Hi Guys.

Ok so embarrassingly enough, I have discovered that I have phimosis. And it's quite a severe case of it i think, given that my foreskin is quite tight and whenever I try to stretch it, it cuts easily and becomes quite irritated (skin gets red). It also hurt when I urinated, but only when the cuts were there, if they're not there, it doesn't hurt at all.

I decided I would not masturbate, not stretch or anything for two weeks, give it some time to heal and in this time I bought a glansie, too. So two weeks were up, the irritation had seemingly gone away as well as the little cuts (which look like little slits or paper cuts). I stretched tonight (trying the glansie as I wasn't sure about my technique) and straight away my foreskin became quite red again and i think a cut has developed or will have by tomorrow morning.

I'm wondering 1) if my phimosis is just so severe it cannot be cured or 2) if I have some sort of infection which causes the little slits and aggravates the irritation? And what would cause this infection?

I'm thinking of going to the doctor in the hope of getting betamethsone cream and a diagnosis of my infection. Hopefully the cream will stretch the skin and prevent it from 'cutting' because it is just too tight to be stretch alone.

Thoughts?

It isn't so tight it won't cure, but it sounds as if you have a yeast infection which must be addressed first.

The "cutting" is indicitive of a problem with yeast. Normal penile tissue, however tight, won't do this when put under tension. I recommend that you try an over the counter medicine meant to treat yeast. Your local pharmacy markets these primarily to women, and you can find them in the section where the tampons are sold. Follow the directions for amounts to use, and apply to the area where the cracking or cutting occurs. It may take two or three weeks (perhaps longer) to be sure it's gone.

Meanwhile, if you are using soap to clean in the area, stop doing so. Soap is the enemy when it comes to foreskin maintenance. It is also the primary reason for yeast infections, but there are two others of note. The first is the use of antibiotics. If you've taken some prior to the onset of this problem, that could be the cause. The second reason is a lot more serious, and that's the presence of diabetes. Do you have any history of that in your family, or do you have a severe weight problem? If so, it would be very wise to get it checked out.

This matter of little "cuts" or more accurately, fissures, bodes an unhealthy foreskin. At 18, unless you are overweight, this is unlikely to indicate diabetes but - maybe that should be checked.

When you say you have "discovered that I have phimosis", we are presuming you mean you have never retracted your foreskin and only just realised it should be able to pull back? We are also presuming you have never had a sexual relationship so far.

If you were implying that your foreskin was previously retractable, and now tight, then you would be describing a more severe problem.

Be very cautious in seeing a doctor, about being referred to a "urologist" - this would indicate that the doctor had "lost the plot" and didn't have a clue about the condition. It is not impossible, but most unlikely that you will get useful information from a urologist - it's just not their field of expertise in general.

If the antifungal cream (which you may need to use for a while) or fluconazole tablets (Diflucan®, Canesoral® 150 mg, one weekly for two or three weeks; they are expensive) does not settle the problem, you need to see a competent dermatologist who knows how to treat it (and does not himself fob you off with a suggestion to see a "urologist"!)

The betamethasone (ointment) does not stretch your foreskin, but for many conditions makes it easier (indeed, possible) for you to stretch it. Incidentally, you could always refer a doctor to this site; it would be quite interesting!

While the Glansie has its uses and particularly for the "tightest" degrees of phimosis, I would favour the GFS overall, though it will be necessary to be careful if using it with the ointment.

Thanks for the feedback guys, it's great.

And yes, I have only just realized that it can be retracted.

I went to the doctor today and sure enough, he recommended I get cut and ordered me off to see a urologist. I asked him if he could at least give me a steroid based cream to try and clean up the inflammation which he said I didn't really have (although my foreskin was a bit red and it has been cutting and i told him all this). Anyway, he gave me a sigmacort 1% steroid cream and told me to apply it twice a day and to 'try' stretching, but said it's probably a problem that needs surgery.

I've applied the cream twice today and stretched using the glansie. I can already see results in the stretching and the redness seems to have died down a little bit. Hopefully within a few days it will have. Is it ok to stretch with the redness there, though?

Also is the ointment better than the cream?

Either way, this day has given me a lot of confidence and I feel i will not need surgery.

Thanks again for all your info.

OK,

So it's a day later, in the morning, and if anything, the skin has become more dry and irritated. I definitely think I could have a yeast infection, but I'm not entirely sure. The doctor was useless in diagnosing any kind of infection, so I'm hesitant to go back. The main symptoms that I have are quite dry skin around the foreskin, and it has been itching quite a bit lately. And it drives me crazy. A tiny little cut also developed overnight.

What sort of cream/ointment/tablet do you recommend for a yeast infection? And if I try it and I don't actually have a yeast infection, will it cause further damage?

Is it possible that it's a fungal infection of some sort? The reason I suggest this is I don't know how I would have got the yeast infection. Again, what could I try for this precisely and would it do serious harm if I didn't have a fungal infection?

Thanks guys.

