BXO treatment... _{Page 12 of 20}

It's great to hear of your improvement greaneyr...hopefully we can continue to improve! How are you finding the perrin creme complete? I'm thinking of getting some as have also heard nothing but good things about it. Also anyone else using it is welcome to give an update...

Creme complete is great. I have many treatments I use, and their function varies. TTO feels more like an 'attacker', Hydrogen Peroxide is a good peeler of loose skin, nappy rash powder is drying, and Manuka Honey is healing. Creme Complete I'd put into the same category as Manuka Honey. It feels like it just speeds up the recovery process. If you have any minor wounds, it makes a great job of speeding up the healing process. It also seemed to have a real aversion to my phimotic ring, as that was one of the first areas where I noticed skin layers dying off after I started using it.

I don't know that it would be so effective used on its own. I think that it's most powerful in combination with other treatments. The TTO + Creme Complete combination really helped me make some great progress.

Today I decided to try some nappy rash powder and nothing else, as I was beginning to worry that my progress had halted, despite the fact I have been using clobetasol during the day. How wrong I was. After a day of having that on me, the skin dried out a lot and I was able to see all the cracks. I could also feel the tiny spots where the skin was thicker, and was able to encourage them to peel away. Hopefully that now allows whatever treatment I use to get down to the living skin layers better.

For all those who feel their progress has stopped, I really can't recommend nappy rash powder highly enough. Wash first thing in the morning, dry the area thoroughly with a towel, then cover it in powder. After that, go about your normal daily routine. Just take care to dry after urination. You don't want a drip of anything getting under your foreskin.

Hi everyone. I'm new here but have read through several times to get the courage up and just got all the ingredients yesterday. My BXO isn't too severe - a bit on my frenulum and the head where it joins and just below my head on one side. However, like Jersey57 I have it at the urethral opening (can't tell how far in it may go :/ ). Anyone use the mix in the urethral opening? Success? Thanks everyone.

Hope there are still people out there......
I started on my routine with frequent 50/50 TTO & DMSO applications when at home and on work days before I leave I do 50/50 application then cover it with Perrin's Cream Complete.
The bxo spots already got a lot whiter so far (started Friday evening - 2.5 days ago) and my urethral opening has thick white skin all around. But no peeling yet. Hope this is normal - if anybody has anything to say about this please let me know.
I try to put a bit of 50/50 inside the urethra because some bxo had started there too.
Anybody have peeling at the urethal opening? Anyone photograph the process? Just really afraid to do more damage.

dragonreborn, a couple of things I've noticed that might help you make sense of what you're seeing.

First, when the BXO skin is covered in oil or creme complete or whatever for a long time, it does tend to turn more white in colour. This doesn't mean you're going backward, it just shows where the skin is. Once you dry it out, the colour will fade again, so it's not permanent.

I've read about guys being advised by doctors to put clobetasol (steroid) inside their urethra with a q-tip, so I suspect that what you are doing is something you'll need to do anyway. I don't know about DMSO + TTO up there, however.

Lastly, in terms of the peeling, anywhere you have BXO, it will peel. But don't expect overnight results, the whole thing to peel off in one fell swoop, or it to peel off fast. What has to happen, in my experience, is that the thick top layers come away first in their own time, before eventually getting down to within 2 or 3 layers, which is when you start seeing more pink and less white. The peeling only ever starts at where BXO skin borders onto healthy skin. Think of it like rising water where the healthy skin is water and BXO is islands. If the island has a high mountain top, it won't get wet for a long time, but the beaches will.

Thanks Greaneyr. The information is very much appreciated. I will continue diligently. Have you progressed a long way from when you started? Is the end on the horizon?
I really am excited to see this go! My GP had told me several years ago that it was just vitilago or some kind of pigment loss. When I told him it started after a tear during sex and I just thought it was scar tissue (my foreskin didn't go as far back as it used to) he told me I was wrong and it goes back as far as it should lol...so helpful. I know how it was before and how it changed. Then it started spreading very slowly and I began doing research to find out what it was. I definitely don't want to lose my foreskin!
I'll post my progress - I hope people will post when they're cured to give the rest of us the determination to keep going.

Well I think things are progressing. The frenulum area looks like the belly of a frog however lol. But peeling has just started to happen in a very small amount in that area. The skin is red underneath and looks painful but doesn't feel too bad.

I've also been pushing a q-tip soaked in the TTO/DMSO solution into my urethral opening. It stings a bit but only if it goes too far past the BXO skin.
My head is getting a little on the red side especially around my urethra so of been using Perrin's Cream Complete a bit more often - usually after my last 50/50 application before bed and after my last application before I go to work.

Anybody free of BXO from using this method?

