The skin on the shaft of my penis has been irritated. Symptoms recently have been that - after sex or masturbation - the skin gets red, puffy, and stings; then the next day it has a crusty feeling sort of like a scab would feel, but there s no color difference (although a couple days ago, it was still wet with a clear sticky fluid on the most irritated areas; and then after a couple days of leaving it along or applying an antibiotic ointment, the skin dries up and flakes off (or it is the dried fluid flaking off, perhaps). when masturbating, i tend to do so for a long time and with lots of force, but i always use a lubricant (usually petroleum jelly like Vaseline, but there was a stretch of time when i was using Astroglide but I stopped because this was the first especially bad time when I got the red, puffy, stinging skin sensation). It seems like the irritation is worst after my wife and I have sex and the penis is exposed to her wetness or saliva , because I can go several times masturbating with the petroleum jelly and not get the irritation. Is it possible that something in the lubricant has conditioned the skin to react negatively to natural body fluids, or is it just that the frequent and long sessions of masturbating are just stretching the skin more than it should be and then the wetness of the bodily fluids irritate the raw skin? I ve only been with my wife - no other sexual partners - and we ve been together for 18 years, so there s no chance that I got an std from someone else. Any suggestions on the cause or a course of treatment?