Venereal Warts By Thomas Husnik

What Are Venereal Warts?
Venereal warts, sometimes called genital warts or condyloma acuminata, are a type of sexually transmitted disease (STD). They are caused by human papillomavirus, or HPV. While there are over 100 different types of HPV, there is only a couple that cause venereal warts
Venereal warts are extremely common and increasing rapidly. They are now even more common than genital herpes, another sexually transmitted disease.

What Do They Look Like?
Venereal warts are soft, moist, or flesh-colored and appear in the genital area within weeks or months after infection. They spread rapidly over moist areas. They sometimes appear in clusters that resemble cauliflower-like bumps, and can be raised or flat, small or large.

They can show up in women on the vulva and cervix, and inside and surrounding the vagina and anus. In men, they can appear on the scrotum or penis. There have also been cases where venereal warts were found on the thigh and groin.

How Are They Diagnosed?
Your healthcare provider usually diagnoses venereal warts by seeing them. If you are a woman with venereal warts, you also should be examined for possible HPV infection of the cervix.

Your healthcare provider may be able to identify some otherwise invisible warts in your genital tissue by applying vinegar (acetic acid) to areas of your body that might be infected. This solution causes infected areas to whiten, which makes them more visible. In some cases, a healthcare provider will take a small piece of tissue from the cervix and examine it under the microscope.

If you have an abnormal Pap smear result, it may indicate the possible presence of cervical HPV infection. A laboratory worker will examine cells scraped from your cervix under a microscope to see if they are cancerous.

Treating Venereal Warts
While HPV (the virus that causes venereal warts) has no known cure treatments are available. This includes prescription medications and certain medical procedures. Your healthcare provider will consider your wishes and the size, location, and number of venereal warts before recommending treatment. Treatment of Venereal Warts: An Overview
Several different treatment options are available for venereal warts, including medications and procedures. Your healthcare provider will consider your wishes and the size, location, and number of warts before recommending treatment.

Each of these treatments has different success rates, cost, and possible side effects. Make sure to discuss your venereal wart treatment options with your healthcare provider before deciding together which is best for your situation.

Your healthcare provider may also recommend "watchful waiting" because venereal warts can disappear on their own without treatment.

There are no over-the-counter treatments for venereal warts. If you decide to have the warts removed, do not use over-the counter medicines meant for other kinds of warts.

Venereal Warts Treatment Options: Medications
Several prescription medications are approved to treat venereal warts. Some of these are applied at the office by your healthcare provider; others can be applied at home.

"Home treatments" for venereal warts still require a prescription. They include:

Imiquimod cream (Aldara®)
0.5% podofilox (Condylox®).

These medications can clear venereal warts in up to 80 percent of cases.

Medications your healthcare provider may use at the office include:

20% podophyllin resin
Trichloroacetic acid (TCA).

They also have an up-to-80-percent success rate in removing venereal warts.

If you are pregnant, you should not use podophyllin or podofilox because they are absorbed by your skin and may cause birth defects in your baby. TCA is a good option for women who are pregnant.



Even without treatment for venereal warts, however, they often disappear on their own. There is no way to predict whether the warts will grow or disappear.

There are no over-the-counter treatments for venereal warts. If you decide to have the warts removed, do not use over-the-counter medicines meant for other kinds of warts.
Procedures for Treating Venereal Warts
Several types of procedures are used for treating venereal warts. These include:

Cryosurgery, which uses liquid nitrogen to freeze the warts off
Laser surgery, which uses light to destroy warts
Electrosurgery, which uses an electric current to burn off the warts
Surgery to cut them out.

Small venereal warts are often treated with cryosurgery, laser surgery, or electrosurgery. Surgery is also an option to treat venereal warts, especially for larger warts, a large number of warts, or those that do not respond to other treatments.

Other Treatments for Venereal Warts
Some healthcare providers use the antiviral drug alpha interferon, which they inject directly into the warts, to treat warts that have returned after being removed by traditional means. The drug is expensive, however, and does not reduce the rate at which venereal warts return.

Expected Results From Venereal Warts Treatment
Even after venereal warts are treated, the virus (genital HPV) may remain and warts can return. This means that the venereal warts that return within the first several months after treatment are usually from recurrence and not reinjection. It is also not clear if treating venereal warts lowers a person's chance of giving the virus to a sexual partner or not.

Venereal warts do not always need treatment. If left untreated, venereal warts may:

Go away on their own
Remain unchanged
Increase in size or number.

Venereal warts will not turn into cancer. It is not fully known why low-risk HPV causes venereal warts in some cases and not in others.