Dragonreborn, I have made massive progress over the past three and a half months, yes. It's slow. Unbearably slow, in some cases. If you look back through my post history you'll see an outburst from me at the slowness to attest to this. But as long as there's peeling, there's progress. Don't worry if the skin peels and reveals more BXO skin underneath. Peeling is only a good thing.

It's difficult to quantify my progress as I can't say how far I've got to go. When I started, my phimotic ring was so tight as to cause pain any time I pulled the foreskin back behind the glans. My underside skin was also so tight that I couldn't straighten the inner skin on the top of my shaft. It was always bunched up. What I can say is that the phimotic ring now has little to no effect on me. It's still there, and needs to peel away more, but it doesn't dent in at all nor does it prevent retraction of the foreskin. Since my underside skin has healed back to normal in patches, I've probably gained another cm of skin, which means I can now straighten out all of my inner skin. I feel like the whole recovery will probably take me about 6-8 months. So I'm roughly halfway there. But that's just speculation as I don't know how far I have to go. I do find that the lower layers peel away much more slowly as they are thinner. The glans is arguably the slowest place to peel. That's mostly because there's a large area of BXO skin, with not a lot of patches of healthy skin to give a point where the peeling can begin.

Something dfrance was big on, and I feel I should point out, is the importance of diet in treating this. I've discovered that I am slightly allergic/intolerant to dairy. I have rosacea on my face, which started flaring up a few years ago and I never thought anything of it. It would have been because I changed jobs and started drinking a lot more cups of tea, coffee and hot chocolate, all of which had milk in them. I have tried going dairy free and it clears up with no treatment needed, and when I eat a lot of dairy, it flares up. My skin feels better all over my body after a week of no dairy, no sugar, or any other foods that cause inflammation. Dfrance also suggested Red Clover was vital to his recovery. I never tried that as I saw progress, but perhaps it might have been faster if I had. He said to me in an email he thought that the Red Clover was probably the reason he healed rather than the DMSO + TTO.

I've been at this site from the beginning of my treatment, in fact, this thread was one of the reasons I began to believe I could treat this naturally. So I am not going anywhere. When I'm symptom-free, I'll be posting about it here.

Glad to hear the progress Greaneyr. I hope the end is in sight for you. I guess I really need to be patient.
One question, did you have any issues with your frenulum once you were able to retract your foreskin? I had no problem pulling mine back before I started my treatment but now, maybe because peeling is starting, I get a little tear every time. Stings and today it actually bled a bit too? Has this happened to you? Should I take a break and wait for it to heal? I don't want actual scar tissue to develop now.
Thanks.

Dragonreborn, I have a restored foreskin, meaning, I was actually circumcised when I was an infant but have since regrown some of my skin tissue so I have skin that covers the glans when flaccid. The process restores skin, but not foreskin-specific tissue like the frenulum and the ridged band, so I don't have a frenulum.

Nonetheless, I'll speak from my experience anyway. The peeling you see in the case of healing BXO/LS is different from any other kind of peeling. Peeling normally happens quite easily, and you can even peel the layers of dead skin away by hand. With BXO, if you force it in any way before it's ready, you will injure yourself. Even if you don't force it, sometimes you manage to injure yourself anyway. The problem is, the BXO skin has absolutely no give, so any kind of tension around an injured area hurts like ?!&?!! and will pull the tissue that is trying to heal apart. The weakest point is the injury site, and the point with the most 'give' is the injury site, so it was very common for me to have wounds that repeatedly got opened.

What should you do? Bear in mind I'm no medical practitioner and am only going on my experience. If you're in pain, either with or without the treatment, then yes, you should give it a rest. Whenever I am injured, I shift my focus to healing the wound with healing treatments, rather than attacking the disease with harsh treatments. I have a range of different treatments, and change my treatment regime depending on a lot of factors, including whether there are any injuries or not.

I'd at least hold off on the TTO + DMSO. Creme Complete, I find, is quite 'healing' and does a good job of speeding up wound recovery, so you might want to keep using that. Manuka Honey has a similar effect, although can sting when you first put it on. The other thing that's perhaps even more important is not to pull the area apart until it has healed. Doing so, even in the presence of the best topical you can buy, will only undo the healing. This may mean changing the way you urinate and dry yourself after showering for a few days, to avoid any undue tension. If it only hurts when you pull it apart, then that's probably because the pain is the site getting injured again. I had a few like that. The only way to get anywhere was to avoid pulling the skin in any direction that caused even a tiny amount of pain. A couple of days of avoiding that, and the healing cam pretty fast.

One thing to be careful of at this point is the risk of infection. BXO skin, in my experience at least, seems about 20 times more likely to become infected when it is cut than healthy penile skin. Keep the area clean and dry at all times, except when you have any topicals on, obviously. Infections and the prevention of them is another whole topic and well beyond what I know. I've been both successful and unsuccessful at keeping infections at bay over my BXO recovery, so probably worth doing your own reading.

