Genital warts are growths on your skin, which grow near your genitals. You can have just one wart or a lot of them. Genital warts can be flat or lumpy, look like a cauliflower, or be on a stalk.
Warts on moist skin (such as the skin near the vagina or on the penis) are usually soft and flesh-colored. Warts that grow on dry, hairy skin may be firmer.
Genital warts can grow:
- Around the vagina
- On the penis or scrotum
- Around the anus
- Around the opening of the urethra (the tube that carries urine from your bladder out of your body)
- Around the nose or mouth
- On the cervix (the opening of the womb into the vagina)
- Inside the vagina
- Inside the anus (if you've had anal sex).
Genital warts are caused by a virus called human papillomavirus (HPV for short). There are nearly 100 types of HPV. But 9 in 10 people who get genital warts have been infected with HPV type 6 or type 11. 1 2 Some other types of HPV cause cervical cancer. HPV spreads from one person to another by skin contact.
The virus can be spread:
- If you have sex (including oral sex and anal sex)
- If your genitals touch your partner's genital area even if you do not have sex
- If you touch your partner's genital area (for example, with your fingers)
- If your partner touches you after touching his or her genitals.
You can be infected with HPV but have no symptoms. So even though you or your partner might not see any genital warts, the virus can still spread between you. A pregant woman who is infected with HPV can also pass the virus to her child during pregnancy or birth.
There are several things that can increase your risk of being infected with HPV:
- Having many sexual partners
- Having another sexually transmitted disease (such as chlamydia)
- Having a condition that affects your immune system (such as HIV infection and AIDS).
Using condoms whenever you have sex can reduce your risk of being infected with HPV. 5 But condoms don't give complete protection from the virus. That's because HPV spreads by skin-to-skin contact. So although some parts of the genitals are protected by a condom, not all the skin in that area is. Also, it's possible to get the virus on your fingers and spread it to another person that way.
Posted by in STD Treatment on June 03, 2009.
