scrotal sebaceous cysts

hi im a 21 year old male with a serious sebaceous cyst problem on my genitals.  Between 50-100 cysts are scattered throughout my scrotum and penis ranging from 1-3mm (most of them 1mm) in diameter, and protruding up to 2mm off the skin surface.  Ive posted on this forum before with them same advice you can google for: put a heating pad on them or surgery being the only treatment options im referred.  Please, this has not helped and the cysts only continue to spread and become more visible.  This is an extremely vexing issue for me and has made me very self conscious about any kind of sexual contact.  Every doctor i go too tells me the cysts are "normal."  I can't do this anymore.  They must go.  Is there any treatment options other than surgery or the brilliant "just heat it up" BS? Even advice as far as eating and cleaning habits would give me hope.  Should i stop masturbating?  Chemical peels? Most of the cysts appear to be coming out of hair follicles; would laser hair removal treat the cysts? I also just found an abstract, but no supplementary data, about successful treatment of scrotal sebaceous cysts using a Nd-YAG laser--ever heard of that?  I'm so conflicted and quickly digressing every morning getting up knowing i look like this naked--I am deformed and any hypothetical sexual partner with eyes or feeling in their skin will notice this.  That is depressing on so many levels.  HELP!

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
Fordcye spots are small, painless, raised, pale or white spots or bumps 1 to 3 mm in diameter that may appear on the shaft of the penis. The spots are a form of ectopic sebaceous gland, and are not known to be associated with any disease or illness and are of cosmetic concern only. They are non-infectious and a natural occurrence on the body.

They should be removed only if they are irritating or are unsightly.
It is very difficult to precisely confirm a diagnosis without examination and investigations and the answer is based on the medical information provided. For exact diagnosis, you are requested to consult your dermatologist. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.

[a_p]

Yeah, I'm a 29 year old male with the exact same issue. It has not stopped me from forming long term relationships in the past but I think my case has gotten worse. A girlfriend I had was so freaked out she went and got tested for STDs despite my attempts to explain the issue, and recently it caused some issues with a sexual partner I had (without a doubt, it would have been the same had I been on the receiving end of the encounter). It's awful; love will not conquer the fact that I look disgusting. I don't want psychological treatment for the depression it's caused. Surely a cure exists....something I've noticed with my own subaceous cysts: they tend to 'maturate' with a lot of uniformity. That is, compared with other times of the month, on certain days it seems they're much more easily acted upon-- so I'm aware there's a kind of cycle taking place. How can I intervene in this cycle and inhibit their production? Is it a DNA thing?

I've read about self surgery- personally, I think it's successful with people who have scrotal calcinosis, because these cysts can be removed and aren't likely to return. This ****, the one's I've got- it's a curse from the God's. I may as well have leprosy...and in a society which increasingly consumes more pornography and images of idealized sex, subaceous cysts are especially difficult to suffer. You know, even if there was just a way to make them less unsightly, a topical remedy, I'd be happy.

No self surgery, no heating...perhaps a dietary approach. From the literature I've read, there's a lot of keratin and cholesterol in the cheesy white material within the cysts. Can we reverse, or at the minimum lower, the production of these materials? One's a steroid- surely we can attack the excess production of cholesterol in our bodies. I've put a lot of thought into this. I'm beginning to think about preparing an excell sheet tabulating their growth and disappearance, my daily food intake, etc.

More to come...