Genital Warts Can Reappear After Treatment
After treatment for warts:
- The virus may persist on the skin, even though the visible wart has gone. This means that warts may reappear.
- If the wart reappears, it does not necessarily mean that you have caught the infection again.
- In most cases, the wart will eventually disappear for good. This is due to the bodys natural immune response clearing the virus from the body.
Is There A Genital Warts Cure
Because genital warts are caused by HPV, and because there’s no cure for HPV, there’s likewise no cure for genital warts.
Many infections, however, will clear up on their own.
And with an increase in use of the HPV vaccine, the rates of infections and the occurrence of genital warts is likely to go down in the near future.
Treatment Applied At Home
The following medicines can be applied to the affected area at home:
- Podophyllotoxin
Do not use these medicines during pregnancy.
Imiquimod and podophyllotoxin are typically the most effective medicine options that can be applied at home. Read the instructions carefully before using these medicines.
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How Can I Help Prevent The Spread Of Genital Warts
- Keep the genital area clean and dry. You can use a hair dryer to help dry the area.
- Wash your hands thoroughly after touching the area with warts.
- Do not scratch the warts.
- Avoid sexual activity until the warts have completely healed.
- Use latex condoms during intercourse. Condoms can reduce your risk of getting genital warts, but warts can spread from areas not covered by a condom.
- Avoid having intercourse with multiple partners.
A vaccine is available to prevent types of HPV infections that are high risk for genital warts and cancer of the cervix. If you already have HPV, the vaccine will not cure your infection, but it will prevent infections with several other types of HPV.
The HPV vaccine is approved for boys, girls, men and women 9 to 26 years old. It is recommended for all girls 11 to 12 years old as part of their routine immunization schedule. It is given in 3 shots. The vaccine may protect against HPV for 5 years. Researchers are doing studies to see if a booster shot is needed after 5 years.
The vaccine is usually not given to pregnant women.
Developed by RelayHealth.Published by RelayHealth.This content is reviewed periodically and is subject to change as new health information becomes available. The information is intended to inform and educate and is not a replacement for medical evaluation, advice, diagnosis or treatment by a healthcare professional.© 2018 RelayHealth and/or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved.
Natural Genital Warts Cures
There are also natural products that can be used to remove warts. As with other over-the-counter wart removal products, many are not safe for use on genital warts, so read the label carefully before using one. We like Terrasil Wart Removal Ointment, which contains all-natural ingredients like jojoba seed oil, essential oils, zinc oxide, magnesium oxide, and silver oxide, which work together to remove warts naturally and painlessly while also soothing irritated skin and relieving symptoms like genital itching. Its a safe and effective treatment for genital warts. To learn more about our favorite natural remedy, follow this link to the Terrasil Website.
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Hpv Infection And Cervical Cell Changes
In women, most precancerous or cancerous cell changes associated with HPV infection occur on the cervix. This is because the cells of the cervix naturally undergo changes in an area called the transformation zone. This process can cause cervical cells to become abnormal when they are infected with HPV.
Infection with high-risk types of HPV increase the chance that a woman with HPV will develop abnormal cervical cell changes. It is important to have regular examinations by your doctor. If your doctor finds abnormal cells on a Pap test, the cells can be treated to help prevent them from changing to cancer.
How Are Genital Warts Treated
While visible genital warts often go away with time, HPV itself can linger in your skin cells. This means you may have several outbreaks over the course of your life.
So managing symptoms is important because you want to avoid transmitting the virus to others. That said, genital warts can be passed on to others even when there are no visible warts or other symptoms.
You may wish to treat genital warts to relieve painful symptoms or to minimize their appearance. However, you cant treat genital warts with over-the-counter wart removers or treatments.
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What Are The Symptoms Of Hpv
HPV infections often have no symptoms, so you may not know if you have it. Where symptoms do appear these will vary depending on the strain of HPV.
One of the most common strains of HPV is genital warts. Many people with this strain of HPV will not develop any symptoms or know that they have it.
Symptoms of genital warts include:
-
a change to your normal flow of pee , that doesn’t go away.
The warts may be difficult to notice if they are internal .
Symptoms of genital warts can appear weeks, months or years after you were in contact with the virus that causes them. If you have symptoms of genital warts its important to visit a health clinic to have them checked.
What Increases Your Risk
Things that increase a person’s risk for getting a sexually transmitted infection, such as HPV and genital warts, include:
- Having multiple sex partners.
- Having an impaired immune system.
If you have a high-risk type of HPV and are using birth control pills for more than 5 years, research suggests that this can increase your risk of getting cervical cancer.footnote 3 More research is needed. For more information, see the topic Cervical Cancer.
