Hey Doctor, For The Last 3 Weeks I Have Had

Question: Hey doctor,

For the last 3 weeks I have had a fungal infection of my penis glans which was confirmed by a swab. At first I used an antifungal cream for 2 weeks but the area especially the penis head was quite red so I was prescribed Hydrozole cream which has a mild steroid in it and I’ve used that for exactly 10 days now minus an application or two where I used just the anti fungal instead. Now I am super concerned and stressed out after reading the leaflet that you are not meant to use this for more then 7 days however my doctor told me to use it for two weeks for balanitis?? I have noticed the foreskin especially is transparent looking and what I think has maybe thinned I can now see the veins. This has got me extremely worried the skin in general feels different and less sensitive. I have stopped the cream tonight and planned to see my GP tomorrow but I’m just really unsettled that I was even prescribed this was the side effects of it can the thinning or damage be permanent I have read a lot of posts online about it and I’m very concerned? Can I just stop all cream for now and see how I go also I have read that after stopping the steroid cream I might have even worse side effects like drying and cracking of the skin is this true??

Thanks for your help in advance.

Hey doctor thank you for the follow up so I stopped using it last night before bed and the head of my penis basically went back to how It was which was quite red and irritated and the foreskin feels quite dry as well. So now that I’m not using the steroid cream what do for the fungal infection especially since the standalone anti fungal cream isn’t working?

Can I just stop all the creams for now including the antifungal and see what happens if it can maybe get better on it’s own? My doctor did say I could after visiting her but she also said I can try the tablet if it gets worse but I’m kind of hoping I won’t have to take anything more for now how long could I leave it to see if it would get better before try the antifungal tablet?

The antifungal she prescribed me is called “Fluconazole 150mg” and it’s a one of dosage. Now my concern with the tablet which is why I’d like to do the wait and see approach is that I have really bad stomach problems and I don’t want to irritate the gut in anyway how long can I realistically wait without applying any creams or trying the tablet to see if it will get better my other worrying is getting a resistant infection as well is that thing?

So it’s possible that the fungal infection may not actually be there anymore? My doctor said it was not worth re testing because I’m being treated still but she was pretty sure the infection is still there. I just feel the cream is doing nothing and just making the area more red and I’m not super keen on using the anti fungal tablet yet either I just don’t want anything to mess with my gut since it’s very sensitive. So if it were getting better after a week I could just let it go but if it was getting worse should I just take the tablet?