So it seems I've stumbled upon one of the downsides of transitioning. I'd heard that HRT changes the environment around your junk and becomes basically like a cis woman's labia, but I hadn't really thought through the implications until recently. It seems I developed a yeast infection on the glans of my penis, and it's been just the worst. Initially I wasn't sure what it was (I got tested for STIs like the week before so I knew it wasn't that), it was just kind of redder than usual, but then it got worse and started to be really itchy. Well I itched it, big mistake by the way, which coupled with more sensitive skin meant I formed some friction injuries which I don't think helped much. Thankfully I have some experience with ringworm from a brief and ill-fated attempt at wrestling in the distant past, so I got right on it and started anti-fungal cream once I recognized the characteristic overwhelming itchiness and slow weeping of clear fluid of a fungal infection.
I did some researching and it turns out this is just a thing all women have to deal with at one time or another. I've been doing my best to keep it dry and applying the anti-fungal cream twice a day. Do y'all have any advice to reduce the chances of this happening again? I know regular cleaning, keeping the area dry, but I also found someone suggest maybe eating a lot of sugar can make it worse, which to be honest I've been doing lately... I'm also just generally curious about other people's experience.
Yeah I think it is thrush. I've never had it before so was kind of surprised when it happened. I haven't really changed anything about my hygiene or clothing, and I read somewhere that estrogen makes the genital area more moist. I don't think getting thrush is a direct side effect of estrogen, more that the increased moisture makes it more likely. So combined with perhaps suboptimal hygiene practices or clothing which were fine before, the increased moisture pushes the environment over the edge to fungal infection territory.
oh interesting, I hadn't heard that estrogen increases moisture in the genital region (other than like the way vaginal dryness can occur without estrogen, like in trans men or menopausal women) - do you think it's like the way estrogen makes the skin softer, that has to do with skin moisture or something?
But yeah, that makes sense that moisture and the right kinds of clothes could create an environment where fungus could get into the skin 😱 luckily it's hopefully not too big of a deal to treat - I would be really interested to hear what ends up working, it's great you raised this and to have these kinds of experiences discussed - you never know who else might be going through the same thing and would benefit from what you're sharing here
I really hope it's easy to get taken care of and it's not too unpleasant, ugh