Your concern
Athlete's foot
Macerated skin between the toes, itching and odour: the commonest mycosis, and the most neglected.
It almost always starts in the same place: the space between the fourth and fifth toes, where the toes are most crowded and moisture evaporates least. The skin looks whitish and softened, it peels, and beneath it a reddened surface remains. Itching and odour complete the picture.
The mechanism also explains who suffers from it: closed shoes for many hours, synthetic socks, sweating, shared showers and changing rooms. It is not a disease of those who neglect their feet — it is a disease of those who keep them for a long time in a warm, humid environment, which is exactly what the fungus asks for.
Two things must be said because they change the course. First: neglected athlete's foot tends to climb to the nail, and a nail mycosis takes far longer to treat than the skin between the toes. Second: it travels with whatever touches it. Drying the feet and then the groin with the same towel moves the fungus, which is why the two sites often present together in the same person.
Treating it early avoids having to treat the nails
This is the concrete reason not to delay. While it remains on the skin between the toes, athlete's foot resolves in a reasonable time with local therapy. If the fungus reaches the nail plate the picture changes scale: the nail grows slowly, medication reaches it with difficulty, and timescales go from weeks to months. The same infection, treated at two different moments, costs the patient two entirely different commitments.
How it shows
- Whitish, softened skin between the toes, especially the outer two
- Scaling and fissures, with a reddened base
- Itching, sometimes burning
- Persistent odour despite washing
- Worsening with closed shoes, sport and heat
- In neglected cases: nail involvement
How we proceed
- 1Visit: exact site, appearance of the skin, examination of the nails
- 2Check for other involved sites, including the groin
- 3Antifungal therapy appropriate to the extent
- 4Correction of the environment: footwear, socks, drying, changing rooms
- 5Later review of the nails, if already involved
Available treatments
- Dermatology visit
- Mycological testing
- Targeted antifungal therapy
- Nail review
Book a visit
Our specialists will evaluate your case and define the most suitable treatment plan.
Book in FlorenceBook in SienaSiena · Firenze
Frequently asked questions
Did I catch it at the pool?+
It is possible, and it is one of the commonest routes along with shared showers and changing rooms: these are warm, damp surfaces on which the fungus survives. That said, exposure alone is not enough — how long the feet stay damp afterwards and what footwear is used also count. Prevention is therefore not avoiding the pool, but drying thoroughly between the toes and not walking barefoot on those floors.
Why does it come back every summer?+
Because the favouring conditions return, and often because the reservoir was never emptied. The fungus can persist in footwear and, above all, in an affected nail that was never treated: from there the skin is reinfected whenever heat and humidity allow. When recurrences are regular, the right question is not which cream to use but where the fungus hides between episodes.
Do I have to throw away my shoes?+
Not necessarily, but they should be treated as part of the problem and not as a detail. Alternating footwear so it dries between uses, preferring natural-fibre socks and changing them if they become damp, airing sports shoes: these are mundane measures that nonetheless affect recurrence more than patients expect. Specific advice is given at the visit, looking at the footwear you actually use.
Related reading
Have a question? Let's talk.
Book a first visit: the physician will evaluate your situation and guide you to the most suitable treatment.
Book a dermatology visit