Penis pain - TMS or trauma?

Hello all, I have been a member here for years and had a wonderful and supportive experience during my previous struggles long ago. I have battled practically everything under the sun symptom-wise but have been living a largely pain free life for some years now. I have now rejoined under a different name because the current struggle is quite sensitive and there was a lot of personal information on my other account.

I will keep it relatively brief symptom-wise and focus on the context, but will happily elaborate if anyone asks. To cut to the chase, I am nearly 3 weeks into a very slow recovery from what seemed to be a penis injury following a sexual session. There was no obvious moment in which something appeared to happen, although it wasn't the most comfortable experience. The next day I experienced a sudden onset of pain in the penis which grew steadily worse and only really started to calm down a bit in the last week following a course of strong anti-inflammatories. Regardless, I have been mostly bed-ridden aside from essential trips to the bathroom/kitchen and occasionally trips to the GP/hospital (by car). Those trips have aggrivated the condition because any movement seems to create a sensation of inflammation and soreness, or a "flare up", and the trips have been fruitless as no one knows what to do with me nor do they seem to care. I am currently left with no clear follow up medically, and am working on the basis of the GP's speculated diagnosis of "minor soft tissue damage". However, he predicted 1-2 week recovery during which he also expected me to be able to go about my normal routine (far from possible).

Maybe this is physical and I just need to wait it out, but the lack of a concrete diagnosis makes it very challenging. There is no obvious sign of injury outwardly (bruising etc), but it is undeniably tender and feels inflamed. There also just seems to be no real advice anywhere for dealing with minor injuries of this sort. It's like blood from a stone. I can't work and I'm not getting any medical assistance, have extreme cabin fever, and am slightly concerned for my financial well being (I won't be getting sick pay).

The reason I think this could be tms is that there absolutely is emotional baggage for me around sex and it was actually convenient for me to not be able to perform for a little while. I am very aware of these issues though and am consciously trying to work through them. I have also struggled with chronic pelvic pain syndrome in the past (largely manifesting as prostitis and bladder pain), and I have a history of mild (but stable) pyronies. Lastly, some of the sensations are not dissimilar from what I've felt when I have had chronic pain/inflammation in my arms/hands. In one instance this did start out as a soft tissue injury and then later became chronic, so the challenge for me is that i don't know how to know whether what I'm experiencing is a genuine injury or purely psychosomatic. I can't even find out what the expected recovery window is because it ranges from a week to months depending on who you ask.

There are no easy answers here but I guess I'm just hoping to touch base with some like-minded people, and hopefully even find someone with a similar experience who can advise on these unusual symptoms. This was such a sanctuary for me years ago and was so valuable in moving me forward.

 

I would look here. And yes! Your TMS brain can make ANYTHING happen in your body. It has full control to give you any symptom—however rare, strange or scary. Believe it! Do the work and you’ll get out of this just like you did in the past. What’s wrong in your life? What’s too much? What do you think you’re only sad about— but underneath you’re actually raging? What seems “perfectly fine; no problems.” Your job? A relationship? Your family relationships? “Look in plain sight” for the culprit behind your need for a TMS distraction. (And, if you possibly can, forget about what the doctor said, because he really didn’t even know what the heck to tell you.)

 

My first debilitating TMS symptom was penile pain follow martial arts, Dr thinking it was a back injury that caused a nerve issue, dx with pudendal neuralgia—all nonsense was always TMS. Ah those days were a nightmare. Basically my body and brain said enough is enough, quit your Fing job and so I did. The pain lasted a month.

You lose absolutely nothing by applying a mind body approach here, keep calm and don’t catastrophize over the symptoms.