One of the most disturbing areas of sexual health problems in recent years is the prevalence of genital warts that affect both male and female sex organs; they can also be found around the anus as well. The human papillomavirus is the primary name for the various strains, also abbreviated to HPV; people are infected by sexual intercourse, oral or otherwise. The problem comes when you try to prevent contracting them as in the case of female genital warts, the woman may have them internally and unless she has recently undergone an examination, she may not know they are there; even using a condom is not guaranteed to stop the spread.

Just to compound the problem, there is no reason why once infected a person is infected, they do not have to show signs straight away and the virus may not activate for months, even longer.Nevertheless, once infection has occurred, the virus has a new host and the disease gets spread even more. There is large number of viruses, over one hundred in fact but it is the HPV6 strain that is responsible for ano-genital warts. Most warts are discovered quite early on in their development but a woman may have to wait until she has a routine gynecological examination if they are located in her cervix.

Genital warts like damp areas as it aids their multiplication and this is the case inside a woman’s vagina which may exhibit some discharge. One of the safest methods of wart removal is the application of very cold liquid nitrogen by a doctor or dermatologist; however it often takes a few applications before the skin and its tissue are destroyed. Removal by liquid nitrogen is quite painless but even so it is not always possible to use this process owing to the area to be treated.

Sometimes these days lasers are used to remove warts but often a doctor will prefer to use electro-cautery although a minor surgical procedure cannot be rules out. All the treatments depend upon the location of the infection and even after they are removed, there is no guarantee they will not come up again. Designed to help a person’s immune system to fight the infection as well as destroy them, imiquimod can be used on ano-genital warts as well but once again, it cannot guarantee re-infection will not occur (even while it is being administered).

While imiquimod is generally effective, there are times when it is unsafe. So a consultation with the doctor is advisable especially when a woman is expecting a baby. It also has restrictions on it’s use inside the vagina and genitals or when the skin around the area is inflamed.

Information provided here on genital warts is presented in good faith but is not intended nor can it replace the advice given by medical professionals.