When it comes to balanitis symptoms there are three crucial things to keep in mind:

• 1. Catching the symptoms early increases your chances of interrupting the balinitis cycle of damage
• 2. Acting on these symptoms quickly increases your chances of permanently curing your balanitis
• 3. Knowing how these symptoms can be misleading can help you prevent your balanitis from getting worse

Catching the symptoms early

Although the most obvious symptom of balanitis is an inflamed glans, the way this symptom presents itself may be different for each person and not always easy to catch.

During the early stages of balanitis, the inflammation may simply appear as a red discoloration on the glans or foreskin. While the discoloration may be visually noticeable, it may not cause any pain or discomfort. This is one of the best times to treat your balanitis since it hasn't progressed into an all out flare-up.

As the balanitis progresses, the symptoms may begin to evolve into more severe forms.

Advanced signs of balanitis include:

• Increased redness of the glans or foreskin
• Tissue erosions that are raw to the touch
• Rash-like appearance on the glans surface
• Foul smell or discharge from penis
• Pain, itching or burning of the foreskin or glans

On the surface these symptoms seem no worse than typical skin irritation that might heal itself if given enough time. In fact, when confronted with these symptoms, wait-and-see is the most common approach employed by balanitis sufferers. However, understanding what's truly happening under the surface exposes a much different picture of these seemingly "harmless" symptoms.

What do these symptoms mean?

The presence of these symptoms shows that your immune system is actively fighting a threat to your penile tissue. It is your body's way of vigorously trying to eliminate the threat, whether it is a microbe, a chemical irritant or physical trauma. This immune system attack continues until the trigger that activated the attack has gone.

Unfortunately, despite our immune system's best effort, our body isn't always successful at permanently eliminating the cause of the inflammation. That's why it is so important to limit the tissue damage by helping your body neutralize the underlying trigger effectively.

If you suffer from balanitis, it is crucial to provide your penile tissue with a wide variety of therapeutic substances so that no matter what the cause of the immune system attack, your body is able to overcome it completely.

Acting on these symptoms quickly

Did you know that the average balanitis sufferer waits several months to years before seeing a urologist about their condition? Most of these cases start out mild and progress to the severe stages where the balanitis begins to actively interfere with the patient's daily life.

This is because most patients either fail to recognize their symptoms until advanced stages or simply use a wait-and-see approach to see if the symptoms will subside on their own.

Both these approaches mean that the sufferer's health is at the mercy of how their balanitis will progress. If clinical studies are any indication, most of these patients would have been well advised to act on their symptoms as soon as they were noticed.

This has two major benefits:

• First, it leaves nothing to chance and ensures that your balanitis does not progress to an advanced stage where a visit to a urologist or a prescription medication is required.
• Second, it prevents permanent penile tissue damage and increases your chances of completely curing your balanitis.

How balanitis symptoms can be misleading

Even though the most common balanitis symptoms are easy to notice and crucial for identifying the problem, they can also be deceiving and lead you into a false sense of relief.

There are 4 ways how balanitis symptoms can misguide your treatment efforts:

The intensity of your symptoms has more to do with your immune system's response than how much damage is occurring in your glans tissue.

Consider this...

When your glans or foreskin is confronted by a trigger (microbe, chemical, injury), there is a small window during which this trigger can carry out its damage without the involvement of your immune system. When this damage reaches a tipping point, the immune system is activated and your body launches a violent inflammatory response.

If your balanitis were treated closer to the window of opportunity before the immune system attack was in full swing, you would only need to eliminate the initial trigger. However, once you are in the middle of a full blown immune attack, you now have to deal with both the underlying trigger and the immune attack - a much harder task.

It's ironic that balanitis patients are least likely to treat their problem when it is at its most treatable stage.

Remember, don't let mild symptoms fool you into a false sense of security when it comes to balanitis. As soon as you become aware of your condition, take prompt action to stem the damage process in its tracks. Those who wait-and-see often wait-and-find out that their balanitis was worse than their symptoms lead on. No matter how mild your symptoms, treat your balanitis properly.

For example, one common side effect of balanitis is that it strips your glans of its protective moisture barrier. This barrier is crucial for shielding the mucosal surface from common irritants. Even when the balanitis flare-up subsides, the lack of this protective barrier leaves your penile tissue vulnerable to common irritants and causes the glans tissue to experience continued damage.