If you’ve been closely examining your physique, you may have noticed that there are odd white pimples around your lips and other places.
We will try our best to satiate your curiosity about this topic because you chose to come here, dear reader.
The areas of your body where they are most noticeable are your lips and genitalia. You may begin to believe that you have an undesired growth or rash on your skin, or worse, that you have a contagious sickness that is affecting your Willy Wonka or woman’s affairs.
You can be confident that the bumps are completely normal and that most people have them on some part of their body.
In medicine, the lumps are referred to as “Fordyce spots,” after the American dermatologist Dr. John Addison Fordyce, who originally identified them in 1896.
Imagine spending your entire life researching and studying medicine, only to have your name eternally linked to little lumps that develop on someone’s intimate areas.
In actuality, they are oil glands that release a chemical known as sebum, which aids in the body’s defense.
In case it wasn’t obvious, Fordyce spots can appear on your penis, foreskin or scrotum, or the labia of your vagina in addition to the inside of your cheeks or the corners of your lips.
The Cleveland Clinic emphasizes on its website that fordyce spots on the penis are not illnesses or sexually transmitted diseases, despite the fact that they frequently resemble other skin problems such as milium cysts, epidermoid cysts, genital warts, or herpes.
It states that “the appearance of Fordyce spots in these areas is normal, and they aren’t contagious.” It also adds that genital warts, in particular, may initially resemble Fordyce spots.
Naturally, it can appear a little unsettling whenever something occurs to your obviously valuable private parts.
You can go visit a doctor about them if you’re truly worried, but realize that there’s not much to gain from getting worked up over them because the human body is covered in many little lumps and bumps.
This is the true nature of people; we’re not all as smooth as a movie star down there.
Although they are not a symptom of any illness and cannot be contracted from another person, you should consult a doctor if you believe you have a condition that resembles Fordyce spots but isn’t.
You’re not alone if you have them; over 80% of people do.
