#melanosis

Skin pigmentation is not even all over the body, as a person can tell from taking a really close look at just about any body part. There can be slight variations and gradings of color, not noticeable unless a person intently studies the skin. And sometimes color may vary due to other factors, such as heat or cold. But when there is a significant variation in color, often in a patchy way, a person says his skin has a rash – and if on his manhood, naturally, a penis rash. In some cases, a penis rash may signal a serious penis health issue that needs attending to. In others, it may be a less serious problem, one such being known as melanosis.

About melanosis

Melanosis is considered a form of hyperpigmentation, which in turn refers to an area of skin (or sometimes nails) getting darker because of an increase of melanin in the body. Melanin is a form of natural pigmentation that is normally found in people. Like just about everything else involving the body, the relationship between melanin and skin hue can be a little complicated – but generally, if a person with a lot of melanin goes out into strong sunshine, their skin will tend to get darker – to develop what in some instances is referred to as a tan. This happens when the melanin absorbs UV radiation from sunlight and then disperses it across the skin – in this way, helping to protect the skin from getting too big a concentration of UV radiation in any one area.

But if a person has excess melanin, especially if it is not spread evenly out across the skin, it can cause dark patches to appear on the skin – even, as in the case of the penis, in areas that don’t normally see an abundance of sunlight. The “penis rash” that appears is typically dark brown and is usually large; it generally appears like several separate spots, rather than spots that “bleed” into each other.

Is it bad?

Doctors consider penile melanosis to be benign. It isn’t typically associated with other symptoms, such as itchiness or unpleasant discharges. And it’s not something that a guy can pass on to someone else, which is a plus.

It’s important to realize that melanosis is NOT the same thing as melanoma. The latter is a form of skin cancer, and while it presents on the member as a penis rash, which looks similar to melanosis, the cause and outcomes are different. (A doctor can perform tests to determine if a man has melanosis rather than melanoma and vice versa.)

Although penile melanosis is basically harmless, some men don’t like the way it makes the penis look and may wish to find some way of treating it. Laser therapy has become a common method of removing the melanosis patches, although often multiple treatments are needed to completely remove the spots. Surgery to actually remove the skin and to graft new skin in its place is also an option some have utilized. Sometimes surgical procedures may leave behind some scarring.