Skin tags or warts?

[funkeymonkey]

I was diagnosed with skin tags on the groin and rectum several years ago. I had one on the rectum then a few on the inside of my inner thigh where it meets the scrotum and one on the pubic bone, but none were on the scrotum or penis. The first dermatologist that I went to looked at the one I had on my rectum and said that it was a wart without doing a biopsy or looking at it very closely, I was doubtful of his diagnosis because it didn't look like a wart at all. The bump was smooth and raised, it came to a dull point, it looked like a little pink fingers, and it didn't look like any wart I have ever seen. It really looked like a skin tag that you get in the armpit more than a wart. They had no cauliflower appearance at all. Another one popped up that looked exactly identical so I decided to cut it off and took it to a dermatologist for a biopsy, the biopsy said that it was a skin tag so as I suspected the first dermatologist was wrong. The scary thing is that in the past six months my wife has noticed two or three skin tags growing in her groin region and one inside the moist labia of her vagina. They look identical to what I had. They are smooth and pink and shaped like a finger or thumb and maybe 3 to 5 mm long, they are very pliant or moveable when you touch them as were my skin tags.

My questions are

1. Can skin tags grow in the vagina or on the rectum?
2. Do hpv warts look like other warts; can you easily tell them from skin tags?
3. Do you think that my first dermatologist was wrong?
4. What do you think these are based on my description?
5. What are the chances of both my wife and I having skin tags in that area one or two years apart?

Thanks Doc!

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

1. Can skin tags grow in the vagina or on the rectum?
Yes.
2. Do hpv warts look like other warts; can you easily tell them from skin tags?
Not always.
3. Do you think that my first dermatologist was wrong?
I can't say.
4. What do you think these are based on my description?
Skin tags sound more likely.
5. What are the chances of both my wife and I having skin tags in that area one or two years apart?
Possible.

Hard to set odds.  To answer your questions, it would be best to have one or more of these growths cut off and tested.  However, I think you should have a doctor do it rather than cut anything off yourself.

Take care.

Dr. Rockoff

[funkeymonkey]

Since I sniped/cut my tags off or what ever they were with a razor they never re grew back. If they were warts wouldn't they have grown back or been more of a nusance. Where as with skin tags once they are cut off at the base they don't really grow back. Just a theory, what do you think?

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Nice, but not definitive.  Warts don't always grow back, at least not right away, and skin tags can grow back, eventually....

Dr. Rockoff

[funkeymonkey]

Ok Doc last question I promise, just for my sanity please. I cut the tags/things off two years ago with no return.  

The picture below is exactly what they looked like in texture, color, and shape.  I had maybe five or six dispersed about an inch apart from each other on the groin and inner thigh/next to scrotum. Looking at the picture on the link what does that look like to you.

http://medic.med.uth.tmc.edu/edprog/Path/derm9.jpg

Thanks for your help.

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Looks like a skin tag.  My advice remains the same.

Dr. Rockoff

[selfimpression]

I just went to the doctors a few days ago because of a pump that appeared on my vagina that I have had for a while and always thought it will go away but it hasn't since nov. and so I went today and she told me that it was simply a skin tag and I told her that well my partner he has pumps on the rim of his penish head and they told him that it was Genital Warts well thats strange because he has been faithful and he only got them after we had a sexual relationships and so I was wondering

Questions?
1. Is this genital warts?
2. Did I contract them to him?
3. And can I be cured if it is just a simpl skin tag?
4. why do skin tags irriate?
5. Should I go to a second doctor for a second oppinion

[Fman]

A related discussion, HPV or Tags?  How do you know? was started.

[sani19]

A related discussion, skin tag was started.