Genital warts are rapidly becoming one of the most common sexually transmitted infections being spread today. Like other STI’s, they are caused by a virus in much the same way that genital herpes is also spread by a virus. But, there are two things that set genital warts apart from every other infection that you may contract.
The first thing is that they are easy to spread. They can spread through skin to skin contact and may be present in areas that are not covered by condoms and this makes them hard to avoid in an infected partner. The second is that genital warts are known to cause cancer and infertility in women who contract them.
Because of this, it is easy to see how important it is to know how to recognize and treat genital warts. They are small and usually pink and red in color. They can appear anywhere on the genitals but may also appear in the anal region as well. Although they are usually small, soft and painless, they may be large and cauliflower-like, and may also burn or itch.
You want to make sure that, if you are a woman, you get checked for genital warts and get the appropriate genital wart treatment if you do have them. Many times HPV infection can lead to pelvic inflammatory disease, a disease which can lead to infertility. They can also cause cancer so you need to make sure you do not have them.
The easiest way to check is through a pap smear. Your doctor will test for the presence of several different STI’s during this procedure and also look for any changes to cervical cells in case existing warts have caused any potentially cancerous changes to the cells.
Because they are caused by the human papilloma virus (HPV), genital wart treatment can be difficult and may not keep genital warts from coming back time and time again. Once you have the virus present in your body, you may keep getting outbreaks of them. Genital wart treatment usually involves trying to remove the warts once they have grown.
Genital wart treatment usually involves surgically removing the genital warts. Surgical genital wart treatment may involve freezing the warts off or using electro cautery or lasers to burn the warts off. Warts that are particularly difficult to treat can be injected with Interferon in order to keep them under control. However, the problem with using Interferon, which is an antiviral medication, is that it is very expensive. It is a powerful medication with unpleasant side effects and so it should only be used as a final method when no other methods will work.
One of the best genital wart treatment methods is actually prevention. Recently, a vaccine called Gardisil was released to the market and has been approved for protecting girls from contracting the virus. Gardisil is very exciting because of the potentially long term fertility issues and chances of contracting cancer that are possible with HPV infection. Unfortunately there are more strains of HPV which cause genital warts than are covered by Gardisil but it is one of the best ways to keep yourself safe.
Vikram Kumar - About the Author:
Caused by the HPV virus, genital warts may be impossible to cure but it is possible to cure the symptoms. Wart Cream is a valuable resource if you want to find out more about effective Genital wart treatment.
