Yes, you may have gotten chemical burns from the pool.

Chlorine is a nasty chemical that burns the skin, and causes tissue damage.

Cyndi

Since it's so localized, I don't think it could have been from the pool. If the water and chemicals were the cause, you would have more problem areas other than just your genitals... since your GF has this too, maybe you both share the same infection. Just a thought.

YES because it's localized on your genitals, I think it's definitely a reaction to the chlorine!!! The rest of your body didn't react because the skin over the rest of the body is not as sensitive as the skin on your genitals.

I can verify that chlorine does in fact irritate genitals when there is too much of it in a pool because it happened to me. We moved to a new town with a community pool, and after the first few times we went I was having excrutiating urination afterwards. My mom made me put vaseline over my urethra when we went swimming because it acted as a protective barrier, and it did indeed help.

Plain shampoo and body soaps can hurt some people down there!! Obviously it doesn't affect the rest of their body because otherwise they'd be screaming in pain. But on the genitals, something that is fine for the arms can be very bad.

Hmmmmmmm, I swim a lot as well as in over-chlorinated pools where you gag every 10 seconds, nothing strange has ever happened to my genitels. But my hair is semi-bleached from chlorine and I would say that chlorine is a powerful chemical able to do a lot of things...

MMAFighter, it doesn't happen to everyone, so just because it doesn't happen to you doesn't mean it can't happen to me, or to lprgp98tj.

The reason why I said that is because you have other vulnerable parts like ears and eyes that would really have problems if they were in contact with dangerous amounts, and even tho it may not hurt AS much, the rest of your soft skin, like your back might feel a little bit of the same hurt.

I don't say that it isn't a possibility that the chemicals are the problem, it just seems a little too easy to throw it off on a chemical burn, and it's always safe to check if it might be an infection instead because it has to be treated differently and can spread.

Well tell all of that to my 11 year old persona who sat on the toilet in pain, afraid to pee after swimming because it hurt too much.

My ears did not hurt. My eyes only hurt if I was stupid and opened them - that's what goggles are for. I did not have an infection, as the pain ONLY occurred after swimming in that specific pool, AND the pain was eliminated when a protective barrier against the chlorine was introduced - vaseline.

Glad I found this post - I had pain and red sore eyes, blurred vision, and a rash in the same areas as the poster.

I was only in the pool for 15 minutes and showered afterwards, but did keep my wet trunks on for an hour after. I open my eyes under water and always have done without problems before.

I read this post and immediately got my dad to check his pool levels. He had shocked the pool over a week ago, but guess what - the chlorine levels were high!!!

I have just soaked myself in the bath for 30mins but any other suggestions on remedies to take the soreness away ? Aloe Vera good enough ? I have just tried aqueous cream in the meantime.

Oh, and how long before my hair turns blonde!

I'm glad I read this board, because my 3 kids all had irritated skin on their face/neck after swimming last weekend in a pool. I think the chlorine was too high because one of their friends also had facial irritation as well. It seemed weird that 4 kids out of 6 all had dry, red, patches of skin that burned if they put any kind of Caladryl, lotion, etc... on them. I am keeping them out of the pool for a few days to heal.

I'm in the same boat that alot of you are in right now. Last sept., My fiance' and I went swimming in our community pool at our condo. He just laid out on one of our floaties sunbathing and I swam around like a fish for about a hour and a half. I had noticed that the chemicals were a bit strong. It was affecting my eyes, nose and skin. I knew they had cleaned the pool the day before. I told my fiance' that we needed to get out of the water because I was starting to get sick feeling. I went and showered and right afterwards, my skin was on fire, my eyes hurt and were blurry, my hair started falling out in clumps and it felt like cooked spagetti that had been left out of water. Nothing I did would help. I had just started cleaning pools at my work place and the next day I told my boss what was going on with me and what happened. I gave me a test kit to test the chlorine and the muratic acid levels. At lunch I tested it and it was off the charts. That afternoon I started getting diarehha and started to get a fever. I skin started expelling a start chemical smell. I got headaches and blisters appeared in my eyes,throat,mouth, face, nose, bikini area,skin. I started to cough. My fiance' took me to the hospital and the diagnosed me with respiratory chemical exposure. I have had problems of all sorts since. MY hair after had to be cut and 12" hit the ground! We later found out that the pool cleaning co. had shocked the pool and didn't post signs. Tha Health Dept. closed is down and the Dr.'s informed me that if a small child would have been in that pool for a short time it could have been fatal! So if you sense something is wrong when you get in, there probably is!!!
By the way the floaties were Coleman, and were very thick, and the bottoms melted!