Are these bumps early HPV or just something else?

[Darwin]

About 7 days ago I noticied several small, fairly hard, whitish, almost flesh-colored bumps on the bottom of my shaft and a few smaller white bumps on my pubic area. I am dying to know what they are.

1-2 days before the bumps appeared I played a soccer game, then went to a bar, went home and fell asleep without showering. I intially assumed they were just a reaction to me not showering and would soon disappear. Another important fact is that I had unprotected sex with an ex-ex-girlfriend(who is not very promiscuous)about 3 months ago who said she was clean and I also got out of a monogomous 3-year relationship about 1 year ago. I don't sleep around much (26-years old & I've been with 10 women) but I know that all it takes is once.

I get tested annualy and I've always been clean. I've also had a rash and a few small bumps appear before and they always turned out to be nothing. However, these bumps seem different. They are not painful, they don't itch, there is not puss or fluid, and they seem to become more inflamed when I'm working out or outside in hot weather.

After some frustrating research on the net I began to think they were Fordyce spots but I'm just not sure. Some of the bumps look exactly like fordyce spots but some of them don't. They don't look like any pictures of warts on the web(which usually just shows the worst of the worst) but I can't shake the feeling that these might be the early stage of HPV. I know HPV can lay dormant for years but it usually becomes active within 3 months(exact amount of time since last sexual encounter) so that just makes me all the more paranoid.

PICTURES:
http://h1.ripway.com/darwin420/IMG_0175.JPG
http://h1.ripway.com/darwin420/IMG_0177.JPG
http://h1.ripway.com/darwin420/IMG_0181.JPG
http://h1.ripway.com/darwin420/IMG_0182.JPG

The red scrape toward the head is just from dry masturbation and the bumps were present before I shaved and I had not shaved for a while prior to the bumps appearing. As you can see, some bumps are bigger and red while others are very small and white or flesh colored.

I plan on visiting my local clinic next week but the anxiety is driving me nuts so I came here. What's your opinion?

1) What do the bumps look like to you?
2) Do more mild forms of HPV outbreaks look similar?
3) Could this just be some sort of bacteria or fungus from not showering?
4) On a scale of 1-10,(1 being nothing and 10 being warts or an STD) what would you rate my bumps.

5) Am I just paranoid? Anything on my penis scares the hell out of me.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

With apology, I never look at posted photos of lesions.  It gets too close to practicing medicine from afar.

From your description, almost certainly you don't have herpes.  Between the numerous other possibilities (fordyce spots, sebaceous cysts, warts, molluscum contagiosum, folliculitis, and so on), I really cannot judge.  You're on the right track to get an answer:  see your health care provider.  In the meantime, you might try the MedHelp Dermatology Forum; as a derrmatologist, Dr. Rockoff is better qualified than I am to look at online photos of skin lesions, and I believe he sometimes does so.

Sorry I can't be of more help.  Good luck--  HHH, MD

[nsns]

I am no doctor however I do have HSV2 and those look just like what I get except you have them really spread out? How many days have you had thouse? If it's been more then a week and they have not popped then its probably not HSV..

good luck!

[Englishman]

Englishman

I'm not a doctor either. I reckon folliculitis and/or molluscum. I dont think it is HPV. See what the doc sais. Good luck.

[Darwin]

I went to my County clinic today and the nurse there disagnosed my bumps as Molluscum. I have a few questions:
1) Can the bumps reappear at any time during my life?
2) Can I infect a parnter if we have unprotected sex even after all the bumps are completely healed?
3) Does the immune system eventually control Molluscum?

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Molluscum contagiosum is caused by a virus that usually involves the face of young children, transmitted between toddlers by saliva.   If someone escapes childhood infection and therefore isn't immune as an adult, it can appear as a genital, sexually transmitted infection.  MC is no more than a benign inconvenience; there are no serious health consequences.

To answer your follow-up questions in opposite order:

3) The immune system eventually cures MC.

2) Once that happens, you cannot infect a partner.  Until then (perhaps a few months), you probably can.  However, many people are immune due to childhood infection; so your future sex partners might not be susceptible.  But there is no way to know for sure (for example, no blood test exists).

1) Because immunity develops but slowly, recurrences after treatment are fairly common over the next few months, but later recurrences are rare.

HHH, MD