Genital warts and what causes them

Genital warts in men and women are caused by certain types of the human papillomavirus, commonly abbreviated HPV. Genital warts, also known as veneral warts, anogential warts and condyloma, are highly contagious and spread through direct skin-to-skin contact during genital, anal or oral sex with an infected partner.

They most often appear in clusters. Sometimes they are small and hard to see, other time they appear in large easily noticed clusters and cause a lot of discomfort. Genital warts in women can be found on the skin around the anus and vagina but also inside the vagina and near the opening to the womb. Genital warts cause less obvious symptoms in men with less discomfort associated to them and the risk of men being unknowingly infected is therefore greater. When warts are noticeable they are typically found on the tip of the penis, but they may also appear on the shaft and scrotum as well as around the anus. Despite the name genital warts, HPV warts can spread to the mouth and throat of men and women during oral sex.

There is no cure for HPV but genital warts treatment can be used to remove the visible warts. The scientific community still doesn’t know if removing the warts will reduce transmission or not, so safe sex practises are encouraged.

A person doesn’t have to have any warts to spread the virus to his or her sexual partners.

If you have sex with a partner suffering from a HPV infection that has never produced any warts or with a person where the warts have been removed or vanished, you can still become infected since the virus is still presentYou will expose yourself to a 70% risk of getting infected if you have sex with an infected partner.

Genital warts in men and females is caused by the following strains of HPV 6,11,30,42,43,44,45,51 and 54, the vaccine Gardasil is only effective against some of them and you can therefore still attract genital warts even if you have been vaccinated. HPV strain 6 and 11 are believed to be responsible for over 90% of all genital warts and the vaccine against these will therefore dramatically decrease the risk of genital warts. (Type 16 and 18 do not cause genital warts but are vaccinated against anyway since they are known to increase the risk of cervical cancer.)

The Gardasil vaccine is only effective if administered prior to infection and in many countries parents are therefore encouraged to have their daughters vaccinated during early puberty. The vaccine is only approve for use in women in most countries but a lot of test are being conducted into male vaccination and the vaccine is approved to be used on young males in some countries including the UK.