HPV transmission and information in Men

[Ayuda01]

To begin I am a healthy 25yo homosexual Caucasian Male.

I had a sexual encounter with another man and three days after I noticed symptoms that were alarming. I woke up suddenly at 5am with a pain in the head of my penis for no explained reason. The left side of the head & under the rim was tender to touch and eventually the painful sensation went away after a couple days. (I did the at home Vinegar 5% acetic acid test, where you place a dampened rag on the area for 5min to see if it turns white, and the left side did turn white but it wasn't suggestive of warts, it was actually a patch that raised below my head on the shaft, i am uncircumcised, so the area between the foreskin and the head) Another symptom I experienced was a odd rash on the left side of my cheek, it was red, dry, itchy, painful and formed a handful of skin colored flat bumps. While these bumps are only visible if I really look for them, they are demarcated and easy for me to locate if I'm close to the mirror (unsure if this is the early stage of wart formation). I also noticed a depression in that part of my face as well. Now its been about 9 days after my encounter and the redness on my face has nearly gone away but the bumps and depression remain. I would like to add, I've been acne free for years, and it does not appear to look like any sort of pimple I would have gotten. (The attached picture shows me puffing out my cheek to better visualize the area, there is one red flat bump the others are hard to see via camera, but they are off white and rigidly demarcated)

My encounter entailed sexually rubbing my exposed penis on the outside of said persons underwear(backside), I remember my face touching the outside of the underwear as well as a playfully bit his bum(once).

Can you please educate me on HPV in Men, the web is not helpful and very inconsistent. I would like to know if HPV symptoms can show after 3 days of exposure with an infected person. What are the symptoms of genital and facial warts? Can one encounter cause genital and facial warts simultaneously? Is underwear conducive to HPV and allowing it to be transmitted? If this is HPV what do i do? Would immunotherapy help, interferon? Aldara? Herbs? Would my body fight it off eventually? Lastly, would getting gardisil vaccine now be pointless if I acquired the disease?

(Also, I did feel a raised bump like growth on the persons lower back between the butt cheeks, when questioned they said it was from a coccyx surgery. I met him 7 days later and asked him to show me the "scar" and the bump was gone and a white discoloration was directly in between is butt cheek above the "crack", if he had cryotherapy performed, would the blister have healed that fast? This would probably answer all previous questions)

[Ayuda01]

Hello Dr. Kaur,

I just got home from the dermatologist's office. He examined my face and saw additional dry scaly circles on my hairline, which i had him examine. He said he suspects Seborrheic Dermatitis. I explained what happened on my face with the redness, depression of skin, and appearance of flat wart-like growth which turned brownish. He inspected the area thoroughly with his LED magnifier and said he does not see any indication of warts/herpes or anything, he linked it to seborrheic due to the redness(that was there) and the apparent red circular patches on my hairline. He also pointed out there are slight dry spots on my beard line as well as my inner ear that can be taken care of with the cream he gave me. What are your thoughts on his diagnosis? I wish I had a way of attaching pictures to these comments, it would help a lot. Once again thank you again for your help.

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
Warts are small painless growth on skin caused by Human Papilloma Virus. These can be light or dark. They are usually oval in growth and raised forming rough surface in the skin which may resemble a cauliflower.

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 doctor. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.

[Ayuda01]

Thank you for your reply Doctor. I am going to see a dermatologist on friday. Furthermore, what would HPV on the penis look like? Are they always small white pumps? or can they span about a inch, etc?

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
Warts are small painless growth on skin caused by Human Papilloma Virus. These can be light or dark. They are usually oval in growth and raised forming rough surface in the skin. They are numerous small, smooth, flat (pinhead sized) lesions on forehead, cheeks, arms, or legs. They are usually painless and do not appear after 3 days of exposure only.

From your symptoms, herpes lesions should be ruled out. This infection is usually transmitted by direct contact with a lesion or the body fluid of an infected individual and thus may spread through skin-to-skin contact or through sexual contact.

You should get an examination done from a dermatologist to confirm the diagnosis.
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 doctor. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.