Getting Treatment For Genital Warts

If you are someone who has developed genital warts, you want treatment fast. The warts are embarrassing, painful and can even be quite frightening. The good news is that there are effective treatments for genital warts. The bad news is that while you can treat genital warts you cannot cure the underlying virus that causes them.

Put simply, genital warts are a type of sexually transmitted disease caused by the human papillomavirus, or HPV. There are approximately 130 strains of HPV currently identified but there are two subtypes of HPV in particular responsible for causing genital warts. These two subtypes, known simply as subtypes 6 and 11, are believed to cause 90% of all genital wart infections. Luckily doctors have come up a variety of treatments for genital warts.

Typically, doctors can diagnose decide treatments for genital warts just be seeing the affected area. Once a doctor determines that you do have genial warts, they have a multitude of genital wart treatment options to give you. Depending on the size and location of the genital warts, treatment will vary.

The first things a doctor will use as a genital wart treatment are creams. There are different types of creams. Imiquimod cream is popular, for instance. This cream is applied to the affected area. Another treatment for genital warts is a 20% podophyllin anti-mitotic solution that is meant applied to the affected area and later washed off. However, this treatment should not be used if you’re pregnant because it is absorbed through the skin and can cause birth defects. Another of the creams, 5% 5-fluorouracil cream, should not be used if you are attempting to get pregnant.

For smaller genital warts, treatment involves freezing them off like you do with warts that occur in other areas like the hands. You also have the option of burning the warts off or even having lasers cut them off. For larger warts that do not seem to be responding to regular treatments, surgery is sometimes employed to remove them. There is also a drug that can be injected into warts that keep returning but the injection is very expensive and is not any more effective at making them stay gone than other treatments. Home treatments for genital warts are typically not as effective either.

It’s important to know that while these genital wart treatments get rid of the warts themselves they do not get rid of the underlying HPV infection. HPV cannot be cured, and that’s why there’s a risk that genital warts will reoccur. Despite that, however, most genital wart treatments are effective, even if it’s only in the short term, and even a short time without the painful symptoms is beneficial.