Many men complain:
Burning, itching, and irritation after coital connection with women contending with chronic or acute vaginal infections.

Not infrequently small blisters appear on the glans penis, particularly around the urethral outlet. If there are any abrasions on either the glans or shaft of the penis, secondary infection can occur in these local sites.

The same type of irritative penile reaction may develop from exposure to a non infectious vaginal environment as a response to the chemicals in contraceptive creams, jellies, foams, etc.

It may not be the female that responds in a sensitive manner to an intravaginal chemical contraceptive agent but rather her male partner. Sensitivity to intravaginal chemical contraceptives is seen quite frequently in the male and, if symptoms develop, contraceptive technique should be changed.

The same sort of irritative penile reaction can be elicited by a repetitive pattern of vaginal douching.

There are some douche preparations to which not the female but the male partner becomes sensitive.

Not infrequently, vesicles form on the glans penis. If these blisters rupture, the raw areas on the glans are quite painful, particularly during sexual connection.

In the actual process of ejaculation there are many situations that return painful stimuli to the involved male. If the individual has had gonorrhea there may be strictures (adhesions) throughout the length of the penile urethra, and attempts to urinate and/or to ejaculate may cause severe pain spreading throughout the penile urethra and radiating to the bladder and prostate.

There may be the sensation of intense burning during and particularly in the first few minutes after ejaculation. Particularly if the offending agent has been the gonococcus, the pain with ejaculation sometimes is exquisite. Immediate medical attention should be given to any complaint of burning or itching during or immediately after the ejaculatory process.

There is a spastic reaction of the prostate gland seen in older men during the stage of ejaculatory inevitability. In this situation the prostate contracts spastically rather than in its regularly recurring contractile pattern, and the return can be one of very real pelvic pain and/or aching radiating to the inner aspects of the thighs or into the bladder and occasionally to the rectum.

This pathologic spastic contraction pattern can be treated effectively by providing a minimal amount of testosterone replacement therapy.

Care should be taken to evaluate the possibility of concurrent infection in the prostate. Occasionally, chronic prostatitis has caused significant degrees of pain during an ejaculatory process.

As a point in differential diagnosis, the painful response with prostatic infection is with the second, not the first, stage of the orgasmic experience, while that of prostatic spasm has just the reverse sequence. Careful questioning usually will establish specifically the timing in onset of the painful response and thus suggest a more definitive diagnosis.