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Treatment For Genital Warts
Treatment for genital warts needs to be prescribed by a doctor.
The type of treatment you’ll be offered depends on what the warts look like and where they are. The doctor or nurse will discuss this with you.
Treatments include:
- cream or liquid: you can usually apply this to the warts yourself a few times a week for several weeks, but in some cases you may need to go to a sexual health clinic where a doctor or nurse will apply it. These treatments can cause pain, irritation or a burning sensation.
- surgery: a doctor or nurse may cut, burn or use a laser to remove the warts. This can cause pain, irritation or scarring.
- freezing: a doctor or nurse freezes the warts. Sometimes the treatment is repeated several times. This can cause pain.
It may take weeks or months for treatment to work and the warts may come back. In some people, the treatment does not work.
There’s no cure for genital warts, but it’s possible for your body to fight the virus over time.
Preventing The Spread Of Genital Warts
You can help reduce the risk of spreading genital warts by using condoms during sex. However, because condoms dont cover all the genital skin that is exposed during sexual contact, you may still acquire HPV through skin to skin contact.
Remember that transmission of genital warts can occur when a wart is present, but may also occur even if there are no genital symptoms.
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When Is Someone With Genital Warts No Longer Contagious
People with genital warts definitely can spread HPV. But even after the warts are gone, HPV might still be active in the body. That means it can spread to someone else through sex or close sexual contact and cause warts in that person. It’s hard to know when people are no longer contagious, because there’s no blood test that looks for HPV.
Most of the time, HPV is gone within 2 years of when someone was infected.
Why You Should Go To A Sexual Health Clinic
You can see a GP, but they’ll probably refer you to a sexual health clinic if they think you might have genital warts.
Sexual health clinics specialise in treating problems with the genitals and urine system.
Many sexual health clinics offer a walk-in service where you do not need an appointment.
A sexual health clinic will often get test results quicker than a GP surgery, and you do not have to pay a prescription charge for medicines prescribed by a sexual health clinic.
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Freezing With Liquid Nitrogen
- Freezing the wart using liquid nitrogen is known as cryotherapy.
- During cryotherapy treatment, you will experience a mild to moderate burning sensation.
- Once the treatment has finished you may develop skin irritation, blistering and pain at the site of the wart.
- Your skin will take between 1 and 3 weeks to heal.
- Avoid having sex until the area of skin around the wart has fully healed.
There are other procedures that can be done by your doctor, such as laser treatment, direct removal of warts using scissors or a scalpel, or using a treatment solution called trichloroacetic acid. Talk to your doctor to find out which treatment is the best for you.
How Do They Occur
Like other warts, genital warts are caused by a virus. The virus that causes genital warts is called human papillomavirus . There are many types of HPV. The types of virus that most often cause genital warts are called HPV-6 and HPV-11.
Genital warts are more contagious, or more easily spread, than other warts. They are spread by skin-to-skin contact. They may spread to other nearby parts of the body and they may be passed from person to person by sexual activity. The warts are usually first seen 1 to 6 months after you have been infected with HPV. However, you can be infected with HPV without having any visible warts.
HPV can cause changes in a woman’s cervix. Most of the time these changes are harmless, but sometimes the changes may cause cervical cancer.
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What Are The Symptoms Of Genital Warts
Genital warts arent always visible to the human eye. They may be very small and the color of the skin or slightly darker. The top of the growths may resemble a cauliflower and may feel smooth or slightly bumpy to the touch.
They may occur as a cluster of warts, or just one wart.
For people assigned male at birth, genital warts may appear in the following areas:
Genital Warts And Cancer
Genital warts are not cancer and do not cause cancer.
The HPV vaccine that’s offered to girls and boys aged 12 to 13 in England protects against cervical cancer and genital warts.
The HPV vaccine is also offered to men who have sex with men , some trans men and trans women, sex workers, and men and women living with HIV.
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About Human Papilloma Virus
There are more than 40 genotypes of genital human papilloma virus , subcategorised as follows:
- Low risk HPV , eg, type 6 and 11, which may cause warts but are not associated with pre-cancer or cancer of the lower genital tract.
- High risk HPV , eg, type 16 and 18, which are associated with pre-cancer, and cancer of the lower genital tract and oropharynx. Most do not progress to cancer.
HPV is a common infection with a prevalence of 20% in people aged 20 years. Lifetime risk is > 80% but the introduction of HPV vaccination has led to declining rates of HPV-associated conditions such as anogenital warts.
- The majority of infections are transient with 80 to 90% clearance within 2 years.
