Looking for an educated opinion.

First of all I want to thank you for your time and attention, not only to my question, but for the thousands of questions this site has replied to. I have no doubt this site has eased the minds of many. My apologies if my descriptions are not as clear and precise as you might like. A few months ago I had unprotected sex with a 40 something year old woman who assured me that she may very well be the cleanest woman on the face of the earth.Fast forward to a few weeks ago. I had "protected sex" with another woman a couple of times. Maybe a week to ten days later while I was pleasuring myself, I felt like i had rubbed myself a bit raw on the left-side of my penis. I stopped, took a look and noticed several small bumps directly under the head of my penis, say at seven o'clock. They do not itch, are not blisters, but do have the coloring of the ridge around the head of my penis as opposed to the rest of the shaft and that area appears to be, wrinkly?. I also noticed around the ridge of my penis many bumps all the way around. Based on my research this appears to be normal, but after noticing the bumps located below the head, I took a closer look. A few of these bumps around the ridge appear to be whitish, almost like dried skin. Again, no pain,itching or general discomfort. The reason I'm approaching you today is the woman I had "protected sex" with asked me if I had any STD's becasue the guy she had "protected" sex with last week now has some sort of bump on his penis. Do you think the bumps at 6 o'clock and around the ridge are herpies (herpes) or warts?
Sorry for the length of this.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

You may have "pearly penile papules".  These are a normal anatomic variant, but often are first noticed when something--other symptoms, anxiety, etc--lead to a closer than usual look.  The name pretty well describes them:  firm to hard but sometimes fleshy, white and perhaps slightly shiny ["pearly"], typically half a millimeter or smaller in size, and located around the head of the penis.  If this doesn't seem to describe them, see a health care provider, perhaps a dermatologist.  In any case, I don't think you have either herpes or genital warts.

Best wishes--  HHH, MD