In terms of not wanting scar tissue to develop, this is where my thinking creates conflict in my mind. On one hand, I know that injuries are a bad thing as they hurt, seem to impede progress, and are infection risks. On the other hand, however, virtually every single site on my penis that has become injured and taken a long time to heal has eventually healed up with normal looking skin, or at least, more normal than the surrounding skin. It's not scarring at all. It's skin that is thinner, darker, more pink and healthy looking, and bunches up like the rest of the healthy skin does. By my assessment, that's a good thing. The other bonus is that I found I get healing anywhere BXO skin borders on healthy skin. If a new spot of healthy skin appears in the middle of BXO skin due to a healed injury, that just creates another platform for peeling to begin.

So there can be a silver lining to the injury cloud. It's absolutely not worth risking by deliberately injuring yourself, but it does at least make the injuries less demotivating. I did notice that injuries that healed quickly were less prone to doing this, and if they healed up within a couple of days, I never saw this phenomenon at all.


TL;DR Yes, take a break from the harsh treatments. Use creme complete if it feels ok. Keep the area clean and dry. Be gentle and let it heal. Don't worry about scar tissue forming. The worst that will happen is, it will heal back as white skin. The best is it will heal as the beginnings of healthy skin.

Thanks Greaneyr.
That's a lot of great advice! I think I'll still use the 50/50 just once a day and then apply CC and polysporin alternatingly. I had so much peeling on the go I hate for it to slow down too much. But if healing seems to be taking too long I'll drop the 50/50 for a bit.
I also started taking red clover, echinacea, vit D3, liquid omega 3, St. John's Wort juice (tastes as disgusting as it sounds lol), and Essiac herbal extract all daily. That should bolster my immune system, aid my skin and healing capabilities, and purge my body of toxins. Hopefully I can afford to do it long enough to be healed up - some of that stuff isn't cheap.
BTW, I find it quite amazing that guys are able to get some of their foreskin back - I'd likely do the same thing. Kudos to you for putting forth the effort.

Thanks for all your help and support. This has been quite an experience already. I hope others can find this when they are looking for answers and other options before going under the knife.

Update
I figured it was time to post an update. Very shortly after my last post, skin started peeling inside the entrance of my urethra. So I began gently pulling on it because it was really loosening up. I was able to remove in one big piece about 75% of the circumference of my hole to a depth of about half a centimeter. It was a great feeling of advancement!
I was tender for a bit(still a bit) and there is still some in there that has to go but that was very encouraging.
I also came to the conclusion that because there is bxo on my frenulum I have to just power the the tender splitting until it finishes peeling too - slow and painful going but still progress.
I've been having a lot of peeling every day and a half or so but need to be careful with the 50/50 because my head, especially around my urethra gets quite red and tender.
Still hitting the supplements quite hard and applying the Perrin products inside (a little stinging) and outside my penis.
Hope the progress continues.

What is the mixture of the Tea Tree oil, Emu oil and DMSO?

Hi Jersey57, I've been using the same mixture as has been recommended by dfrance - half and half tea tree oil & DMSO.

I try to put on a few doses through the day or before I go to work. Once I know I won't be able to put that mixture on again for several hours (going out, working,etc.)then I'll coat my penis in emu oil and rub it in really good.

Sometimes after the emu oil I'll also put on Perron's Creme Complete.

At night I'll often do a few doses of tto/DMSO then I'll put some Perrin's Blend on the head, all around it especially the underside and frenulum, and inside my urethra...it stings but whatever. Then I roll my foreskin over the head and use medical tape to seal it up really good so it doesn't leak out. It makes a horrible mess and stains. I leave it taped up for at least an hour. Then open it up wipe of the excess, do another 50/50 mixture application, emu oil, creme complete and go to bed.

I've had a lot of peeling. It's been going very well. My frenulum used to be much wider where it joined my head but now it's actually detaching gradually and looking like a normal frenulum. It's quite amazing. I have peeling happening almost every day now.

Hope this helps.

I consider myself to be well beyond halfway now. I'm doing a blog of my journey, and will be posting photos at some stage. I have photos of me when I had first started, and it staggers me how far I've come.

Something I've been experimenting with over the past week or so is something that is totally radical and goes against a lot of what I've tried up to this point. In the past, I had said that anything that dries the skin out is good. However, I read a few posts from women who said that dryness made things worse, and that TTO dried the skin out further so should be avoided. Obviously this isn't the case for those of us (myself included) who have gotten good results from using TTO as part of our regime, but nonetheless I still wondered if there might be some merit to their argument, so I tried using moisturising treatments for a week or so.

What I noticed was that the skin that was at the advanced stages of healing seemed to progress a lot faster. There is a moisturiser I use on my face and was (before I figured out that elimiating dairy is the main thing) the only product that could keep my rosacea under control. I have been using it during the day and noticing the almost-healed skin looking much healthier.