- Women often develop external genital warts in pregnancy. This may be due to previously latent infection and is probably the consequence of altered immunity.
- Most genital HPV infections are subclinical.
- HPV is transmitted by close skin-to-skin contact and does not require penetrative intercourse.
- Condoms provide limited protection against HPV infection, but their use is recommended to prevent other transmitted diseases.
How Are Genital Warts Diagnosed
To diagnose this condition, your doctor will do the following:
- Ask questions about your health and sexual history. This includes symptoms youve experienced and whether youve had sex, including oral sex, without condoms or oral dams.
- Perform a physical examination of any areas where you suspect warts may be occurring. Your doctor may be able to diagnose genital warts just by viewing them.
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What Are The Symptoms
Genital warts are small, flesh-colored, grayish white or pinkish white growths. You may have many warts or just 1 wart. The warts usually appear as thin, flexible, solid bumps on the skin that look like small pieces of cauliflower. Some warts, however, are quite small and flat and may not be easily noticed.
You may have no other symptoms or you may also have:
- pain with intercourse
- increased vaginal discharge
Can Genital Warts Be Prevented
Genital warts and other types of HPV can be prevented by a vaccine. The HPV vaccine series is recommended for all kids when they’re 911 years old. Older teens and adults also can get the vaccine . Even if someone already has had one type of HPV infection, the HPV vaccine can protect against other types of HPV.
HPV almost always spreads through sex. So the best way to prevent it is to not have sex . If someone does decide to have sex, using a condom every time for sex helps prevent HPV and other STDs. But condoms can’t always prevent HPV because they don’t cover all areas where HPV can live.
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Deterrence And Patient Education
Gardasil is a vaccine used to protect against human papillomavirus types 6, 11, 16, and 18. Types 16 and 18 cause an estimated 70% of cervical cancers, and 6 and 11 cause an estimated 90% of genital warts. The vaccine prevents the disease but is not therapeutic. The vaccine must be given before exposure to the virus type to be effective. The vaccine was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration in 2006 for use in children as early as nine years of age, primarily for its prophylactic activity against cervical cancer. Gardasil 9 was FDA approved in 2014 to protect against the four HPV strains covered by the first generation of Gardasil as well as five other HPV strains responsible for 20% of cervical cancers .
Vaccines are preventative and should not be considered therapeutic. Quadrivalent or 9-valent vaccines are recommended and generally preferred over bivalent vaccines.
According to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices , routine HPV vaccination is recommended for women 9 to 26 years of age, but it has shown high efficacy up to age 45. The CDC advises that unvaccinated adults above 26 years to age 45 may be given the vaccine after discussion with their provider.
It remains to be seen if the more extensive use of vaccines can reduce the prevalence and penetration of HPV exposure, infections, and complications.
Which Antibiotics Are Most Effective In Curing Genital Warts
Basic information about genital warts:
Genital warts are the most common form of sexually transmitted infection in the United Kingdom. This medical condition means that the infected person will experience soft, wart-like outgrowths both in and around their genital skin. The human papilloma virus or HPV is responsible for the spread of this infection. According to scientific studies there are more than 100 types of HPV and 40% among those are capable of causing this infection. The nature of genital warts infection can vary in different cases. On some occasions you will find symptoms, while in the rest you won’t find one.
The genital wart infection may apparently seem to be harmless but they are highly contagious in nature. Unprotected sexual intercourse is the main reason for the spread of the infection. HPV receives scope to expand the chance to cause infection from skin contact, which is most obvious if you are involved in unprotected sexual acts. It makes it quite obvious that people with the habit of changing their partners are at the higher risk of suffering from this infection. Signs of the infection are observed most frequently among males and women in the age group of 16 to 19 years.
Methods you can use for treating genital warts:
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How Is Hpv Treated
There’s no treatment for the HPV virus and most infections do not cause any problems. Treatment is needed if HPV causes problems like genital warts or changes to cells in the cervix.
Genital warts : the sooner genital warts are treated, the easier they are to get rid of. The warts can be removed using creams, freezing or heating. This depends on the type of warts and where they are located. You should always check with a healthcare worker before using treatments for genital warts.
Although these treatments can remove the warts themselves, there’s no cure for the virus that causes the warts. Some peoples bodies, however, are able to clear the virus over time.
Cancer-causing HPV : if a cervical screening test shows you have abnormal cells on the cervix, it may be necessary to remove them so that they dont develop into cancer.
There are two advantages of being screened early. Firstly, to identify and remove pre-cancerous lesions caused by HPV. These are removed to prevent invasive cancers from developing. Early screening also means that cervical cancers can be found at an early stage, when they can usually be treated successfully with surgery.
