Reason behind strange white bumps you can find on your private parts

If you've been giving your body a thorough examination then you might have noticed the presence of strange white bumps around certain body parts including your lips and... other bits.

Look, dear reader, you chose to come here so we're going to do our best to satisfy your sense of curiosity about this subject.

Your lips and genitals are the bits of your body where you'll see them appear and you might start thinking you've got some kind of unwanted growth or rash developing on your skin, or even worse some kind of transmitted disease which is warping your Willy Wonka or woman's business in some way.

Fordyce spots around the lips, they also occur in other places we won't show you pictures of (Getty Stock Photo)

Rest assured that the bumps are perfectly natural and the vast majority of people have them somewhere on the body.

The bumps are known medically as ‘Fordyce spots’, which are named after American dermatologist Dr. John Addison Fordyce – the man who first described them back in 1896.

Imagine living your life, studying medicine and devoting yourself to research only to have your name be forever associated with little bumps that appear on a person's private parts.

As for what they are, they're actually oil glands the secrete a substance called sebum which help protect the body.

As well as being found on the edges of your lips or inside of your cheeks, Fordyce spots can also turn up on your penis, foreskin or scrotum, or the labia of your vagina, in case we hadn't made that clear already.

Fordyce spots on the penis can often look like other skin conditions like Molluscum contagiosum, milium cysts, epidermoid cysts, genital warts or herpes, but Cleveland Clinic stresses on its website that they are not sexually transmitted diseases or infections.

“The appearance of Fordyce spots in these areas is normal, and they aren’t contagious,” it says, going on to say genital warts, in particular, may look like Fordyce spots when they initially develop.

"On the plus side I've had one of my medical discoveries named after me. On the downside it's about those little bumps you've got on your genitals." (Public Domain)

Naturally, any time something happens to your undoubtedly precious private parts, it can seem a little unnerving.

If you're really fretting then you can go and see a doctor about them but understand that the human body is covered in lots of little lumps and bumps and there's not much to be gained from getting worked up about them.

We're not all as smooth as a movie star down there, this is just what people are actually like.

They're not a sign of any kind of disease and you can't catch them from anyone, but if you really do think you've actually got a disease that looks like Fordyce spots but aren't then seek medical advice.

About 80 percent of people have them, so you're not alone in this.

Additional words by Jess Hardiman