Help! I Think I Have Genital Warts! How Can I Tell and What Causes Them?

You’ve probably heard and read a bit about genital warts in your daily life. It’s no wonder since genital warts are considered the most common form of sexually transmitted disease today.It’s thought that about 15% of the general population in the United States has been infected with the virus that causes genital warts at some point in their life. It can be quite distressing if you discover you have the symptoms of this chronic and recurring infection. To better understand how to approach and treat genital warts, it’s important to first understand what they are and what causes them.

Genital warts are a sexually transmitted infection characterized by the formation of “bumps” or warts in the genital area. These warts are usually painless and may involve any areas of the vagina, vulva, and even the rectal area in women. In men, the warts may be found on or around the penis or in the rectal region. The warts may be single or multiple and may vary in color from skin color to red or brown

What causes these distressing lesions to develop? We now know genital warts are caused by the epidermotropic human papillomavirus, commonly known as HPV . HPV is not just a single virus. In fact, more than 75 different types of HPV viruses have been described thus far. Makes things a bit complicated, huh? One of the reasons we are concerned about the HPV virus is about 10% of these types of HPV virus have the potential to develop cancer. Fortunately, most people infected with genital warts have the benign type of virus, meaning it won’t develop into cancer.

Persons infected with the HPV virus will have a history of sexual contact with an infected person. The sexual contact may occur months or even years before development of the genital wart symptoms.HPV tends to be a disease of young people with the prevalence being greatest in the late teenage years and young adulthood.

The HPV virus tends to be highly contagious and is spread from person to person by skin contact between an infected person and his or her sexual partner. The virus usually enters the body by small breaks in the skin. Means of transmission can include any type of sexual contact including genital, anal, or oral sex. The usual sequence of events after contact with an infected person is the appearance of single warts clusters or warts around the point of sexual contact on average 3-4 months after exposure. If oral sex has occurred, you may see the warts present in the mouth or throat, whereas if anal sex has occurred, the lesions with be observed in the anal area.

What should you do if you think you have genital warts? I would recommend seeing your doctor immediately to confirm the diagnosis. (You knew I was going to say that, didn’t you?). In the next article, we’ll discuss treatment options for genital warts.