Could a wart recur after 11 years?

Question

Hi doctor,

11 years ago, I had genital warts. As I was embarrassed to go to the doctor I ordered Aldara online and it worked. My question is what if I missed a wart after all this time? I do have a few very tiny white specks on the underside of the head of my penis. When I showed them to my regular physician five years ago, he said they are pearly papules and not warts. Can I trust him? Is he right? I am seeing a new partner and do not want to infect her. Please guide me.

Answer 1

Hello,

Welcome to icliniq.com.

I understand your concern.

First I do want to make sure that recurrence of wart after 11 years is almost impossible. Now you can get genital wart only after exposure due to sexual contact done recently. The second possibility of untreated or remaining part of wart is also impossible as in 11 years untreated wart would have become significantly large in size and would never remain unnoticed all these years. The penile pearly papule and wart are very different conditions and can be recognized by photos. If you are able to send me photos of your condition I would definitely tell you what it is. Penile pearly papule is not a disease or any treatable condition. It is just sweat and sebaceous glands which are a bit bigger in size. These are small, multiple, and arranged around the penile skin. It does not increase in size, totally asymptomatic and natural thing. Wart has a rough surface. They appear four to five in number. It will appear after a sexual contact history within a month.

I hope this information will help you.

Thanks.

Answer 2

Hi,

Welcome back to icliniq.com.

I understand your concern.

Let me make you 100 % sure that no wart remains unnoticed for 11 years. So either it is not a wart or you would have got a new infection recently. Again, I mention that no wart can stay untreated and unnoticed over the penile area for 11 years. It will definitely increase in number or size or will get noticed by you. There is no matter whether you used Aldara at that time. Wart is a highly contagious condition so it will infect another part of the penis too and will increase in number. But, you might have penile pearly papules which are not much significant, and no need to worry about that.

I hope this information will help you.

Thanks.

Answer 3

Hello,

Welcome back to icliniq.com.

I understand your concern.

No, these are not warts (attachments removed to protect patient identity). Small multiple dots-like things is pearly papules, which is normal. Although you have uploaded only one photo, I would be in favor of penile pearly papule.

I hope this information will help you.

Thanks.