I don't know what this is

[anon7905]

Let's start with a little history.  I have had oral herpes for as long as I can remember and apparently gave my girlfriend genital herpes recently.  She got cleared up and the doctor told her that if he were me he would have unprotected sex and not worry about getting herpes because I already have the antibodies.  So we went with that and tot his point I still don't know if I have genital herpes or not.  If it was the same strain, antibodies wouldn't be able to determine if it were genital or oral, right?  But anyway, that made me really paranoid for a while and I was laways aexamining myself but eventually got over it and figured that I don't have genital herpes.  I did get some sort of a yeast infection while this was going on (I am uncircumsized), but thta eventually cleared up with cream.  During that period I was washing a lot and making sure everything was dry.  Now after sex there are usually some red dots that appear, which I contribute to friction with pubic hairs, but they go away after a little time (hours).  Also, HPV has tested positive in my girlfriend.

Now for the current issue:  About a month ago I noticed in the center, top region of my glans (between the tip and the base of the head) there appeared to be what looked like a tiny white pimple beneath the skin.  Around the same time the skin around the urethral opening started to look rough and a little bit scaly.  When erect, they become a little more noticable and I don't know if they are getting worse or I am just thinking about them too much.  If I stretch the skin in the middle, I can see there are about 5 little pimple like things underneath the skin.  The rough area at the tip is more of a slightly raised scale (about 5 of them close together) with a couple little white things also.  I put some vinegar on these and nothing turned white (beyond what it already was) but I don't knoiw if I put enough on or not to show warts.  I'm worried about warts because of HPV.  We don't know if she gave it to me or vice versa.  (I'm assuming Inhave it since she does and it is easily transmitted.)  Does this sound like it could be warts?  I have looked at pictures of genital warts and it doesn't look much like any of those, and it doesn't look much like pearly penile papules either.  What might this be?  Could I be washing too much and drying it out/irritating it somehow and that causes actual pimples to form?  These are all pretty much invisible when not erect unless I really stretch the skin to make them show.  Am I just stretching my imagination here and seeing something that was always there?  Any ideas would be helpful as I have been trying to get an appointment with my PCP for about 4 months now and still to no avail.  If nothing changes color wiht vinegar does that mean that I don't have warts?  Please give me some ideas of what this could be.

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

I think these are small cysts or some other manifestations of normal anatomy.  I do think you are thinking about and examining it too much.  I'm also a bit perplexed that it's taking so many months to see your PCP.  Isn't there anyone else you can see?

I'm also not sure what you mean when you say, "HPV has tested positive in my girlfriend."  Does she have warts or not?  Even if she does, that doesn't tell you much about what the particular bumps you have are.  A negative vinegar test does argue against warts, though.

My advice is to leave the bumps alone so as not to distort them, and to get a doctor to take a look.

Best.

Dr. Rockoff

[anon7905]

I mean that she has tested positive for HPV but does not have warts.  Not necessarily everyone with HPV gets warts, right?

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Right.  ASR