the head of the penis itself is fine, and the vein on the right side of the shaft (and all the connecting parts of the vein) is irritated as hell. I feel bad going back to my GP but it seems like I can't find out a solution to this and because it is not very invasive on my life I can't decide if I should treat it seriously or not.
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