Little Red bumps

[Dyinghere]

1 month ago I had protected sex with a girl.  I was actually very careful.  The one mistake I did make was that was some skin/skin contact between her genitalia and mine in the shower. There was no penetration, and the contact probably lasted between 5-20 seconds.  Just for some extra information, there was lots of soap on my penis, and her vagina.  I was wondering if that would kill any virus or bacteria that might be living on the skin?

Appx 36 hours after the sex I noticed 1 small, slightly red bumps on the base of the head of my penis. Under further inspection I could actually see 4 little bumps in the area. These bumps do not hurt at all.  Although, through squeezing and scratching, they did become fairly inflamed, but still no real pain.

The bumps are barely visible, however if you stretch the skin the bumps are more pronounced and appear to be under the skin and the skin appears shiny, or waxy looking.

At first, one of the bumps appeared to have a bit of a whitish head on it, although it could have just been the light and the shiney skin.

Anyway, it was driving me crazy, so I wanted to know what was inside.  I cut it open and only a little blood came out, no discharge, which led me to believe it was just the condition of the skin that gave the whitish appearence

The area is completely dry all the time.  There is no oozing or anything like that.

The strange thing is now after a month the bumps have not changed at all, they have neither grown, nor decreased.

I was thinking it could be herpes, but I think it would be strange for herpes to attack so fast(in less than 2 days), and then have such a minor outbreak, and yet have it last so long with no change.

The other thing of note is that, i have also developed little waxy looking bumps on my knuckles, they are skin colored, although look a bit shiny/waxy as well.

I have had no other symptoms.

I know you don't like to do any sort of diagnoses on these forums, as I have been reading alot. But I am overseas now, and health care is not really available for this sort of problem.  I will have an oppourtunity in about a week to get some tests done.

I would just appreciate a guess, or some factual information to let me know if the fact that the bumps have not changed at all is a good sign to ruling out herpes and/or other lesion type STD's.

Does this sound consistent with herpes, or any of the other normal lesion diseases?

I had also considered MC, (Molluscum whatever).  But I think the symptoms developed too fast.

Your forum is fantastic.  I really like the way you just state facts, and you provide much more detailed information than any other website that I have been to.  Good job.

Excuse my spelling, there is no spell check here.

[who_is_this]

For goodness sake, don't go around cutting into bumps you have to see what's in them.  Use some common sense.  That's the best way to start a raging infection and it won't tell you anything, anyway.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

My guess is you don't have anything abnormal at all; more likely just normal variations in skin tone that you are noticing because you are looking especially closely.  Certainly neither herpes nor any other STD causes such subtle skin changes.  And herpes absolutely could not persist unchanged over a month; no chance.  I don't know what to make of "waxy bumps" on your knuckles, but they also don't sound like any STD. On top of all this, it is virtually impossible that you acquired any STD from the exposure you describe,

The standard advice applies:  see a health care provider to know for sure what is going on.  In your case, you might just go straight to a dermatologist.  But in the meantime, don't worry about STD (and you don't need testing for any STD).

Thanks for the thanks about the forum.  Best wishes--

HHH, MD