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Hydrogen Peroxide, Petroleum Jelly for Jock Itch

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C.c. (San Jose, Ca) on 06/24/2018:
5 out of 5 stars

I have used heavy petroleum many times.

Tekkers (Austin, Texas) on 02/22/2012:
5 out of 5 stars

I developed jock itch for the first time in my life and thought it would simply go away with some OTC cream. When that didn't work after a month, a doctor prescribed a stronger cream and some anti-fungal oral pills. That did not work, so I came here. I used regular OTC anti-fungal cream but after it had dried somewhat, I covered the area in petroleum jelly to "seal" it in... That helped a LOT. I should also mention a couple of things the doctor suggested: Keep the area dry, use baby powder in the surrounding area and change towels often. I also changed boxers once a day so I didn't sleep in the pair I wore all day. The doctor also mentioned that if possible (and this is weird if you don't live by yourself or have a very understanding wife like I do) to leave yourself exposed while at home, so that the light helps keep the fungus at bay. Fungus needs darkness and oxygen to grow, so if you keep light on it and seal it in with the jelly that will really slow it down.

After two weeks of this, I still felt like I had it although it was the best it had been (it rarely itched and I could work or go the whole day without even thinking about it). I decided to return to the doctor to see if I could get more prescription strength cream in the hope of finishing it off. This time I saw a dermatologist, who observed that it looked like the fungus was gone, but my skin was irritated by all the medicine. She gave me prescription strength cortizone which after just four days of use I was able to cut down to once a day, and then none at all after 3 more. The area is still healing, in that it no longer itches but it is still a little dry so I'm just not taking very hot showers and using hand lotion now to help it heal. I try not to use the cortizone since it does have a steroid and can thin the skin if used too much.

Anyways, all in all this was three months total of irritation, but I have to thank this forum for the petroleum jelly solution since I believe that is what eventually cured it. It also made it much more tolerable. Best of luck!

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Jack (Montreal, Quebec) on 02/12/2012:
5 out of 5 stars

Petroleum Jelly works better than anything I've tried so far.

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Jay (Cape Town, South Africa) on 06/16/2010:
5 out of 5 stars

I'm not a big fan of pharmaceuticals, so did a little bit of research on my favourite remedy for many things to see wether there are applications for it in treating jock itch - hydrogen peroxide. I applied 3% solution with a drenched piece of cotton wool which burnt like CRAZY, leaving the infected area red, sore and tender. I'm not sure whether the hydrogen peroxide finally aided or not, but in any event I had to do something about the discomfort as it was time to go to work and the next simplest thing I could think of was plain petroleum jelly.

After applying a decent amount of petroleum jelly on the affected area the sting went away and when I got home I applied some more before going to bed. By the morning the rash was more than 90% gone and the itch as well! Amazing! I can't wait until next year to see whether petroleum jelly by itself would be effective-- I've read that this fungus which affects the top layer of skin cannot receive oxygen through oil and thus dies upon the application of most oils or lotions.

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