OK, you haven't answered many of the previous questions, such as whether you have been using soap (or whether you have been sexually active) but that's your prerogative. Note that my comments are necessarily concise - I specify exactly what I mean and often do not explain in excess detail, so everything I previously wrote, holds in reply to your latest information.

Yes, if you didn't have have inflammation, you would not have redness and fissuring.

Sigmacort® 1% is prescribed as a "safe" medication - it's available "over the counter". It is "safe" to the degree that it will not aggravate a fungal infection too much if one is present. This means that it will settle a modest degree of inflammation but will not facilitate stretching beyond that - that is it will not be anywhere near as effective in "softening" the skin and making it "stretchable", as betamethasone. If it helps you in this situation, that's great; by all means keep at it and if you achieve results, we are not going to complain at all!

Yes, ointment is better than the cream for "dry" dermatoses (skin conditions) as it penetrates the skin better and also "moisturises" and maintains skin plasticity better, particularly if applied when the skin is still wet. This is a basic principle of dermatological expertise.

You should be applying it only to the tight area which you are trying to stretch, which should be visible when you try and pull the foreskin back. The Hydrocortisone (Sigmacort®) is probably "safe" enough to be used before you do the stretching.

Given that you simply have a tight foreskin that has simply never been stretched in childhood, we find it extraordinarily improbable that you would benefit from surgery.

OK sorry about not answering your questions.

I don't really use soap to wash my penis (read: hardly ever) and I'm not sexually active (I haven't had sex).

The sigamcort had a negative effect on my penis. It became much more flaky and crusty around the foreskin. I went to the chemist and got a cream to fight yeast infections with Miconazole Nitrate (2%) and Bufexamac (5%) in hope that I do have some kind of yeast/fungal infection.

I won't stretch for a couple of days (this seems to aggravate the redness and cuts develop) and apply the cream twice a day (as directed by the pharmacist and on the box) and see if it heals up nicely, then I might try stretching again and also continue with the cream for a couple of weeks to hopefully, kill an infection i have.

Do you frequently swim in chlorinated pools, or do you do whirlpools spas?

What about the use of antibiotics?

Hi,

No i do not swim in chlorinated pools, or use whirlpools spas.

My use of antibiotics has been significant in my life, but the only time i've used them in the last 6 months was for a trip to the dentist. Admittedly they were probably past the use by date, but I only had 4 tablets.

When i used the sigmacort, it definitely got worse and even crusted up and was extremely painful after just 1 day of use.

I read up about 'yeast infections' and found the saliva test. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but i certainly had strings coming down the glass of water with residue in the bottom of the class after 15-20 minutes.

I went to the chemist and asked for Monistat (which the chemist said he didn't stock anymore) but gave me Ego Resolve Balm, which contains Miconazole nitrate (2%) and Bufexamac (5%) which I am to apply twice daily and have done for 1 day. Certainly the pain has gone down and I don't experience any burning when urinating anymore, and the area went from quite red, to maybe a lesser shade, but also white skin pealing developed. This has now subsided that I can see (I'm in the morning after applying it for the first day). The little cuts are still there a bit, and my foreskin was extremely tight this morning, but i'm sticking to my gameplan of not stretching until I clear up the infection.

Does this sound like I've done the right thing or should you see results overnight with the balm/cream? If not, how long roughly (I know it's different for everybody) will it take to clear the infection and before I can stretch? On the packet of the balm, it says it should clear in about 4-5 days but you should keep applying it for 2 weeks to clear the infection.

Is there any chance that I might need to attack the yeast problem another way, though? Like taking some form of tablet. I read up about a refrigerated tablet that can cure yeast infections if they are severe. I don't know how severe mine is, but obviously if I've got the strings thing happening (providing that's accurate) it is probably a bit?

Again, thanks for the responses. You've been great. I can't wait to cure my phimosis.

The itch is a cardinal clue that the problem is a yeast infection, and the dryness, "flaking" and fissures go with that. A couple of weeks using the Miconazole cream should get that under control and as soon as it seems to be improving, you can use the Sigmacort® in addition.

Note that the instructions are different - you want the Miconazole cream thoroughly applied to the whole area, best done by squirting a small amount through the opening of the tight foreskin (then holding the opening closed) and massaging it around underneath; what then escapes you can rub over the outside.

The steroid you only apply over the "problem area".

Why would you have developed "thrush"? Well, apart from irritation with soap, Jim's suggestion and the (remote) possibility of diabetes, for which a competent doctor would have tested, it's just a matter of your individual susceptibility. You mustn't think of it as a Sexually Transmitted Disease - of course people spread it that way, but the yeast is a contaminant in diet (uncooked fruit and vegetables - but they are good for you!) and colonises the bowel to some degree, so it is difficult to escape entirely. Unfortunately.

OK, so I've been using the anti-fungal/yeast infection cream and the redness has gone done quite a bit and the irritation has lessened. It's been 4 days now. I still have a couple of small cuts on my foreskin, hopefully they will go within a day or two. They look to nearly be gone now.

When do you recommend i start stretching again? Another week? Give the infection plenty of time to cure or?