Unsure; small cold sore-like thing on penis?

[the_ev]

I'm not sure what exactly this is (thus why I'm asking here for advice!):

I have what looks like a cross between a cold sore and a blister on the shaft of my penis, on the underside of my foreskin (I'm uncircumcised). It's about 1/4 inch in diameter, slightly raised, a bit firmer to the touch, and it looks slightly more white in the center (with the edges more scarlet red). It does not hurt nor does it itch, except only slightly when interacting with it.  After a shower, the skin directly above it is noticeably smoother than the rest of the skin on my foreskin. I only have one of them (checked everywhere else).

I've only had it for two days, and when I first noticed it (this past Sunday; now it's Tuesday), it was more acutely painful (as in, it felt sore), but it didn't look as developed; then, it looked more bruised, like small cut (no actual puncture, so far as I could tell).  Since that time, the soreness has gone away, but the white center appeared.

I have never experienced anything like this before.

On Saturday evening / Sunday morning, my girlfriend and I attended an on-premise erotic party. I did not have intercourse with anyone other than my girlfriend there, but I did receive oral from one other person other than my girlfriend. In both cases (with this other woman and my girlfriend), the oral was rather rougher than what I am used too. We both last tested completely STD negative and have no history of STDs.

I am going to try to get into my GP this week to have him look at it, but I'd like to have a general idea of what I may be dealing with first. From what I've been able to find online, I'm inclined to suspect the rough oral sex as the culprit, as the skin on the underside of my foreskin is already quite sensitive and I (unfortunately) got more teeth on it than I like; I also believe this since it does seem to be healing.

However, I am no doctor.  From what I described above, what do you think this could be?

[Edward W Hook, MD]

Welcome to our Forum.  Obviously, I cannot examine the lesion that you describe and thus cannot be completely confident as to what this might be.  At the same time however, there are several comments which might help to put this in perspective for you.

1.  You first noted this lesion following an evening which included several episodes of rather rough (oral) sex.  Even had you not volunteered this, I would have suggested trauma as a possible cause of your difficulties.  Supporting this are the appearance of the lesion the next day following these exposures - it would be unheard of for an STD to appear this quickly.

2.  It also sounds as though this lesion may already be getting better.  If that is the case, that too makes this sound like something that is traumatic or which was present already (like a gland or cyst) which was aggravated and got worse following the trauma you described.  In addition, if it is getting better, you may choose to just wait it out and, if it gets better, move on.  Alternatively, it you really want to get an opinion as to what this might be, you might want to go to an STD or GUM Clinic sooner than later to get their opinion. Such clinics often have mechanisms for seeing patients on relatively short notice.  

I hope these comments are helpful to you.  EWH

[the_ev]

Thanks for the insight; I think I'm still going to get it checked out (better safe than sorry), but it is reassuring to know that you share my suspicion as to the nature of the lesion.

Thanks!