Genital warts is caused by human papillomavirus, commonly abbreviated HPV, and can infect both men and women. 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. In some cases they are tiny and hard to notice while other patients develop large clusters that cause significant 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. Genital warts can not just be found on the genitals and can spread to the mouth of troat through oral sex.
There is as of today no known cure for this virus but genital warts treatment can be used to remove the visible warts. The medicial community is still unsure on whether or not removing warts by using treatments reduce the risk on transmission or not and you should therefore always practica safe sex regardless of the state your warts are in.
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 women are caused by the HPV strains 6, 11, 30, 42, 43, 44, 45, 51, 52 and 54 and the new HPV-vaccine Gardasil only offer protection against 6, 11, 16 and 18 so it is possible even for vaccinated persons to catch genital warts. However, type 6 and 11 are responsible for 90% of all genital warts cases so the vaccine will decrease the risk dramatically. (Type 16 and 18 is not known to cause warts but are vaccinated against anyway as they are believed to increase risk of cancer in women)
This vaccine only works if it given prior to a subject becommin infected and it is therefore recommended to give this to girls early in their puberty. This vaccine is not approved for use in men in most countries but is used on young men in the UK and is being tested in other parts of the world for use on men.
