Is This Herpes or Just Irritated?

[moonquest]

Hello,

Hopefully you can help me. On the left side of my penis there is an irritation. I've had it a couple of times over the past few years, and seems to eventually go away. It sometimes happens after a lot of sex, or masturbation. Not sure if it is a herpes infection or my skin just got irritated.

This time it seems to be lasting a lot longer. I have tried using "Clobetasol Propionate Cream" as well as trying to use boxers now instead of boxer briefs so that more air can get to it, but doesn't seem to be healing.

Can you please let me know what you think it could be, and if there are any creams/lotions you would suggest if it isn't herpes?

Thanks

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Thanks for the additonal information.  Unfortunatley this does not help me to tell you what this is likely to be.  If you have a repeat HSV antibody test and it is negative, that would make it VERY unlikely to be genital herpes.  EWH

[moonquest]

here is some more info. Hopefully this will help. The irritated skin is a little smaller than a quarter. It is red and a liitle raised. It doesn't hurt and there are no white sores/blusters. This usually happens after sex. Don't remember if masturbation had anything to do with it since I have sex and masturbate quite a bit. I didn't know if it was sex for long periods of time or the irritation of the condom. When I first has this a couple of years ago a blood test was done and they said herpes was negative. It seems a little worse now and it has been about a week or so. But there has never been any pain. Does this give you any ideas on what it most likely is?

Thanks

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to our Forum.  As a matter of policy, we do not look at pictures submitted to the site.  All too often they are not helpful and sometimes they are actually misleading.  

Your situation, with a recurring area of penile irritation, could be herpes, irritation from sexual activity or some other dermatological problem.  Any of these problems can have a tendency to come and go from time to time.  Can you tell me if it always occurs following sex or masturbation or if it sometimes occurs without sexual activity?  If it sometimesoccurs spontaneously in the absence of sexual activity, HSV or a dermatological problem is more likely.  

There are several things you can do to sort this out.  I would stop putting creams or lotions on it.  They sound as though they are not helping much and they will only tend to confuse the diagnosis if you choose to go and see a health care professional.  In addition, I would consider going to see a health care provider who has a lot of experience looking at genital rashes.  Either your local health department  STD Clinic or a dermatologist may be helpful.  In addition, getting a culture or PCR test for HSV taken from the lesions may be helpful as well. If your current lesions have been present several days, even if the lesions are herpes, they could be culture or PCR negative at this time- the earlier after appearance these tests are taken, the more likely it is that they will be positive.

Finally, in persons with recurrent genital lesions, a type specific herpes antibody test such as the HerpeSelect is often helpful as well. If it is positive, whether or not you have positive culture or PCR, you recurring penile lesions would be more likely to be HSV.

Hope these suggestions will be helpful to you. The starting point for finding out what this really is to get seen by a trained health care provider. If not his time, then the next time the lesions appear.

Take care.  EWH