Skin Tag or Wart

[underscore]

Hello, and thanks in advance for responding.

I'm a 39 yr old male who's been with the same partner (married) for 11 years.

About 8 months ago out of the blue, I found a small skin colored growth on the shaft of my penis.  Not itchy, not sore, and soft measuring approximately 2 mm.  My wife upon closer inspection said it looked like one of the skin tags in my armpit, only smaller and maybe not quite as elongated.

When I removed it, it bled a bit but healed up fine leaving what appeared to be a tiny white scar.

Much to my dismay, it grew back over the course of 6 months in exactly the same spot and looking exactly the same.
Once again I removed it, it bled a little and healed up fine.  This was about 45 days ago.

It seems to be trying to grow back again, as the spot/scar seems to be slighty raised.  

I went to see a doctor a few days ago for a wrist ailment, and decided to ask him about it.  He said he could not diagnose it because there was not much evidence of a lesion.  He said to wait and if it grew back to come see him again. He suspects a skin tag, but didn't rule out the possibility of a wart.  His response has made me really anxious.  

My wife and I have had sex when the growth was present (we assumed skin tag) and to date, she has no signs of any growths.

My questions are:

1) If I were exposed to HPV before I met my wife, is it possible to have a wart breakout so many years later?(I've never had any growths before nor has my wife)
2) Are skin tags common on the penis?
3) Would a wart take upwards of six months to grow?  I'm not entirely sure if it was gradual over 6 months, or if it grew quickly over the course of the last month (when I really noticed it again).

Thank you for any response.

[Vanessa Lacuesta]

Hi.

With the way you have described this, this may be a skin tag or  a filiform wart. Filiform warts are quite elongated and they are less coarse than the common warts or flat warts. Warts may manifest about 2 to 9 months after infection. There may be chances of manifesting the warts years after infection however,I do not have data to back this up. It may be due to a decrease in immune response such stress, presence of an underlying disease condition or poor nutrition that may cause these skin conditions to occur. In your case, you have only mentioned of one of these skin colored bumps. This may not be something that you should be so worried about. Do not pick on this bump as we do not want any bleeding or infection in the area. Have your doctor assess this. You may need a topical medication for this.

[underscore]

Vanessa, thanks for responding.

I researched some filiform warts and there are no similarities at all with my growth.  There were not numerous fronds, just a single fleshy looking growth which really wasn't elongated at all.  

Not sure if you misread my post, but the skin tag in my armpit was quite elongated, not the growth in question.

In your sentence containing the mention of manifestation in 2 to 9 months, were you referring to filiform warts or genital warts?  If you are referring to filiform warts, does that mean you are discounting genital warts entirely?

I refer back to questions 2 and 3, and especially 3.  Can a GW take months to grow?  Could this be typical GW behaviour?

Thank you for your response.