[Question #7759] Brown spot on shaft

52 months ago

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

52 months ago

GREETINGS. I mistakenly hit the wrong command and deleted your question. For other readers, here is my recollection. Please clarify in a follow-up comment if I missed anything important.

You are age 42 and worried about a new brown spot on your penis. Apparently it is flat, not raised, and enlarges as your skin stretches during erection. You didn't say anything about other spots or how long you have noticed it, and did not mention any redness, irritation, etc. Here is the reply I entered before mistakenly hitting the Delete button.

Welcome to the forum. Thanks for your confidence in our services.

Unfortunately, however, I don't think we can help much. No STD causes anything like you describe; indeed the large majority of genital skin problems are due to non-STD issues. I have a Color Atlas of Genital Dermatology. As the name implies, it's filled with photos and brief descriptions. Of its 300 pages, all STDs are covered in 15 pages. All the rest are non STD problems. And most of those are not at all serious.

And we're an STD/HIV information service -- we don't get into detailed discussions of non-STD issues, genital or elsewhere. Based on its enlargement as the skin stretches with erection, I suspect it's just natural pigmentation of some sort, like a new freckle. At your age, other common possibilities include a mole or a sebaceous keratosis, although these should not enlarge with erection. It also doesn't sound like a genital wart and certainly not like anything serious like skin cancer (and these also cannot enlarge with erection).

If it persists and/or you remain concerned, see your doctor. In the meantime, this really doesn't sound worrisome.

Sorry I can't give you conclusive answers, but I hope this information is helpful.

HHH, MD

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52 months ago

Thank you Dr. Hunter. This is the only brown round flat spot I have (around 8mm diameter). It is located on the shaft of my of my penis, down very close to my pubic area. I did attached a picture and then I noticed the rules stated no picture should be uploaded. Sorry.

No irritation or redness. I did noticed last night. My girlfriend had an abnormal PaP last week and I started reading about the warts subject, the reason for my concern. Do you think this could be an HPV wart?

H. Hunter Handsfield, MD

52 months ago

Correct, we don't accept photos of lesions etc. We cannot make any particular diagnosis, and examining images comes too close to practicing medicine from afar, which we cannot do.

As I said above, this doesn't sound at all like a wart or other evidence of HPV. This probably has nothing to do with your partner's recent Pap smear result. HPV is the main cause of abnormal Pap smears, but the male partners of women with HPV by Pap smear usually have nothing wrong and do not have or develop genital warts.

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