Question: Hello,

I recently had a biopsy done of a benign lesion on my penile shaft. I was concerned that it may have been a genital wart. There was only one lesion present. I got the result back from the lab and they said it was just a normal skin tag, and not a genital wart.

I was satisfied with the result, but then I remembered that about a month earlier, I had tried to test whether it was a genital wart using a method I found online. This method was applying acetic acid (5% apple cider vinegar) to the lesion to see if it changed appearance. I repeatedly applied the vinegar for several days and to my untrained eye the lesion did not change in appearance.

I decided to put my fears to rest just last week and had the biopsy done (glad I did) but now I am worried and wondering whether I negatively affected the accuracy of the biopsy, having applied the Apple cider vinegar a month before the biopsy was done.

I no longer will perform home remedies as they do not ease worries, but I hope to know whether I may have affected the accuracy of the biopsy in this instance.

Thank you.

Thank you very much Dr. Kakkar for your quick response and detailed answer. I am not a person that frequently doubts medical diagnoses but I do worry a lot about these types of things, so I just have to be as sure as I can be.

Short follow up question: If a lesion (whether its a skin tag or genital wart) is present at the time of biopsy, will the biopsy be accurate in a histopathologic diagnosis, despite me having applied apple cider vinegar to the lesion all day, every day for 4-5 days?

Detailed follow up: As painful as it was, I applied the Apple cider vinegar basically all day, every day for 4-5 days just to be sure of any possible signs of acetowhiteness. The lesion was still present after those 4-5 days and still remained present for about a month after the application of the apple cider vinegar. It was about a month after I applied the apple cider vinegar that I had a dermatologist biopsy the lesion. I just want to make sure that I did not change the histopathology of the lesion to obscure possible epidermal changes of the lesion like acanthosis, papillomatosis or koilocytes by applying the apple cider vinegar so liberally.

This follow up question stems from my further research on the internet which stated that apple cider vinegar can destroy both genital warts and skin tags when applied for several weeks or months. I understand that online information is not the most accurate but I just have to make sure.

Thank you again.