How to get rid of balanitis for good

[anonymous977]

Hello, I have Balanitis and have had it for nearly a year now. I have tried countless things to try and get rid of it. Most recently I have taken Flucloxacillin. However, I feel like this has irritated my penis more. Does anyone know how to make this go away as it is causing serious uncomfort physically and is now starting to have an effect on my self esteem.

[St1llInLondon]

I would talk to your GP and see what they say. If you have exhausted all options you might need a circumcision but it’s good to check with your GP first.

[VanGuy33]

I feel your pain. I began experiencing balanitis a few years back. The first year I tried everything under the sun to try to eliminate or ease the symptoms. The only thing that helped for me was Protopic. This would help calm things down but certainly didn't get rid of the issue for me. Eventually things got bad enough with the foreskin irritation that I had to get a circumcision done about 4 months ago. I am happy I did it after a few years of constantly managing the issue.

[anonymous977 in reply to VanGuy33]

Did they try and treat it with any antibiotics or anything?

[anonymous977]

Any recommendations for protopic

[Green37]

Also feel your painI suffered with balanitis for a year in 2020 tried lots of things. The cream over time caused phimosis and I had no choice but to go down the circumcision route, had to pay for this privately as we just went into lock down. I was a difficult time. However I’m super happy with the result.

[Ryanr]

As above it sounds like your only cure is circumcision.

[Hidden]

I'm not sure if I had balanitis in the beginning because it was just 2 dots and a very small patch on my penis gland not sure what caused it probably too much sex lol or contact dermatitis from using a new detergent (tide all in one which is when the problem started and I have sensitive skin and I'm circumsized and I am conscientious about cleansiness) so I used taro-mometasome cream on it (since it cured psoriasis on my scalp which was probably not too smart) and it got red and doubled in size. I went to the docs office and he prescribed me fucidin cream and it got even more worse so he prescribed clotrimaderm cream and now my whole penis gland is totally red and the skin is dry and flaking. I should have just left it alone and applied skin cream on it and it probably would have cleared up in a few days on it's own. It's only been a month but I have never ever seen a condition like this and my Doc seems to be treating it as balanitis eventhough the only symptoms I have is redness, slight swelling and dry flaky skin which may be from the meds and nothing seems to be working to reverse it. I was tested for a std/sti and UTI and it all came back negative. I think the redness spreading may be caused by the prescribed creams and I've been so stressed out that I broke up with my lady. I don't even want to think about sex until my problem is reversed and cured. I have searched everywhere for a cure and after reading some cases It seems like the medical profession have no idea on what they are doing to treat this problem and it looks very discouraging considering there are many men who have been dealing with this for a very long time. I just stopped my treatment yesterday to see if it is indeed the creams which is causing the redness spreading and I am really not to enthusiastic to see my Doc again as it seems like he is just guessing and not sure how to treat it. On other sites many have claimed that Urologist, Dermatologist and of course the Doctors don't know how to properly treat it. I am so stressed and frustrated over this that I don't really know what to do anymore. It's only been a month but sure feels like it's been so much longer without any encouraging results. I'm thinking on going nature's way and considering either aloe vera gel or buying an aloe vera plant and use its gel inside or was considering using pure virgin coconut oil as they both have antibacterial and antifungus properties in it. I bought some vitamins just in case to help bring my immune system back up to par as the stress is affecting my sleep lately. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[VanGuy33 in reply to Hidden]

Sorry to hear what you're going through. I went through the same thing. A few days after having sex I noticed my glans and foreskin were inflamed. Immediately thought it might be an STI but all tests came back clean. Still the redness persisted. It didn't cause me any discomfort at first but my anxiety ratcheted up. Unfortunately, my balanitis didn't go away like I hear is the case for some. I just did my best to manage my symptoms - what worked best for me was Protopic and epsom salt baths. We're all different so all I can tell you is make note of what works and what doesn't. I tried a few things that caused the inflammation to worsen so struck those off my list of treatments. Good luck.

[Hidden in reply to VanGuy33]

Thanks for replying! This is a first time experience with this so it's been extremely stressful for me. Well I stopped using the doc's prescribed meds which seems to be making the problem worse and I've been using a more natural approach by using slightly heated at body temperature 100% virgin coconut oil (not for baking) which has anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties in it and been pouring the oil on it 3 to 4 times daily and then using vaseline baby healing jelly once the coconut oil soaks in and dries up and I am starting to notice the redness starting to subside after using this treatment for the last 3 days and the vaseline is preventing the dry, flakiness, peeling thingy from happening. At least now I am urinating straight and don't have to sit down to prevent a mess. And yes I've been soaking my little buddy in warm water and epsom salt a few times daily. Hopefully this works to finally cure this problem soon! I'm really starting to believe the meds the doc prescribed me was simply too strong for the penis gland considering it is classified as a mucous membrane and not like the rest of the skin on the body that the meds were designed for. Using this gentle approach looks promising and will give an update in 2 weeks hopefully sooner if the condition completely clears up. Otherwise I will be back at square once again and very depressed lol.

