Still just an irrational person

[Concernedcowboy]

Hello again doctor. I posted back in January of this year and you put all of my concerns to rest. Yesterday I noticed a small bb sized knot within my penis shaft. My father has been diagnosed with pyronies (sp?) disease years ago. I assumed this might b the same thing. While researching I found a website that a small internal knot could b a sign of tertiary syphilis. Have you seen this before? Common sense tells me it can't b syhpilis but it still concerns me. Thank you for your help.

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Les than 1%.  EWH

[Concernedcowboy]

Dr. Is that unlikely like being struck by lightning is unlikely or maybe 10%. Just wanted to clarify. Sorry I guess this my last question.

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Unlikely. EWH

[Concernedcowboy]

Thank you for your quick replies. Promise this is the last question. Would it be possible that this is the only symptom of syphilis I would have ever had?

[Edward W Hook, MD]

No, the "knot" you describe does not suggest any STI.  As to what it might be, I would suggest that you discuss it with a urologist.  While it could be an early manifestation of Peronie's Disease, it may also be a cyst or some other benign process.  EWH

[Concernedcowboy]

I also forgot to mention I had a knot like this  about six years ago. When I went to doc he completely dismissed it with no explanation. It went away on its own. Does this give you anymore ideas?

[Concernedcowboy]

I logged in last time under idiotman if that would help. Would the knot be associated with any std?

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to the Forum.  You got lucky, your question popped up just as I logged on.  When I looked for your past post I could not find it- perhaps you have logged on this time using another name.  Be that as it may, in the tertiary stage of syphilis one manifestation of infection is called a "gumma" which are nodular lesions which can occur at just about any location in the body.  Syphilis however is now a rather rare disease.  Further, gummas only appear however decades after infection and, if this were a gumma, your blood test would be positive.  

My sense is that the chance that this nodule is syphilis is incredibly small.  If you have not had a blood tests recently, you could get one and, when it is negative, be reassured that you do not have syphilis.  If you have had a blood test in the past year or more, you can also be confident that this is not syphilis.

I hope this comment is helpful.  EWH