Red Spot on Penis

[eddiejon76]

Dr,

About 15 weeks ago I had unprotected oral sex from a female sex worker in Thailand.  It lasted about 1 minute with no ejaculation and no other sexual exposure.  I sobered up pretty quick and realized it was not something I wanted to continue with.  About 11 weeks after this incident I noticed a red spot on my penis.  It is flush with my skin, soft, and gets really shiny after showers.  Throughout the day it looks a little different and after about a week It appears to go away (gets more faint) and then a very thin layer of skin falls off the top.  This is when it becomes shiny and red again.  It is circular and has never been an open sore.  It is 100% painless and on the tip of my penis on the side.  Nothing has ever come out of the sore either.  I'm not really sure if sore is the right word though.  I also did not have any other symptoms after this incident until this spot developed 11 weeks later.  By touch alone, you could not tell anything was there.  I've had this spot for about 4 weeks and it hasn't really changed at all.  At first I wasn't worried about this because it had been 11 weeks after the incident, but now I'm getting worried again.  

Should I be worried about this?  I realize the risks of all possible STDs.  I mostly concerned with Syphilis.   From looking at pictures, this doesn't look like a chancre because it's not open and is completely flat. I read it could be up to 90 days for the chancre to develop.  Is it pretty rare for a primary syphilis to develop that late?  Would a syphilis chancre be pretty obvious?  I guess my real question is am I overreacting or should I be worried about this spot (what can I rule out based on the timing alone)?

Thanks.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Welcome to the forum.  I'll try to help.  The quick reply is that you should not be at all worried about this, which is not an STD.

No STD causes a red spot of the sort you describe, and for sure it isn't a chancre.  My guess is that it is some sort of normal anatomic variant, maybe a hemangioma (a blood vessel "mole"), or a fibroma, or some other inconsequential skin change.  Or maybe some sort of dermatitis, like psoriasis. Any of the innumerable causes of skin rash, sores, etc anywhere on the body sometimes can occur in the genital area.

For further reassurance, I suggest you get professionally examined.  You're never going to know for sure what it is by online searching.  Feel free to return with a follow-up comment to know how it all turns out.  But you shouldn't be worried about any STD, and I very much doubt this has anything to do with your oral sex exposrue in Thialand.

Regards--  HHH, MD

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Another thought is lichen planus, a common penile skin rash.  Look it up online and see if pictures look like what you have.