What are the symptoms of genital warts?

In many cases genital warts do not cause any symptoms, but they are sometimes associated with itching, burning, or tenderness. They may result in localized irritation, depending upon their anatomic location. Women who have genital warts inside the vagina may experience bleeding following sexual intercourse or an abnormal vaginal discharge. Rarely, bleeding or urinary obstruction may occur if the wart involves the urethral opening.

Concern about getting infected again

Many women worry about becoming infected again after they have had treatment for an abnormal smear. Viruses are difficult to treat and your body gets rid of them by developing immunity to them. This may take from a few months to a few years.Some women worry about whether their partner has the virus and could reinfect them. Men aren’t routinely tested for HPV because the only way for a man to find out if he has the virus is to have several biopsies. Even then, a negative result only means that HPV wasn’t found on those biopsies and not necessarily that he doesn’t have HPV at all. Because our bodies clear the virus, even if a man has the virus when he has the test, his immune system may get rid of it before the test result comes back.As there more than 100 types of HPV, it is possible to be immune to one type but not another. So it may seem that you have been reinfected but in fact you may just have a different type of HPV.

How is HPV infection diagnosed?

HPV sometimes can be suspected by changes that appear on a pap smear, since pap smears identify infected abnormal cells that may be precursors to cancer. While HPV infection can lead to precancerous changes in the cervix that are recognized on the pap smear, the pap smear itself cannot definitely establish the diagnosis of HPV infection, unless special testing for the DNA of HPV is carried out on the material obtained from the pap smear. When there is an abnormal pap smear, the doctor often will do advanced testing on the material to determine if, and which kind, of HPV may be present. HPV also can be detected if a biopsy (for example, from a genital wart or from the uterine cervix) is sent to the laboratory for analysis.

How common is HPV infection?

HPV infection is now considered to be the most common sexually-transmitted infection (sexually transmitted disease, STD) in the U.S., and it is believed that at least 75% of the reproductive-age population has been infected with sexually-transmitted HPV at some point in life. It is believed that over 6 million people become infected with HPV every year in the US, and approximately 50% of those infected are between the ages of 15 and 25.

HPV infection is common and does not usually lead to the development of warts, cancers, or even symptoms. In fact, the majority of people infected with HPV have no symptoms or lesions at all. Determination of whether or not a person is infected with HPV involves tests that identify the genetic material (DNA) of the virus. Furthermore, it has not been definitely established whether the immune system is able to permanently clear the body of an HPV infection. In many cases, a person will test positive for HPV infection and then have negative HPV tests for months to years, only to have a positive test result at a later time. It is presently unclear if this is due to a latent (continuing but hidden) viral infection or if the person has become re-infected with the virus.

Asymptomatic people infected with HPVs (those without HPV-induced warts or lesions) are still able to spread the infections to others through sexual contact.
It is important to note that in the U.S. and other developed countries, screening and early treatment of precancerous changes of the cervix have dramatically reduced the incidence of cervical cancer. In developing countries lacking the medical infrastructure or financial means to implement a screening system, the incidence of cervical cancer resulting from HPV infection is much higher. In fact, cervical cancer develops in around 500,000 women each year worldwide, and, in many countries, it is the most common cancer to kill women.

Treatment for cervical HPV

Treatment can get rid of any visible signs of HPV infection, such as warts, but no treatment can get rid of the virus.Women who test positive for high risk types of HPV are more likely to need treatment for borderline or mildly abnormal cervical smears.If you have a mildly abnormal cervical smear, you may have a colposcopy straight away. Or your doctor may ask you to come back for another smear in 6 months time. If the abnormality doesn‘t go away by itself (as it sometimes does), your doctor will suggest a colposcopy.The NHS are considering introducing HPV testing for women with borderline or mildly abnormal smears. Women with high risk HPV would have treatment for the abnormal cells. Women who test negative for HPV would not need treatment as the cell changes would be likely to go back to normal on their own.