What is Penile Psoriasis?         

Penile psoriasis is simply the development of the skin condition known as posriasis, on the male genitalia.

Psoriasis is a common, chronic, non-contagious skin disease that generally appears on the elbows, knees and scalp. The condition is thought to be at least somewhat hereditary, but generally seems to be caused by an over reaction of your body's immune system. The over reaction can be caused by skin trauma such as sunburn, or severe illness such as strep throat. For some people, psoriasis can even appear due to excess stress in their lives.

When your body is acting normally, it generally takes about one month to create new skin cells. During that time, the surface skin cells are dying off, and new cells are being created deep below the surface. These new cells slowly rise, reaching the surface about the same time that the existing cells are ready to be shed.

With psoriasis however, your body's immune system feels the need to push skin cells to the surface at a much faster rate. The new skin cells rise within just 3-5 days instead of thirty. And since the surface skin cells haven't had time to die off yet, the skin piles up in thick, scaly, flaky patches that can look quite dry, and sometimes they look inflamed too.

Penile psoriasis is usually quite scary to men when it first develops, because their first fear is that they've caught some sort of sexually transmitted disease. Many men avoid going to the doctor about it for months too, because they're embarrassed.

It's not uncommon for a man to develop penile psoriasis even if he has no evidence of regular skin psoriasis on other parts of his body. Often the penile psoriasis is caused by a trauma or injury of some type.

Penile psoriasis can be more difficult to recognize though, because the skin of the penis is thinner and more moist than elsewhere on the body. So the standard scaly flakes generally associated with skin psoriasis may not develop with penile psoriasis. The skin in this area can also be more sensitive to soaps, perfumes and creams too, so an allergic reaction to something could be the problem instead of actual psoriasis.

There tend to be two types of penile psoriasis that develop. The first kind is known as inverse psoriasis, and it looks like red, pimple-style bumps. There is not usually any flaky, scaly skin with this type of psoriasis, and this kind of penile psoriasis can be itchy.

The second type of penile psoriasis is often caused by trauma to the penile skin, and develops with small plaques which have a slight amount of scales on them. There isn't usually any itching or burning with this type of penile psoriasis, and often there is no evidence of psoriaris anywhere else on the body.

Both of these types of penile psoriasis tend to respond well with low strength corticosteroid topical creams. Stronger creams are not recommended because the skin of the penis is thin and tender.