Penile Melanosis: What are the Causes and Symptoms

Penile Melanosis: What are the Causes and Symptoms
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While we know that size doesn’t (necessarily) matter in our relationships with the ladies, how about the color? Penile melanosis is an unusual disorder that causes the ‘pride’ of any man to have discolored skin on the head and shaft. Those areas can look dark brown, with freckles, black spots, and sometimes as a small dark area.

While the list of symptoms associated with penile melanosis is relatively short, it’s also worth keeping in mind that the illness cannot be spread to others. In other words, women shouldn’t be afraid to have sex with men who have penile melanosis, as the condition doesn’t qualify as a sexually transmitted disease (STD). Penile melanosis is harmless, apart from the unpleasant look that it has around a man’s penis.

Thanks to YourDoctors.online, we can learn about the basics of penile melanosis!

What are the causes of penile melanosis

Doctors still engage in long discussions when it comes to the causes of penile melanosis for some patients. There are certain possible risk factors that could increase a person’s likelihood of getting penile melanosis.

Genetic predisposition

If your parents or another blood relative has penile melanosis, there’s a chance that you’ll deal with the condition as well.

Hormonal factors

Imbalances or changes regarding hormones could also play a role in dealing with penile melanosis for some people.

Treatments for the skin

Pharmacological therapy such as PUVA therapy or anthralin could increase the risk for developing penile melanosis.

Age

Penile melanosis can often manifest when you are at least 15 years old and up to 72 years old.

Injuries

If you’ve had injuries to the penis in your past, you might have to deal with penile melanosis later in life. This is because scar tissue growth can trigger hyperpigmentation.

Sun exposure

Excessive exposure to sunlight, especially when it comes to ultraviolet (UV) radiation, could stimulate melanin synthesis in a person’s skin.

How can penile melanosis be treated

What could be weird for some people is that there’s usually no treatment for penile melanosis. Doctors don’t even recommend one. And let’s face it, as long as the condition doesn’t affect the functioning of your body in general and your ‘cucumber’ in particular, what’s the point in treating it just because it causes an unpleasant aspect for the skin? Furthermore, you can’t even pass the condition to another person.

However, if you somehow still insist that you don’t want your penis to look ugly, there’s the option of surgical excision of the lesions. The procedure involves removing the layer of the skin that has the extra pigment, performing a skin graft, and resurfacing the skin to restore the thickness and look.

Laser therapy is another possible method to get rid of penile melanosis. To be more precise, A Q-switched ruby is needed in this case, employing a synthetic ruby that shall emit short and intense laser pulses.

It’s also worth keeping in mind that penile melanosis doesn’t pose any significant risks or medical complications. The spots and patches that are associated with the condition don’t even cause any discomfort apart from the possible psychological impact. But surely most people are mature enough not to become emotionally impacted by such a harmless condition.

Penile melanosis is also known as penile freckling or penile lentigines. The condition is also a form of melanocytic nervus, which means an overgrowth or accumulation of melanocytes (cells that produce pigment) in the patient’s skin.


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Even since he was a child, Cristian was staring curiously at the stars, wondering about the Universe and our place in it. Today he's seeing his dream come true by writing about the latest news in astronomy. Cristian is also glad to be covering health and other science topics, having significant experience in writing about such fields.

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