Is it genital warts or skin tags?

• A skin tag looks like a deflated balloon on a stalk. [1] SKIN TAGS: WHY THEY DEVELOP, AND HOW TO REMOVE THEM https://www.aad.org/public/diseases/a-z/skin-tags
• The base of the stalk is fragile, and it can be separated from the skin easily.

• Genital warts, unlike skin tags, are flat and have a broader base. They're usually firmly attached to the skin.
• If the growth is pedunculated (it consists of finger-like projections), the width of the skin lesion at its base and top is the same, unlike skin tags, which are more prominent on top and have a much thinner base.

• Skin tags [2] Skin Tags (Acrochordons) https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21528-skin-tags-acrochordons can be different colors: the color of the patient's skin (rarely), lighter, or (most commonly) darker. The color can change over time, but color differences are not cause for concern.

• Genital warts are usually the color of the patient's skin. Occasionally, they are darker.

• Skin tags are very soft to the touch.
• They can bend easily since they usually have a thinner base and a more significant top.

• Genital warts are hard to the touch, with a rough and bumpy surface resembling cauliflower.
• They are usually flat (unless pedunculated) and not freely movable because of their broader base.

• A skin tag usually results in solitary growth [2] Skin Tags (Acrochordons) https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21528-skin-tags-acrochordons
• When there's more than one skin tag, they're separated by normal skin, and they're widespread, affecting different parts of the body simultaneously.

• Genital warts can appear in clusters [4] Genital warts https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/genital-warts/symptoms-causes/syc-20355234 . This is because, unlike skin tags, genital warts are infectious and can spread (through scratching and shaving) to adjacent tissue more easily than to more distant areas.

Skin tags [3] Skin tag: stat pearls https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK547724/ prefer certain parts of the body where daily friction is more common:

Check to see if you have bumps in those areas in addition to your genitals.

Genital warts, since they are infectious and transmitted through direct skin-to-skin contact, affect areas of skin not commonly protected during sexual contact and that are injured (by minor cuts) during sex:

Skin tags

Genital wart

Skin tags

Genital wart

Skin tags usually affect people after age 30; they're rare before that age. The older the person, the greater the chance of getting a skin tag.

Genital warts [4] Genital warts https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/genital-warts/symptoms-causes/syc-20355234 mainly affect sexually active people. People are most active with multiple partners at younger ages, so the chance of acquiring genital warts is higher for younger people.

• 5% of people get skin tags during their life
• 85% of people get genital warts (HPV) during their life

• Some people are genetically predisposed to skin tags, which means that people whose relatives have had skin tags are more likely to get them
• Genital warts are infectious; anyone can get them through contact with infected skin. No one is genetically predisposed to them.

The exact cause of skin tags is unknown. Here are the risk factors:

The cause of genital warts [5] Genital Warts: Causes, Symptoms, preventions https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/4209-genital-warts is well known. HPV causes them. Over 100 strains of the HPV virus exist, but genital warts are mainly caused by only two of them, type 6 and type 11. Luckily, these two strains are not cancerous.