[Hidden]

UPDATE: Well it's been almost 2 weeks since I stopped using the prescribed meds from my Doc and started using a more natural approach using Shea moisturizer 100% extra virgin coconut oil (not to be ingested) and baby healing jelly vaseline on the penis gland and the redness is almost all gone and the peeling/flaking stopped with no wrinkling. Woohoo!!! I can't believe it actually worked when the Doc's meds only seem to worsen the problem. My penis gland was completely shiny bright red from using the Doc's meds and it looked horrible with peeling/flaking and now my penis gland looks almost normal. I also have been taking centrum twice daily and ingesting 1 teaspoon of Nature's Way pure virgin coconut oil mixed with 1 teaspoon of pure honey (melted and stirred together) first thing in the morning. The skin on my penis gland is almost back to normal (80% healed) except for a little redness left which should be gone within the next week.

TREATMENT: I added the coconut oil into a cup and put the cup in a tupperware dish with hot tap water in it and let it set until the oil melted in the cup) then I would poor the melted oil on the penis gland 3-4 times daily (depending on my schedule) and let the oil absorb into the skin (about 10 min or so) and within the hour I would apply a thin layer of the baby healing jelly vaseline on it every now and then to prevent flaking between the coconut oil treatments. Be patient as it took 3 or 4 days before I started seeing the redness subsiding and normal colorization slowly coming back. Every day after that I noticed a big improvement daily and now I am soooo happy to have my little buddy almost back to normal. Don't be alarmed if after the coconut treatment it looks a little redder that is just the coconut oil working it's magic.

One more week of this treatment and my balanitis problem should be all resolved and completely healed. I suppose it would have been all cured by now if I would've done 3 or 4 treatments daily but most days I only had time to do 2 coconut oil treatments. In between oil treatments you will see some dryness especially in the first week of treatments so simply apply a thin layer of the baby healing jelly vaseline when this occurs. I am extremely happy with the results so far and sooo happy to finally have this problem almost resolved and get my life back to normal. I will update in another week or so to let you all know on the final outcome. It's sooo nice to see normal skin color again. I'm still not too sure how it all started as I have never ever experienced this before in my 58 yrs and I am circumsized and the Doc insisted I go for a blood test for std/sti and a urine test for UTI and everything came back negative which was a big relief. It's too bad that the Doc doesn't inform you one way or another about the lab results as it would have avoided some unnecessary stress.

Final Update: Well I'm finally all cured! The coconut oil treatment worked great Hopefully this is the last of it for good! It took 3 weeks but it could've healed up faster if I would've done the treatments 3 or 4 times daily. I just did it at most times twice daily and applied vaseline in between to keep the reddened parts from flaking. I had doubts in the beginning but now I am a believer. Better than the meds my Doc prescribed to me by far.

[Treehug245]

any update? Are you still following this same procedure or is Balanitis gone for good?

[DamienL]

Note to all seeing this as I've been through hell for 4 months, spents over £2k on private docs as can't get a doc to see me or get through on the phone (NHS UK is broken). I'm 1 week into coconut oil and seems to be doing something but not 100% sure it's going to work. I have never had this before and doc seems to think it wasn't particularly bad (would hate to have it bad if that's the case!). But I've had other issues as well and have now stumbled across what I believe it is and could well be for a lot of men - a result of Reactive Arthritis. I'd never heard of it before but balanitis with no obvious cause is a key sign. Along with rash on arms, pain in feet, hip/s, lower back, knee/s urinary issues itchy sore eyes. Due to the varied symptoms and the way they happen at different times its very tough to diagnose. It is caused by a Reaction to infection in the genital tract (ie STD - which I didn't have) or digestive/bowel from dodgy food or bacteria. But the key here is until you get it diagnosed and treat the underlying cause this could go on for months even over a year (one guy had complications for life when I did further reading). Hope that helps anyone suffering who has been going around in circles like me. Made life miserable for the last 4 months and currently no end in sight unless this coconut oil starts to work or docs give me tests to establish the underlying cause