Question: Hi. I wonder if you could kindly help me with some thing that has worried me for a long time. I'm now 33 and at the age of 20 I developed white areas of skin discoloration, two patches either side of the frenulum on my penis, which were probably about 5cms in diameter each. One side was a raised white plaque. I went to see a couple of sexual health docs, although I was a virgin at that times, and it was suggested I had lichen sclerosis by two and another said it was normal. I tried steroid cream which made no difference. It has not worsened over time and I dont think I have been given the right diagnosis. I have tried months of keeping area very dry then moisturizing it. In the end because I had enough of it about six months ago, I wondered if one plaque was raised because my body was trying to get rid of it, so I decided to remove it over a few days and was surprised that it has not returned. However the skin on either side still appears white to me in a small area similar in size as above but not raised as before. I wish it was the same color as the rest of the glans. I keep wondering what to do as the doctors I have seen dont seem to know. Also my foreskin has white thin skin sometimes on the inner surface, and sometimes I have to pull it off which seems to improve for a while and my foreskin generally feels more comfortable. I can retract it quite well but its probably a little tight. Any advice would be so helpful! I asked for men's health category so hopefully I've come through to right section unless you think this should be more for dermatologist?
Thanks so much

Hello. Thanks for your initial answer. I'm keen to try to find out what the definite diagnosis is so thanks for your help. There are no other patches on my body at all. There are no longer any raised areas except maybe for some small raised whitish pimples within the area and sometimes elsewhere on the penis but I understand that these may be quite common. I find it difficult to describe the colour, they do not seem to be as white as a milky colour. There are not any other associated symptoms I think to what I have already described. The areas are not itchy really, but occasionally uncomfortable but I think this is more when there is there is a thin layer of skin, a small amount which sometimes seems to develop on the inner layer if the fores I, but I have found recently I can gentle pull this off and although uncomfortable then for a few days this then seems to improve the whole situation for a while. I thought for a long time that trying to remove bits if it would make it worse, especially as I had read that if its lichen sclerosis then trauma can sometimes make it worse, but this definitely doesn't seem to be in the case. In fact the two main lesions I have described now look better, less prominent than what they have for a long time. I'm just hoping they will somehow go. I did try to add photos but I will try to do this again, I'm not sure if you will be able see clearly with the maximum resolution that is allowed to upload to the website. Some more information action that may be helpful, is that in my late teens and early 20s, I suppose I was shy about masturbation, and I tended not to retract my foreskin as much as usual I think during masturbation and as a result put pressure in the areas where the lesions are now. I remember that more pressure was on the left side where my thumb was, and this is the side that was worse and where the plaque was. Maybe this is a red herring but I wonder if this will help. The final thing is my frenulum appears to pull down a little more on one side when the fireskin is retracted, it seems to be attached to a little more skin on one side and I wonder if this is normal or maybe part of some pathological process. It does feel a little firmer than I guess it should and I wonder if it didn't then the whole area would feel more comfortable. I can retract my foreskin when erect, but the frenulum feels a little uncomfortable. Hope the photos are now attached, I know I've given you quite a bit of information but hopefully its may be helpful. Thanks for your help. It really will put my mind at rest if I can get to the bottom of this.

Thanks. The areas are definitely nw completely smooth. The pics seem to make the lesions more obvious than what there are, but hopefully that helps. To be honest my feeling is after having these for a while, if they were removed somehow, just the small areas of skin, I don't think they would return, but of course I suppose I can't be definite about that but think it is likely, I would be interested to know if u think the frenulum appears normal. I'm sure that should answer my questions really well. I do wonder if lichen sclerosis is now the least likely. Thanks