hi everyone. little backstory. about a month ago I started noticing some irritation/redness around my foreskin with small little micro cuts that were especially sensitive when I would retract my foreksin. i originally had attributed to friction/masturbation. I had done some research and posthitis was consistant with the symptoms. I eased off of the masturbation/sex and symptoms improved. I had even used a anti fungal with relief, however I still noticed that my foreskin retained a mildly reddish. yesterday I had sex and fast forward 24 hrs later I noticed that the head of my penis has several red spots. there not raised and not itchy nor do they burn. is this a case of balantitis / yeast infection ? or something else ?
I had posted this in the sexual health section but hadnt gotten any response hopefully I can get some answers here. thanks!
any ideas ?
Are you using condoms during sex? If not you may have a yeast infection if you have had unprotected vaginal sex. Are you washing your penis with soap?
This is starting to look like some form of Balanitis - what you have can be described as Balanitis anyway as this in simple terms describes red irritation (and other things) on the head of the penis.
However, there are several actual Balanitis conditions such as Balanitis Xerotica Obliterans or Lichen Sclerosus for short. What you need to do is to rule out, or clear any sexual related issues first.
The other possibility is a Dermatological adverse reaction to something that is in regular contact with the head of your penis. You can develop an accumulative effect of different chemicals in regular contact with the head of the penis. This can be soaps, shower gels, Lubes, skin cream / lotions, condoms - and so on. The best thing to do is exclude these from contacting the head and foreskin of your penis. Wash with water only, dry immediately afterwards to ensure you are 100% dry. You also need to abstain from sex and masturbation for as long as you can .. put in place what I recommend - rule out or treat sex related infections and you should see improvement within 4 or 5 weeks …