Baffled...

[andrew2599]

Searched all over the net for an answer and could find nothing similar.  I think I was only partially circumcised and so have a good bit of foreskin left.  As you pull back the foreskin taut, at the edge there is a cylindrical something just under the very top layer of skin about 5 mm long with a very slight open sore on each end.  If the skin is tight, you can clearly see the white cylinder and the two openings on either end.  It is not on the Glans, but ends up being midway down the shaft as the foreskin is pulled back.  The thing appears to have a solid white cylinder of whatever inside the sore and it can sometimes be pushed out one end of the cylinder.  It never hurts but has been there for as long as I can remember.  I just seems odd to have a tiny open sore in this area for so long with no other symptoms.  What is it?  Candidal balanitis?  Lymphocele?  Fordyce Spots?  Tyson Glands?  Everlasting yeast infection?  I couldn't really make heads or tails of the medical lingo in the descriptions of each of these.

Whatever it is, it has never gone away and I am a very clean white male and haven't been sexually active in a couple of years.  Finally, how do you treat it if it is treatable?

Thanks so much for your help and the relative "anonymity" of this forum that enables people to ask tough questions

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

I would guess that you're describing tissue left over from circumcision.  This matches no medical condition I can even think of, including the ones you list.  I'm not sure why you're even worried about it, but since you are, you will need to see a doctor in person.  I understand and appreciate your reluctance, but there's no shame in asking a doctor to take a look, especially when you'll almnost certainly learn that you have nothing to fear and no treatment to do.

Take care.

Dr. Rockoff