Rash on penis

Hi Dr. Rockoff,
Thanks ahead of time for taking time to answer my question. About 2 months ago, a few bumps showed up on the right shaft of my penis. It was one circular bump (painless) and a few dots next to it. The dots were not connected and were flesh colored.
Stressed out, I went to an urgent care place and a doctor took a look at it. He said it definitely wasn't venereal and diagnosed it as Ringworm. He prescribed Ketoconazole which treats fungus.
One bump stayed the same, but the rest seemed to start disappearing. It didn't disappear entirely.
I went to another doctor and he said that it might be HPV, but he said it wasn't definite. Both doctors thought the area was too small to biopsy.
I then went back to the original doctor and a colleague of his checked me out. She told me she would be very surprised if it was HPV and referred me to a dermatologist.
I went to a dermatologist about a week later. He had a hard time seeing a few of the bumps and diagnosed one as a wart. He zap it and a few other areas with liquid nitrogen.
Why would 2 doctors say the area was definitely not venereal and one say one of the bumps was a wart? I've been very depressed lately. Thanks for your help.

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

A little bump could be a wart, and sometimes dermatologists zap a bump just to be sure.  Unfortunately, when they do this they reinforce the idea in patients--like you--that they had warts when they very well may not have.  If you had several bumps and all went away except one, that certainly isn't what warts do.

Since I didn't see it, I obviously can't be sure.  But I am quite skeptical of the diagnosis.  In any case, the wart is gone.  If you get another bump in the area, see the dermatologist again.  Meantime, you might as well forget about ti since there's nothing you ought to be doing about it.

Oh, and it certainly wasn't "ringworm."

Take care.

Dr. Rockoff

[giraffe7983]

Hi,
I just wanted to add that I went to a 2nd dermatologist today and she said that the bumps might be "sweat gland inclusions". She said that warts usually manifest themselves and my bumps are too small to biopsy. I'm going to have another apointment with her in 3 weeks. I hope it turns out ok. They have still remained very small and flat for atleast 6-8 weeks.

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Sounds right to me.

Dr. Rockoff

[giraffe7983]

Thanks for you help. :)