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.
