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Definitely Genital Warts?
About eight months ago, I developed some flesh-colored, slightly raised, painless bumps on the shaft of my penis. There were three fairly large ones and a few small ones. I have always had sebaceous prominence, and so thought nothing of the bumps and assumed they'd go away. They did not. When I finally saw a physician three weeks ago, he immediately diagnosed me with genital warts and treated me with cryotherapy. The treatment had little effect, so I returned after a week, at which point he treated me more strongly. Over the two weeks following the second treatment, the bumps essentially scabbed over. Currently, there is pinkish scar tissue on and around where they were.
I have accepted that I may well have warts. I do, though, have at least a few reasons to doubt it. I'm hoping you will consider the following reasons for my doubts and provide your opinion on the likelihood that I was misdiagnosed:
1. The bumps did not blister on being treated. Rather, they simply scabbed, as if they'd been scraped off.
2. I swabbed one of the bumps in vinegar shortly after the second treatment, and it did not turn white.
3. There is – and I'm being honest here – only one sexual encounter that could have led to transmission, and it was fairly low-risk. Five months before the bumps appeared, I received unprotected oral sex from a stranger; performed unprotected oral on her; and had protected sex with her for about 2 minutes until I became nervous and lost my erection. She also masturbated me, possibly with vaginal fluid on her hand. That was it. The reason I'm confident that this would have been the transmission encounter is that the only other person I have had sexual contact with is my ex-girlfriend, who I broke up with roughly a year and a half prior to the bumps.
Could this be something else? It doesn't seem to fit the descriptions of molluscum or folliculitis too well. Obviously I should have sought a second opinion earlier – but better late than never. Thank you.
I have accepted that I may well have warts. I do, though, have at least a few reasons to doubt it. I'm hoping you will consider the following reasons for my doubts and provide your opinion on the likelihood that I was misdiagnosed:
1. The bumps did not blister on being treated. Rather, they simply scabbed, as if they'd been scraped off.
2. I swabbed one of the bumps in vinegar shortly after the second treatment, and it did not turn white.
3. There is – and I'm being honest here – only one sexual encounter that could have led to transmission, and it was fairly low-risk. Five months before the bumps appeared, I received unprotected oral sex from a stranger; performed unprotected oral on her; and had protected sex with her for about 2 minutes until I became nervous and lost my erection. She also masturbated me, possibly with vaginal fluid on her hand. That was it. The reason I'm confident that this would have been the transmission encounter is that the only other person I have had sexual contact with is my ex-girlfriend, who I broke up with roughly a year and a half prior to the bumps.
Could this be something else? It doesn't seem to fit the descriptions of molluscum or folliculitis too well. Obviously I should have sought a second opinion earlier – but better late than never. Thank you.
You are probably right. Thank you for the reply.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
None of the information you provide changes my opinion or advice.
We haven't discussed HIV. Nothing you have said concerns me about HIV but it is always a good idea for persons who have not had a recetn HIV test and hwho have had new sexual partners to get teted, just as a matter of course.
I think you are overly fixated on this. EWH
We haven't discussed HIV. Nothing you have said concerns me about HIV but it is always a good idea for persons who have not had a recetn HIV test and hwho have had new sexual partners to get teted, just as a matter of course.
I think you are overly fixated on this. EWH
Apologies for bringing up a five-week old thread. If necessary, I will think about re-posting this as a new question.
I'd just like to further clarify the encounter I had that led to the maybe-warts described above. I don't think I represented some of the details of my experience as clearly as I'd have liked to.
The facts:
1. I gave and receive unprotected oral. I received a brief handjob w/vaginal fluid on the woman's hand. We had brief protected sex, I lost my erection, I received a condom-protected handjob until I was hard again, we had brief sex again, I lost my erection again. The end.
2. I noticed the bumps roughly 5 months after the encounter. A few of the smaller ones likely appeared during the few months after I noticed the first few.
3. All bumps were right on the shaft except one that was on the base of the penis just at the pubic line.
I bring this up again because one bump is still sort of there after the healing. I plan to see a new physician for an opinion on it. In the meantime, your thoughts would be much appreciated.
*I've also (probably irrationally) become a little worried about HIV from this encounter. I suppose it's because I've already beaten the odds if I've acquired HPV, which has made reassurances about odds seem less convincing to me... Anyway, would it be worthwhile to test for HIV from this exposure for any reason other than to quell my anxiety?
Thank you. Again, please let me know if dragging up an old thread is against board rules.
I'd just like to further clarify the encounter I had that led to the maybe-warts described above. I don't think I represented some of the details of my experience as clearly as I'd have liked to.
