Genital warts on men typically appear as small, rough, skin-colored or whitish-grey growths on the penis, scrotum, or around the anus. They can range from tiny flat spots that are easy to miss to larger bumps with a bumpy, cauliflower-like texture. Most begin as soft, subtle growths, and some men don’t notice them at all until they grow or multiply.
Shape, Size, and Texture
Genital warts don’t have one single look, which is part of what makes them confusing. They can be flat and smooth, slightly raised with a dome shape, or rough and irregular with the classic “cauliflower” surface. Some are as small as a pinhead. Others grow to about 5 millimeters or larger over time. They sometimes cluster together in groups, and in some cases they take on a stalk-like shape, connecting to the skin by a narrow base.
Color varies too. Most warts are the same color as the surrounding skin, but they can also appear whitish-grey, slightly pink, or darker than the skin around them. The texture is generally rough or bumpy to the touch, which is one of the easier ways to distinguish them from other harmless skin features.
Where They Show Up
On circumcised men, warts most commonly appear on the shaft of the penis. On uncircumcised men, they frequently develop under the foreskin. Beyond that, warts can appear on the tip of the penis, the scrotum, the perineum (the area between the scrotum and anus), and around or inside the anus. Less commonly, they can develop inside the urethra, which may cause changes in urine flow. Warts can also form in the mouth or throat after oral sex with an infected partner, though this is rarer.
It’s common for warts to appear at more than one site at the same time.
How They Feel
Most genital warts don’t hurt. Many men discover them only by touch or during a visual check. Some warts become itchy or mildly uncomfortable, and they can occasionally change color as they grow. But pain is not a typical feature. The lack of symptoms is one reason they often go unnoticed for weeks or months.
How Long Before They Appear
Genital warts don’t show up right after exposure. The incubation period for HPV is one to six months, meaning warts can appear weeks or even half a year after the sexual contact that transmitted the virus. This delay makes it difficult to pinpoint exactly when or from whom you got it. Over 90% of genital warts are caused by HPV types 6 and 11, which are considered low-risk strains, meaning they are not the types linked to cancer.
What They Can Be Confused With
Several harmless skin features on the penis look similar enough to warts that men frequently mistake one for the other.
Pearly penile papules are small, dome-shaped bumps that form in neat rows around the rim of the penis head. They’re the same color as the surrounding skin or slightly white, uniform in size, and stay in that one location. Genital warts, by contrast, vary in shape and size, have a rougher texture, and can appear anywhere on the shaft, scrotum, or around the anus. Location is one of the easiest ways to tell the two apart: papules only circle the head of the penis, while warts are not limited to that spot.
Fordyce spots are tiny (1 to 3 millimeters), white or yellowish bumps caused by visible oil glands under the skin. They can appear in clusters of 50 or more along the shaft. Early genital warts can look similar to Fordyce spots when they first develop, but warts tend to grow and change over time while Fordyce spots stay small and stable. Fordyce spots also have a smoother surface compared to the rough texture of warts.
Molluscum contagiosum is another sexually transmitted skin condition that produces bumps in the genital area. Molluscum lesions are firm, dome-shaped, and often have a small dimple or indent in the center. Genital warts lack that central dimple and have a rougher, more irregular surface.
If you’re unsure what you’re looking at, a doctor can usually tell the difference with a visual exam. In ambiguous cases, a provider may apply a diluted acetic acid solution to the skin, which causes wart tissue to turn white and become more visible. This test helps reveal flat warts that are hard to see with the naked eye, though it can occasionally give false positives from other skin conditions like psoriasis or yeast infections.
What Happens After Diagnosis
Genital warts are treatable but not always curable in a single round. Treatment options generally work by removing the visible warts through freezing, topical solutions applied at home, or minor in-office procedures. Warts can recur because the underlying HPV infection may persist in the skin even after the visible growths are gone. Many people eventually clear the virus on their own over the course of months to a couple of years, after which recurrences become less likely.
Warts left untreated won’t turn into cancer (since they’re caused by low-risk HPV strains), but they can grow, spread to new areas, or be passed to partners. Getting them evaluated early gives you more options and typically means simpler treatment.