Sex & you

Sex & you

Monday, May 26, 2014

What are Pearly Penile Papules?

Pearly penile papules are very common in young men. They are also known as Tyson Glands and Hirsuties papilaris genital (medial term).

Pearly penile papules are easy to spot. They come in a form of tiny, white-yellowish embossed dots and they are completely normal variation of the way the penile skin looks like. The surface is smooth and a little bit raised from the surrounding skin, in the form of a dome or similar form. What is typical for them is that in most cases they don’t appear all over glans penis. Over time they fade and they become less visible. Most men have small number of papules that are less than one millimeter long and they are usually located around the glans penis. In some cases they can be larger than one millimeter. Men who have pearly penile papules often describe them or confuse them with acne, pimples or some kind of skin change.

It is important to understand that pearly papules are very common and they usually appear during adolescence or when the men is entering his sexually most active period. Doctors are still unable to determine what the exact cause of their occurrence is. What is certain is that they are not a result of sexually transmitted diseases and sexual contact of any kind or poor hygiene. Men that are uncircumcised have twice the chance to develop pearly penile papules compared to circumcised men. Taking care of your hygiene can improve sexual performance as well. 

Men who are younger than 30 years have a lot more chance to get pearly papules, cases of occurrence of pearly papules above this age are rare. They are definitely not a venereal disease, they can’t turn into a tumor and they cannot cause any other medical condition.

Many men visit their doctor when they notice a change like that in their penis and that is completely normal. But, only after the first examination the doctor rules out the possibility of disease. In some cases papules are similar to genital warts and that’s when biopsy is performed.

Pearly penile papules don’t have symptoms and don’t require treatment. If there are symptoms like itching, redness or similar symptoms they are coming from another condition not because of the papules. However, some patients still want to remove these pearly papules and they can choose various methods to do that. Removal of papules can be successfully done with laser therapy, electro therapy and plastic surgery. Although there were attempts to treat papules with cryotherapy, those attempts are almost never successful. There aren’t any drugs or creams that have proven to be effective in the process of removal of pearly penile papules. Scraping the papules on your own is not recommended because it can lead to infection and damages to the tissue and the papules tend to reoccur after a while.

Many men feel unattractive and embarrassed because of the papules and they tend to avoid sexual intercourses. They can also have negative impact in their self-confidence. The easiest thing to do is to accept that these papules are just a normal variation of penile skin structure.