I had always had a suspicion that there were 'attacking' treatments, and 'healing' treatments, and I suspect anything involving TTO is an 'attacking' treatment, that will be useful to get to the root of the disease. I do, however, think that products like Creme Complete are more healing, and perhaps more useful in the later stages.

Right now, I'm in a slightly tricky state in that I have patches of healthy skin among my BXO skin, so it's difficult to apply specific treatments to certain areas.

Probably helpful, however, for those who feel they've reached the stage where their skin isn't progressing as quickly, to try a more calming, healing treatment involving moisturising products.

Hello everyone
Here I am again after a period that i didnt post any new
I have been disappointed as try the TTO / DMSO... I tried 2 months and did not see results.
I went through the process of peeling off just one time, i didnt peles off more tan one time. I have didnt have a very tight phimotic ring, just a Little, so I expect results in my white patch on the head and the urethral opening, and I did not see results in the 2 monts that ive tried... the size and color of the white patch on the head never shrank or change its color ... But I'll try back.

It really gives me strength to read you all so I'll start again today the treatment.


7 years ago I have BXO and I will not be cured in 2 months ...

TX again

It will be really helpfull to see photos of progress to see if we have the same visible symptoms...

I have 2 or 3 but the arent different

Astor,
To be honest, I didn't have very high hopes when I started and never took any before pictures. I wish I would have because my pictures now wouldn't really mean anything lol.

greaneyr,

What is the moisturiser called that you are using? It's interesting that you have Rosacea as well as BXO as I also have some redness/rosacea on my face too.

lb_65, it's called 'Skinfood Nourishing Moisturiser'.

I have updated my progress blog with pictures. I'm unsure if I'm allowed to share links on here or not. If you do a Google search for 'obliterating BXO' you'll find the page. The photos are in the very latest post.

Thanks for that greaneyr. Also checked out your blog and looks like you really have had great improvement! Keep the blog going as it's really useful to see someone's progress.

I'm puzzled by some comments I've seen which seem to say 'I'm all healed now, except for the ring'.

IMO, the ring is the real problem, and discolouration is a symptom.

Wantfsf, I do agree that the ring is a problem. But it's a problem because of the normal function it prevents. It prevents motion by tightening the underlying skin.

In my case, the ring was evident and problematic but another problem was the recurrent injuries I got from any kind of sexual activity for prolonged periods because of tightness on the underside. I would actually argue that the ring is not the problem, but tightness is. That tightness affects people differently. For some, it created a ring so tight they can't retract their skin. For others, it makes an already tight area get so tight that sexual activity causes injury. And then there's those who lose their ability to urinate properly if the urethra is affected.

Whichever area was the tightest will be, in my opinion, the last to heal fully. Hence why people are making those comments. That's my guess anyway.

Things are progressing very well. Just a question about how to know when to stop using the 50/50 mixture. I think my mild case is nearly cleared up.
My urethra is open wide again and I'm only getting a little peeling in the frenulum area now. My frenulum has narrowed significantly and is no longer attached to a wide section of my penis head. It nearly looks as it should, and used to.

How do I know when to stop?

Will regular use of the 50/50 mixture make all skin peel even if it's healthy?

So glad I found the site!

What i have read about treating BXO/Lichen Sclerosus,
from reading some posts from other sites about the disease people use the ointments/creams less frequently than daily. Not sure about for how long, think 1 month would be safe.

I have tried the dsmo mixture with the tea tree oil it made the skin so sore and bleeding had to stop for a few days almost like it blistered it ,then when I started up again did every other day and did the same but will not penetrate the hard spots any ideas
[message edited by bob0499 on Fri, 07 Nov 2014 00:31:20 GMT]

dragonreborn, I don't think there's any definite point at which it's right to stop, and the answer to that will vary from one person to the next. Stop when it feels intuitively like it's the right thing for you to do. It sounds like you've made some great progress. That can make it seem like you're almost healed when you're actually still a long way from it. I'd say keep doing what you're doing until you stop noticing peeling.

jomppa, I have read similar accounts from some people using prescription treatments too - treat, then do nothing for a few days to give the skin a chance to heal. I'm personally noticing real progress again after a long time of seeing very little obvious peeling, and all i've been using is creme complete at night with nothing at all during the day other than keeping the area dry.

bob0499, dragonreborn may have some useful advice to offer you as he had a similar experience. A caveat, however, is that I found no treatment penetrated through to the bottom of the BXO. With me, the layers gradually peeled away one by one. If I were you, I'd stop hoping for the whole thing to just peel away magically and instead, enjoy any peeling you see. That said, pain and blood are not great things to have. Perhaps try a lighter application of TTO, and ditch the DMSO. I found a heavy application of TTO was painful after a while, but a lighter application was painless and still very effective.