The facts:
1. I gave and receive unprotected oral. I received a brief handjob w/vaginal fluid on the woman's hand. We had brief protected sex, I lost my erection, I received a condom-protected handjob until I was hard again, we had brief sex again, I lost my erection again. The end.
2. I noticed the bumps roughly 5 months after the encounter. A few of the smaller ones likely appeared during the few months after I noticed the first few.
3. All bumps were right on the shaft except one that was on the base of the penis just at the pubic line.
I bring this up again because one bump is still sort of there after the healing. I plan to see a new physician for an opinion on it. In the meantime, your thoughts would be much appreciated.
*I've also (probably irrationally) become a little worried about HIV from this encounter. I suppose it's because I've already beaten the odds if I've acquired HPV, which has made reassurances about odds seem less convincing to me... Anyway, would it be worthwhile to test for HIV from this exposure for any reason other than to quell my anxiety?
Thank you. Again, please let me know if dragging up an old thread is against board rules.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Glad to help. At this point best to just hope that they stay gone, whatever they might have been EWH
Thank you for your prompt and helpful reply. If the bumps recur (or if any remnants of them remain after the scar tissue has healed), I will have them checked out by a more qualified physician.
I can't say with certainty that the bumps appeared as quickly as I seem to have suggested – in fact, a couple of the smaller ones may have developed later on. I suspect, though, that that does not drastically alter your advice.
My only reason for mentioning the "vinegar test" was my slight suspicion that it might at least be useful in detecting if something is not warts, since most dismissals of it that I've encountered are focused on the idea that it turns things other than warts white. Anyway, I will certainly accept your explanation as confirmation of the test's overall uselessness for that purpose.
Apologies if the current message isn't really useful as substantive follow-up. I am satisfied with the response you have provided. Thanks both to you and to Dr. HHH for providing this excellent service. Cheers.
I can't say with certainty that the bumps appeared as quickly as I seem to have suggested – in fact, a couple of the smaller ones may have developed later on. I suspect, though, that that does not drastically alter your advice.
My only reason for mentioning the "vinegar test" was my slight suspicion that it might at least be useful in detecting if something is not warts, since most dismissals of it that I've encountered are focused on the idea that it turns things other than warts white. Anyway, I will certainly accept your explanation as confirmation of the test's overall uselessness for that purpose.
Apologies if the current message isn't really useful as substantive follow-up. I am satisfied with the response you have provided. Thanks both to you and to Dr. HHH for providing this excellent service. Cheers.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Welcome to our Forum. I'll try to help but unless these "bumps" return, you will never know if they were warts of not. The treatment you received sounds as though it destroyed them.
Some clinicians call all sorts of lesions that are not warts "warts". For the reasons I will outline below, these do not sound like warts. For starters it sounds as though they may have appeared rather quickly. This would be atypical for warts. Second, the exposures you describe are virtually no risk for HPV (see below).
Working through your specific questions:
1. The response to therapy (i.e. scabbing rather than blistering) in not suggestive of one diagnosis or the other.
2. Similarly, the "vinegar test" is terribly non-specific and failure of your lesions to turn white really doesn't help either. The utility of the "vinegar test" for visual examination in an urban myth.
3. This was a very low risk exposure that you describe. Condoms are highly effective in reducing the risk for warts and oral sex rarely transmits HPV.
bottom line, while these lesions do not sound like HPV, I cannot tell you with confidence whether they were or not. At this time, should they recur, I would seek a second opinion from a clinician with experience in genital dermatology. EWH
Some clinicians call all sorts of lesions that are not warts "warts". For the reasons I will outline below, these do not sound like warts. For starters it sounds as though they may have appeared rather quickly. This would be atypical for warts. Second, the exposures you describe are virtually no risk for HPV (see below).
Working through your specific questions:
1. The response to therapy (i.e. scabbing rather than blistering) in not suggestive of one diagnosis or the other.
2. Similarly, the "vinegar test" is terribly non-specific and failure of your lesions to turn white really doesn't help either. The utility of the "vinegar test" for visual examination in an urban myth.
3. This was a very low risk exposure that you describe. Condoms are highly effective in reducing the risk for warts and oral sex rarely transmits HPV.
bottom line, while these lesions do not sound like HPV, I cannot tell you with confidence whether they were or not. At this time, should they recur, I would seek a second opinion from a clinician with experience in genital dermatology. EWH
You are reading content posted in the STDs Forum
Herpes spreads by oral, vaginal and anal sex.
Herpes sores blister, then burst, scab and heal.
STIs are the most common cause of genital sores.
Millions of people are diagnosed with STDs in the U.S. each year.
STDs can't be transmitted by casual contact, like hugging or touching.
Syphilis is an STD that is transmitted by oral, genital and anal sex.
