Redness on glans / head of penis

[kevinnorthb]

Hello,

For around the past month and a half I have been having an issue with a redness which shows up on the glans of my penis currently on a weekly basis. I had left it for a month before going to my GP to see if it would go away with just keeping hygiene up to scratch (washing daily, no soap etc) but it continues. The redness does clear up on it's own after a day or two. The concern is the fact that is recurs so often. I have gone to my GP and without even looking at it I was told it was thrush. I was prescribed a cream called Daktacort and have been using it for a week now. The issue continues even with the cream and worse the side effects of the cream leave me with an irritated and slightly painful sensation over the genital area.

My initial fear and concern was genital herpes as I did have unprotected vaginal sex a couple of weeks before the symptoms began but researching the medhelp communities suggests my symptoms are not related to genital herpes.  I did have anxiety after the episode of unprotected sex and wonder if this could be a contributor to my current condition. The unprotected sex led my GP to make the thrush diagnosis (though she didn't even look).

I have uploaded an image of the redness on the glans to here - https://ibb.co/hWSYrK

I am concerned that this is related to sexual health and whether I can pass something on to someone else. I was tested for chlamydia and gonorrhea and both were negative. I spoke with the lady I had the unprotected intercourse with and she insists she has no problems and was recently screened herself.

Any advice or help would be appreciated.

[Life360_Dave]

Hi its normal for the penis head to be red as is full of blood and just touching it would stimulate more blood. Symptoms of herpes are painful blisters and would appear more on the shaft.